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Coronation of Bhutan’s New King
By KTM Metro Reporter in Kathmandu
On Thursday, November 06, 2008, in Thimphu, capital of Bhutan, at the monastery called dzong, 52-year-old father and former King Jigme Singye Wangchuck crowned his son crown prince Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck as a new king of Bhutan amid the chanting of sacred sutras by the Chief Lama for granting the newly crowned king wisdom, compassion and vision. Monks stood on the roofs blowing on their long horns, clashing cymbals and beating drums at significant moments during the daylong coronation ceremony.
Thousands of Bhutanese lined up at the monastery to present their new king with an auspicious white scarf in the afternoon. The elected Bhutanese Government announced two more days of coronation celebration.
The 28-year-old newly crowned king was unmarried and first went to school in India and then US and finally to Oxford. He is the senior-most son born to the third wife of former King Wangchuck: a husband of four sisters.
The new king needs to navigate the so-called democratic kingdom into the modern world of globalization. Former King Wangchuck imposed democracy in Bhutan two years ago and held general election for the political party favoring the king to win the most of the seats in the parliament.
The irony is that the former king had drove 100,000 Nepali-speaking Bhutanese living in the southern part of Bhutan out of the country for refusing to wear the so-called Bhutanese dress, for not accepting Buddhism as their religion and for asking basic human rights. Those refugees have been languishing in eastern Nepal for almost 20 years. Currently, Bhutan has slightly more than 600,000 populations.
President of India Pratibha Patil and President of Indian Congress Sonia Gandhi, and her daughter Priyanka and son Rahul attended the coronation ceremony. The Gandhis have been close family friends of the Bhutanese royals.
