People Of Bhutan

Who lives in Bhutan, the four main ethnic communities, language, and how the population manages itself.

Bhutan's population is under a million, spread thinly across a country that is almost entirely mountain. The distribution matters more than the total: most people live in the southern foothills and the wide southern and central valleys, and the high northern valleys are very sparsely populated. <h2>Ethnic communities</h2> The population is divided among several ethnic communities, with the three largest being: Ngalop (also called Ngalop-pa) — the largest community, predominantly in the western valleys around Paro, Thimphu, Punakha and Haa, and generally speaking Dzongkha. Sharcha — largely in the eastern districts of Trashigang, Trashiyangtse, Samdrup Jongkhar and Pemagatshel, and generally associated with the eastern Sharcha language. Lhotshamma — Nepali-speaking communities concentrated in the southern districts of Samtse, Chukha, Dagana, Sarpang, Tsirang and Gasa. There are also smaller communities including Bumthang-pa, Khaling-pa and Sherpa-pa in the east, along with Tibetan-speaking groups in the north. <h2>The Lhotshamma question</h2> Most Nepali-speaking Bhutanese are descendants of immigrants from Nepal and India who arrived in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, o.