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Bhutan Social System
Society
Bhutan's traditional society has been defined as both
patriarchal and matriarchal, and the member held in
highest esteem
served as the family's head. Bhutan also has been
described as
feudalistic and characterized by the absence of strong
social
stratification. In premodern times, there were three broad
classes:
the monastic community, the leadership of which was the
nobility;
lay civil servants who ran the government apparatus; and
farmers,
the largest class, living in self-sufficient villages. In
the more
militaristic premodern era, Bhutan also had an underclass
of
prisoners of war and their descendants, who were generally
treated
as serfs or even as slaves. In modern times, society was
organized
around joint family units, and a class division existed
based on
occupation and, in time, social status. With the
introduction of
foreign practices in recent centuries and increasing job
mobility
outside the village, however, emphasis has been placed on
nuclear
family units.
Social status is based on a family's economic station.
Except
among the Hindu Nepalese in southern Bhutan, there was no
caste
system. Although Bhutanese were endogamous by tradition,
modern
practices and even royal decrees encouraged ethnic
integration in
the late twentieth century. Primogeniture dictated the
right of
inheritance traditionally, although in some central areas
the
eldest daughter was the lawful successor. In contemporary
Bhutan,
however, inheritance came to be more equally distributed
among all
children of a family.
Except for the royal family and a few other noble
families,
Bhutanese do not have surnames. Individuals normally have
two
names, but neither is considered a family name or a
surname. Some
people adopt their village name, occasionally in
abbreviated form,
as part of their name, using it before their given name.
Wives keep
their own names, and children frequently have names
unconnected to
either parent. Some individuals educated abroad have taken
their
last name as a surname, however. A system of titles,
depending on
age, degree of familiarity, and social or official status,
denotes
ranks and relationships among members of society. The
title
dasho, for example, is an honorific used by a
prince of the
royal house, a commoner who marries a princess, a nephew
of the
Druk Gyalpo, a deputy minister, other senior government
officials,
and others in positions of authority.
Although adherents of Buddhism, Bhutanese are not
vegetarians
and occasionally eat beef, especially in western Bhutan.
Pork,
poultry, goat and yak meat, and fish are consumed on a
limited
scale. Rice and increasingly corn are staples. Despite a
scarcity
of milk, dairy products, such as yak cheese and yak cheese
byproducts, are part of the diet of upland people. Meat
soups, rice
or corn, and curries spiced with chilies comprise daily
menus;
beverages include buttered tea and beer distilled from
cereals.
Wild vegetation, such as young ferns, also is harvested
for table
food.
Traditional clothing still was commonly worn in the
early
1990s, and, indeed, its use was fostered by government
decree.
Women wore the kira, an ankle-length dress made of
a
rectangular piece of cloth held at the shoulders with a
clip and
closed with a woven belt at the waist, over a long-sleeved
blouse.
Social status was indicated by the amount of decorative
details and
colors of the kira and the quality of the cloth
used. Men
wore the gho, a wraparound, coatlike, knee-length
garment,
with a narrow belt. Both men and women sometimes wore
elaborate
earrings, and both sexes also wore scarves or shawls,
white for
commoners and carefully specified colors, designs, and
manners of
folding for higher ranking individuals. Only the Druk
Gyalpo and
the Je Khenpo were allowed to wear the honorific saffron
scarf.
Other officials were distinguished by the color of the
scarves they
wore: orange for ministers and deputy ministers, blue for
National
Assembly and Royal Advisory Council members, and red or
maroon for
high religious and civil officials, district officers, and
judges
(anyone holding the title of dasho). Stripes on
scarves of
the same base color denoted greater or lesser ranks.
Data as of September 1991
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