Nandgaon State

Nandgaon State (), also known as Raj Nandgaon, was one of the princely states of India during the period of the British Raj. Nandgaon State, in present-day Rajnandgaon District of Chhattisgarh, was the only town of the state and the see of the ruler's residence. This state was founded by Mahant Prahlad Das Bairagi in 1765 A.D. Nanadgaon State is ruled by Vaishnav Brahmins.
The First Ruler, Mahant Ghasi Das, was recognized as a feudal chief by the British Government in 1865 and was granted a Sanad Of Adoption. Later the British conferred the title of Raja on the Ruling Mahant.
Historical Background.
The Foundation of the Estate of Nandgaon hails back to Prahlad Das, a shawl merchant who in the 18th century had migrated from the Punjab region. When he settled in Ratanpur the area was ruled by the Bhonsle clan of Marathas.
Prahlad Das belonged to the Bairagi sect whose members practised strict celibacy. The word Bairagi is derived from the Sanskrit Vairagya, meaning freedom from passions. Succession was ensured by chosen disciples, Chela, who became "Mahants" and inherited all the possessions of their predecessor. Prahlad Das became wealthy and after his death, his disciple Hari Das was given power and influence by the local Maratha ruler who promoted him as his Rajguru (spiritual advisor).
After about a century, the Mahants had acquired the four Parganas of Nandgaon, Pandadah, Mohgaon and Dongargaon, former feudal estates of the Raja of Nagpur.
Nandgaon State proper was founded in 1865 when the Four Feudatory Parganas ruled by the Bairagi background merged and were recognized as a princely state.
The Vow Of Celibacy of the Rulers lasted Until 1879, When the seventh Mahant Ghasi Das, who had married Jodh K. Devi and had a son named Balram Das was recognized by the British government as a hereditary ruler. Most of the inhabitants of the state were Gonds, Telis, Chamars and Ahirs distributed in 515 small villages in the area.
Nandgaon state's last ruler signed the accession to the Indian Union On 1 January 1948.
Princely State.
Nandgaon is a Feudatory Chiefship attached to Raipur District, Central Provinces. The chiefship consists of four Parganas, namely Nandgaon and Dongargaon to the south, Pandada, to the north, at the foot of the Saletekri Hills, and separated from Nandgaon by the Khairagarh Pargana and that part of Dongargarh which belongs to the Khairagarh Chief, Mohgaon about to the north, a very Fertile Pargana, lying between the Dhamdaa and Deorbijia Khalsa
Parganas and Khamaria, belonging to Khairagarh.
Area :- , with one town and 540 villages, and 48,351 occupied houses.
Population (1881) - 164,339, namely: males 81,717, and females 82,622
Density of Population - .
Of the total area of the state, are cultivated and of the portion lying waste, are returned as cultivable.
Principal Products - Rice, Wheat, Gram, Kodo, Oil-seeds and Cotton.
Principal Manufacture - Coarse Cloth.
Mahant Ghasi Das, the late Chief, who died in November 1883,
is described as an Able, Energetic, and Enlightened Ruler. He was Succeeded by his Son, a Promising Young man, During whose
Minority the Administration of the State is carried on Conjointly
by his Mother and the Diwan.
Eight Schools were Attended by a Daily Average of 263 pupils in 1883,
and the Desire for English Education is Reported to be Increasing.
Rulers.
The rulers of the princely state of Nandgaon belonged to the Bairagi Sect and bore the title of Mahant.
Royal Ark.
State flag and probable banner was Adopted in an unknown Period and Abolished in 1948. In the center, the Sate Coat of Arms, Quartered. In the 1st a Zebu on a Blue Background, In the 2nd a Temple on a Silver Background, In the 3rd a Shell on a Red Background and in the 4th a Jug on a Green Background. All figures in Gold. As a Crest a Zebu Head and on the Blue Scroll the Motto Vox Populi, Vox Dei, in Gold.


Issik Qaghan

Issik Qaghan (Chinese: 乙息記可汗 Yǐxījì kěhàn; personal name: Ashina Keluo 阿史那科罗) was the second ruler of the Turkic Khaganate.
Name.
His name is reconstructible in Middle Chinese as *"kʰuâ-lâ", which transliterated either non-Turkic *"Kvara" or Old Turkic "Qara".
Rule.
During his brief rule, he defeated the Rouran khagan Yujiulü Dengzhu. He is recorded to have sent a tribute of 50,000 horses to Western Wei in May 553. He died the same year.


Theinkha Bo

Theinkha Bo (, ) was the father of kings Athinkhaya, Yazathingyan and Thihathu of Myinsaing, the dynasty that replaced the Pagan Dynasty in 1297. His descendants founded the kingdoms that succeeded Pagan: Myinsaing, Pinya, Sagaing and Ava.
According to the Burmese chronicles, Theinkha Bo was born in Binnaka to the "sawbwa (saopha)" (chief) of the town. Some time after his elder brother succeeded the chieftainship, he and his brother quarreled, forcing Theinkha Bo to leave town. He eventually settled at Myinsaing, a small town located in present-day Kyaukse District, and married a woman from a wealthy family there in 1260. The couple had four children. His three sons served in the Pagan army, and became commanders that King Narathihapate relied on. His youngest child married a son of the king.
Although the chronicles do not mention his ethnicity, British colonial era historians assumed that he was of Shan ethnicity based on the fact that his father was a "sawbwa". The historian Michael Aung-Thwin has argued however that it is a mistake to equate the office with ethnicity, and that colonial scholarship grafted on Shan ethnicity to the so-called Shan brothers without any evidence.


Faisal bin Fahd bin Abdulaziz Al Saud

Faisal bin Fahd Al Saud (1945 – 21 August 1999) was the president of Youth Welfare in Saudi Arabia from 1975 to 1999 and a member of House of Saud.
Early life and education.
Faisal bin Fahd was born in 1945. He was the eldest son of King Fahd. His mother, Al Anoud bint Abdulaziz bin Musaid, was from the Al Jiluwi branch of the Al Saud whose members intermarried with the members of the House of Saud. She was younger sister of one of Prince Sultan's spouses. Al Anoud died of kidney failure in Santa Barbara in March 1999 after a long period of treatment in Los Angeles at the age of 76. His full brothers are Mohammed bin Fahd, Saud bin Fahd, Khaled bin Fahd and Sultan bin Fahd. His full sister was Latifa bint Fahd who died in December 2013.
Faisal bin Fahd studied political science and economics at the University of California at Santa Barbara, graduating in 1971.
Career.
Prince Faisal's first post was the president of Saudi fencing federation. In 1971, he was appointed as the chairman of the Saudi football federation. In July 1975, he became the president of Youth Welfare and promoted to the ministerial rank in 1977. He was also appointed the chairman of the Saudi Arabian olympic committee in 1975, and chairman of the Arab games federation in 1976. He was also director-general at the ministry of planning starting in 1977. After 1977, he held the rank of minister of state and was a private "emissary to Iraq." Unlike his brothers, his business activities were not intensive.
In 1981, he chaired the sports federation for Islamic solidarity, and in 1982, the international committee for the preservation of the legacy of Islamic civilization. From 1979 to his death he chaired the Kingdom's supreme committee for the merit in literature prize. He had been the chairman of the Saudi Arabian society for youth hostels since 1973. Later, he became a member of the International Olympic Committee in 1984. He was also the president of the Arabian football union, and head of the national committee on drugs control, to which he had been appointed in 1984. He served internationally as the president of the international swimming association. In 1992, he became the chairman of the Saudi federation of sports for the disabled.
Personal life.
Prince Faisal had two sons, Prince Nawaf and Prince Khalid, and three daughters. His wife was Munira bint Sultan, a daughter of Sultan bin Abdulaziz who died in June 2011 at age 59. His daughter, Haifa, is the spouse of Saud bin Khalid bin Abdullah.
The theft of some US$20 million of jewels from one of his palaces by a Thai cleaner in 1989 set off the Blue Diamond Affair, which has soured Thailand-Saudi Arabia relations for the three decades since.
Death and funeral.
Faisal bin Fahd died of a heart attack in King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Riyadh on 21 August 1999, shortly after returning from the Pan Arab Games held in Jordan. He was admitted to the hospital due to his heart problems a day before the death. His father, King Fahd, could not return to Saudi Arabia from Marbella to attend Faisal's funeral due to his medical condition that did not allow him to make a journey. On 21 August 1999, funeral prayers were held for him in Riyadh with the participation of then Crown Prince Abdullah, Prince Sultan, Prince Nayef and hundreds of Saudis. Mourners also included then Crown Prince Hamza of Jordan, the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and Bahrain's Prime Minister, Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman, and Crown Prince, Shaikh Salman bin Hamad.


Siraj ud-Daulah

Mirza Muhammad Siraj-ud-Daulah (, ; 1733 – 2 July 1757), commonly known as Siraj-ud-Daulah or Siraj ud-Daula, was the last independent Nawab of Bengal. The end of his reign marked the start of British East India Company rule over Bengal and later almost all of the Indian subcontinent.
Siraj succeeded his maternal grandfather, Alivardi Khan as the Nawab of Bengal in April 1756 at the age of 23. Betrayed by Mir Jafar, the commander of Nawab's army, Siraj lost the Battle of Plassey on 23 June 1757. The forces of the East India Company under Robert Clive invaded and the administration of Bengal fell into the hands of the company.
Birth and early life.
Siraj was born to the family of Zain ud-Din Ahmed Khan and Amina Begum in 1733. Soon after his birth, Alivardi Khan, Siraj's maternal grandfather, was appointed the Deputy Governor of Bihar. Siraj was regarded as the "fortune child" of the family. He received the special affection of his grandfather and was raised at the Nawab's palace with all necessary education and training suitable for a future Nawab. Young Siraj also accompanied Alivardi on his military ventures against the Marathas in 1746. In 1750, Siraj revolted against his grandfather and seized Patna, but quickly surrendered and was forgiven. In May 1752, Alivardi declared Siraj as his successor. The former later died on 9 April 1756 at the age of eighty.
Reign as Nawab.
Siraj ud-Daulah's nomination to the "Nawab" ship aroused the jealousy and enmity of his maternal aunt, Ghaseti Begum (Mehar un-Nisa Begum), Mir Jafar, Jagat Seth, Mehtab Chand and Shaukat Jang (Siraj's cousin). Ghaseti Begum possessed huge wealth, which was the source of her influence and strength. Apprehending serious opposition from her, Siraj ud-Daulah seized her wealth from Motijheel Palace and placed her under confinement. The Nawab also made changes in high government positions by giving them to his own favourites. Mir Madan was appointed "Bakshi" (paymaster of the army) in place of Mir Jafar. Mohanlal was elevated to the rank of "peshkar" (courtclerk) of his Dewan-khane and he exercised great influence in the administration. Eventually, Siraj suppressed Shaukat Jang, governor of Purnia, who was killed in a clash.
Black Hole of Calcutta.
Siraj, as the direct political disciple of his grandfather, was aware of the global British interest in colonization, and hence resented the British politico-military presence in Bengal represented by the English East India Company. He was angered at the company's alleged involvement with and instigation of some members of his own court to a conspiracy to oust him. His charges against the company were broadly threefold. Firstly, that they strengthened the fortification around the Fort William without any intimation or approval; secondly, that they grossly abused trade privileges granted them by the Mughal rulers – which caused heavy loss of customs duties for the government; and thirdly, that they gave shelter to some of his officers, for example, Krishnadas, son of Rajballav, who fled Dhaka after misappropriating government funds. Hence, when the East India Company began further enhancement of military strength at Fort William in Calcutta, Siraj ud-Daulah ordered them to stop. The Company did not heed his directives; consequently, Siraj retaliated and captured Kolkata (for a short while renamed Alinagar) from the British in June 1756. The Nawab gathered his forces together and took Fort William. The captives were placed in the prison cell as a temporary holding by a local commander, but there was confusion in the Indian chain of command, and the captives were left there overnight, and many died. Actually the East India Company tried their best to propagate a false story of black hole killing among the people to raise them against Nawab Siraj ud-Daula.
Sir William Meredith, during the Parliamentary inquiry into Robert Clive's actions in India, vindicated Siraj ud-Daulah of any charge surrounding the Black Hole incident:
"A peace was however agreed upon with Surajah Dowlah; and the persons who went as ambassadors to confirm that peace formed the conspiracy, by which he was deprived of his kingdom and his life."
Nizamat Imambara.
Shi'ism was introduced to Bengal during the governorship of Shah Shuja (1641–1661 AD), son of Shah Jahan. From 1707 AD to 1880 AD, the Nawabs of Bengal were Shias. They built huge Imambargahs, including the biggest of the Subcontinent built by Nawab Siraj-ud Daula, the Nizammat Imambara. The nawabs of Bengal and Iranian merchants in Bengal patronised "azadari" and the political capital Murshidabad and the trading hub Hoogly attracted Shia scholars from within and outside India.
Conspiracy.
The Nawab was infuriated on learning of the attack on Chandernagar. His former hatred of the British returned, but he now felt the need to strengthen himself by alliances against the British. The Nawab was plagued by fear of attack from the north by the Afghans under Ahmad Shah Durrani and from the west by the Marathas. Therefore, he could not deploy his entire force against the British for fear of being attacked from the flanks. A deep distrust set in between the British and the Nawab. As a result, Siraj started secret negotiations with Jean Law, chief of the French factory at Cossimbazar, and de Bussy. The Nawab also moved a large division of his army under Rai Durlabh to Plassey, on the island of Cossimbazar south of Murshidabad.
Popular discontent against the Nawab flourished in his own court. The Seths, the traders of Bengal, were in perpetual fear for their wealth under the reign of Siraj, contrary to the situation under Alivardi's reign. They had engaged Yar Lutuf Khan to defend them in case they were threatened in any way. William Watts, the Company representative at the court of Siraj, informed Clive about a conspiracy at the court to overthrow the ruler. The conspirators included Mir Jafar, the paymaster of the army, Rai Durlabh, Yar Lutuf Khan and Omichund (Amir Chand), a Sikh merchant, and several officers in the army. When communicated in this regard by Mir Jafar, Clive referred it to the select committee in Calcutta on 1 May. The committee passed a resolution in support of the alliance. A treaty was drawn up between the British and Mir Jafar to raise him to the throne of the Nawab in return for support to the British in the field of battle and the bestowal of large sums of money upon them as compensation for the attack on Calcutta. On 2 May, Clive broke up his camp and sent half the troops to Calcutta and the other half to Chandernagar.
Mir Jafar and the Seths desired that the confederacy between the British and himself be kept secret from Omichund, but when he found out about it, he threatened to betray the conspiracy if his share was not increased to three million rupees (£300,000). Hearing of this, Clive suggested an expedient to the committee. He suggested that two treaties be drawn – the real one on white paper, containing no reference to Omichund and the other on red paper, containing Omichund's desired stipulation, to deceive him. The Members of the Committee signed on both treaties, but Admiral Watson signed only the real one and his signature had to be counterfeited on the fictitious one. Both treaties and separate articles for donations to the army, navy squadron and committee were signed by Mir Jafar on 4 June.
Lord Clive testified and defended himself thus before the House of Commons of Parliament on 10 May 1773, during the Parliamentary inquiry into his conduct in India:
"Omichund, his confidential servant, as "he" thought, told his master of an agreement made between the English and Monsieur Duprée [may be a mistranscription of Dupleix] to attack him, and received for that advice a sum of not less than four lacks of rupees. Finding this to be the man in whom the nawab entirely trusted, it soon became our object to consider him as a most material engine in the intended revolution. We, therefore, made such an agreement as was necessary for the purpose, and entered into a treaty with him to satisfy his demands. When all things were prepared, and the evening of the event was appointed, Omichund informed Mr Watts, who was at the court of the nawab, that he insisted upon thirty lacks of rupees, and five per cent. upon all the treasure that should be found; that, unless that was immediately complied with, he would disclose the whole to the nawab; and that Mr. Watts, and the two other English gentlemen then at the court, should be cut off before the morning. Mr Watts, immediately on this information, dispatched an express to me at the council. I did not hesitate to find out a stratagem to save the lives of these people, and secure success to the intended event. For this purpose, we signed another treaty. The one was called the "Red", the other the "White" treaty. This treaty was signed by everyone, except admiral Watson; and I should have considered myself sufficiently authorised to put his name to it, by the conversation I had with him. As to the person who signed Admiral Watson's name to the treaty, whether he did it in his presence or not, I cannot say; but this I know, that he thought he had sufficient authority for so doing. This treaty was immediately sent to Omichund, who did not suspect the stratagem. The event took place, and success attended it; and the House, I am fully persuaded, will agree with me, that, when the very existence of the company was at stake, and the lives of these people so precariously situated, and so certain of being destroyed, it was a matter of true policy and of justice to deceive so great a villain."
Battle of Plassey.
The Battle of Plassey (or Palashi) is widely considered the turning point in the history of the subcontinent and opened the way to eventual British domination. After Siraj-ud-Daulah's conquest of Calcutta, the British sent fresh troops from Madras to recapture the fort and avenge the attack.
A retreating Siraj-ud-Daulah met the British at Plassey. He had to make camp 27 miles away from Murshidabad. On 23 June 1757 Siraj-ud-Daulah called on Mir Jafar because he was saddened by the sudden fall of Mir Mardan who was a very dear companion of Siraj in battles. The Nawab asked for help from Mir Jafar. Mir Jafar advised Siraj to retreat for that day. The Nawab made the blunder in giving the order to stop the fight. Following his command, the soldiers of the Nawab were returning to their camps. At that time, Robert Clive attacked the soldiers with his army. At such a sudden attack, the army of Siraj became indisciplined and could think of no way to fight. So all fled away in such a situation. Betrayed by a conspiracy plotted by Jagat Seth, Mir Jafar, Krishna Chandra, Omichund etc., he lost the battle and had to escape. He rode away and went first to Murshidabad, specifically to Heerajheel or Motijheel, his palace at Mansurganj. He ordered his principal commanders to engage their troops for his safety, but as he was bereft of power due to the loss at Plassey, they were reluctant to offer unquestioning support. Some advised him to deliver himself up to the English, but Siraj equated this with treachery. Others proposed he should encourage the army with greater rewards, and this he seemed to approve of. Yet the numbers in his retinue were considerably diminished. Soon he dispatched most of the women of his harem to Purneah, under the protection of Mohanlal, with gold and elephants. Then, with his principal consort Lutf-un-Nisa and very few attendants, Siraj began his escape towards Patna by boat, but was eventually arrested by Mir Jafar's soldiers.
Death.
Siraj-ud-Daulah was executed on 2 July 1757 by Mohammad Ali Beg under orders from Mir Miran, son of Mir Jafar in Namak Haram Deorhi as part of the agreement between Mir Jafar and the British East India Company.
Siraj-ud-Daulah's tomb is located at Khushbagh, Murshidabad. It is marked with a simple but elegant one-storied mausoleum, surrounded by gardens.
Critics and legacy.
Siraj ud-Daulah is usually seen as a freedom fighter in modern India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan for his opposition to the beginning of British rule over India.
In 1985, Sarkar wrote:
After the death of Alivardii Khan, his immature grandson became the nawab of Bengal, taking the name Miirza Mohammed Siraj-Ud-Daola. In addition to his young age, he had many kinds of defects in his character and conduct.
Two Shia historians who were in favour of Mir Jafar wrote of Siraj ud-Daulah.
Ghulam Husain Salim wrote:
Ghulam Husain Tabatabai wrote of Siraj ud-Daulah:
Sir William Meredith, during the Parliamentary inquiry into Robert Clive's actions in India, defended the character of Siraj-ud Daulah:
It is possible that Siraj-ud-Daulah was trained in the martial arts by the Pindari, whom he deployed on several occasions. A painting by Francis Hayman displaying a half-naked corpse of Siraj indicates that he was a Nawab who behaved like a Pindari.


Elections in Northern Cyprus

Elections in Northern Cyprus are organized to elect governments, presidents and representatives of local administrative bodies in Northern Cyprus, known as the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
Electoral system.
The presidency, which is served in five-year terms, was instituted with TRNC's first presidential election in 1985 and continued with the elections of 1990, 1995, 2000 and 2005,2010 with the next election scheduled for April 2015. The legislature, Cumhuriyet Meclisi (Assembly of the Republic of Northern Cyprus), has 50 members, elected for a five-year term by mitigated proportional representation. The territory has a multi-party system, with two or three strong parties and another party which is also electorally successful.
In the presidential election, a candidate must obtain at least 50% of the votes in order to secure a first-ballot victory. Upon failing to do so, the two top candidates compete in a runoff election, with the winner assuming the presidency.
The mitigated proportional representation system in use for legislative elections obligates each party to cross the 5% of the total vote election threshold in order to be seated in the 50-member parliament, which is chosen from five districts: Lefkoşa, Gazimağusa, Girne, Güzelyurt and İskele.
In the parliamentary elections, voters choose individual candidates with two options in the manner of voting: a party-line vote which, in effect, means a vote for each candidate from that party in that election district or, alternatively, the voter may choose different MP candidates from various parties. In this type of mixed voting, the voter may not choose more than the number of MPs from that district.
Residents of Northern Cyprus are eligible to stand for election and vote in the national elections of the Republic of Cyprus, but not able to run for presidency (the Constitution states that a Turkish-Cypriot should be Vice-President of the Republic). Turkish Cypriot communal representation in the Republic of Cyprus government "de facto" ended in 1963. Until 2004, the case of Ibrahim Aziz in the European Court of Human Rights, Turkish Cypriots could not vote in the Republic of Cyprus.
Latest elections.
2018 Northern Cypriot parliamentary election.
Note: Each voter may cast multiple votes, one for each seat in the parliament. Hence, the vote totals of some parties exceed the number of registered voters.
Parliamentary elections.
In 2009 President Mehmet Ali Talat claimed that in 1990 and 1998 Turkish government officials along with other influential powers from Turkey interfered with the Parliamentary Elections.


Wankaner State

Wankaner State was one of the princely states of India in the historical Halar region of Kathiawar during the period of the British Raj. It was an eleven gun salute state belonging to the Kathiawar Agency of the Bombay Presidency.
Its capital was in Wankaner, located in Rajkot district, present-day Gujarat state. Most of the territory of the state was mountainous.
History.
Wankaner State was founded in 1620 by Sartanji, son of Prathirajji, eldest son of Raj Chandrasinghji of Dhrangadhra (1584–1628).
In 1807 Wankaner State became a British protectorate when Maharana Raj Sahib Chandrasinhji II Kesarisinhji signed a treaty with the British. In 1862 the ruler of the state received a sanad giving the monarch authorization to adopt an heir. The last ruler acceded to the Indian Union on 15 February 1948.
Rulers.
The rulers of Wankaner were titled 'Maharana Raj Sahib'.


Erivansky Uyezd

The Erivansky Uyezd (; ) was a county of the Erivan Governorate of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire. It bordered the governorate's Echmiadzinsky and Surmalinsky Uyezds to the west, the Novobayazetsky Uyezd to the east, the Sharur-Daralagezsky Uyezd to the south, and Persia to the southwest. It included most of the Ararat Province and southern parts of the Kotayk Province of present-day central Armenia, the Sadarak District of the Nakhichevan exclave of present-day Azerbaijan, and the Aras corridor of the Aralık District of the Iğdır Province of present-day Turkey. Its administrative center was Erivan (the Armenian capital Yerevan).
Geography.
The northeastern part of the uyezd was mountainous and rocky while the southwestern part consisted of steppes and plains. The southwestern part was watered by the Aras River with the lowest altitude of on the border with Sharur-Daralagezsky Uyezd. Erivan lied at above sea level, which was the highest point of the uyezd. Among the rivers discharging into the Aras were the Zanga, the Garni-chay, and the Vedi-chay, which usually dried out during the summers and became active in the winters.
History.
The territory of the uyezd had been a part of Persia's Erivan Khanate until 1828, when according to the Treaty of Turkmenchay, it was annexed to the Russian Empire. It was administered as part of the Armenian Oblast from 1828 to 1840. In 1844, the Caucasus Viceroyalty was re-established, in which the territory of the Erivansky Uyezd formed part of the Tiflis Governorate. In 1849, the Erivan Governorate was established, separate from the Tiflis Governorate. In 1918, the uyezd became part of the First Republic of Armenia. After the establishment of Soviet rule in 1920, most of the territories of the uyezd became part of the Armenian SSR and Erivan (Yerevan) became its capital. The southernmost parts of the uyezd became the northern part of the Nakhichevan ASSR of the Azerbaijan SSR and the southwestern part of the uyezd, the Aras corridor, was ceded to Turkey in accordance with the treaties of Moscow and Kars.
Demographics.
According to the census of 1897 Russian Empire Census, the population of the uyezd was 150,879, of which 77,491 were Tatars (modern Azerbaijanis; 51.4%), 58,148 were Armenians (38.5%), 8,195 Kurds (5.4%), 3,713 East Slavs (Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians; 2.4%), and 2,288 Assyrians (1.5%). The largest city in the district was Erivan, which had a total population of 29,006, of which 12,523 (43.2%) were Armenians, 12,359 (42.6%) Tatars, and 3,171 (11%) East Slavs. The population was engaged primarily in agricultural farming, gardening, and winemaking. Approximately 50% of the wine in the Erivan Governorate was produced in the Erivansky Uyezd. According to statistical data, there were 129,120 great cattle in the uyezd, which made up 11% of the cattle in the whole governorate.


Battle of Semur River

Battle of Semur River () was an armed encounter which took place on 25 March 1950 between the Malay Regiment and the gunmens of Malayan Communist Party during the Malayan Emergency. Seventeen soldiers of the Malay Regiment, from 12th Platoon of Delta Company were killed by the rebels, and eight wounded. Twenty-nine communist insurgents were also killed by the Malayan soldiers.
Chronology.
In early March 1950, the Delta Company, 3rd Battalion of Malay Regiment stationed in Pengkalan Chepa, Kelantan was deployed to a "search and destroy" mission near Gua Musang, Hulu Kelantan. Base of the company were as follows:
On 23 March 1950, 0730 hours, 12th Platoon, D Company with a strength of 25 members led by Second Lieutenant Hassan Bin Yassin, Corporal Jamaludin Bin Mohamad, four Lance Corporals and 19 soldiers assigned to patrol at Nenggiri river for three days. The platoon was also followed by 16 Malay Special Constables were given the assignment to scout 18 Chinese from Pulai village to an area a few hours walk to collect nipa roofs. On Thursday, 23 March, they left Pulai village. After the Chinese had reached their destination the Malay platoon trekked on, leaving behind the 16 Special Constables with the roof-gathers. The platoon camped that night deep in the jungle and the 16 Special Constables stayed with the Chinese.
At 9.15 am on Saturday morning, the officer-in-charge, a Second Lieutenant Hassan told the Sergeant Wan Yaacob who lead the Special Constables that the platoon was going back to Pulai, however the roof-gathers had not yet finished their job. So, the Lieutenant instructed the Sergeant and his men to stay with the Chinese and lead his men to return to Pulai as soon as they had completed their job.
An hour and a half later the Malay platoon suddenly came under heavy attack from gunmens of the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA) on the south bank of the Semur river from shallow trenches prepared along the opposite bank. The platoon commander, 2nd Lieutenant Hassan and several his comrades were killed in the first fusillade. Then, Corporal Jamaludin took command of 12th Platoon, directing the fire of the remnants of the platoon. He ordered a counter-attack by firing mortar 2 inches, however it was hampered by a large quantity of bamboo trees that covered the area. After releasing two rounds of mortar shells, the mortar section members were killed. Cpl Jamaludin and some other members who may seek refuge in cozying up to the cliff threw a grenade towards the enemy, but failed because they were also fired from the opposite bank and in an enclosed, very difficult to move and take positions to counter-attack. In the battle intensifying the few members of the communist cozying up to the position of the Malay Regiment members were injured and killed is to confiscate their weapons, but was blocked. At one point, four of the communists who tried to approach them from behind were shot dead by the Private Abdul Wahab Bin Hamid. The MNLA stopped firing. Calls to the platoon to surrender were answered with hails of bullets and several gunmens who attempt to close in on Malay soldiers were shot dead. But after fighting for four hours and ran out of bullets, remnants of the survivors were surrounded and captured. This is the first time in the history of the security forces had been captured by communist guerrillas.
They were taken to the enemy camp and forced to hand over their equipment. After two hours in custody, and given lectures indoctrination and warned not to oppose against the communists, they were unexpectedly released. Cpl Jamaludin and its members sent to the Pengkalan Pulai before being abandoned halfway. Members of the survivors were:
Two others were seriously injured members, Private Abdul Wahab Bin Hamid and Private Rashid Hassan had to be abandoned on the battlefield together 14 more bodies of those killed. This is because they are no longer able to walk and will delay the movement to return to base to get help. The reinforcement, 11th Platoon of Malay Regiment and the Police Jungle Squad, along with Cpl. Jamaludin arrived on 27 March 1950, at 10 am to rescue them.
In total, 17 soldiers of 12th Platoon, 3rd Regiment were killed, against the enemies who estimated 40 peoples. Another six were seriously injured and slightly injured two members. What is remarkable though is that the members of Platoon 12 were outnumbered but were still able to provide stiff resistance and managed to kill 29 insurgents. The bodies were found by making a Platoon 11 near the ambush. It is believed many more injuries because there was a lot of blood in the paths they retreated down. The enemy strength was estimated at 250 during the event based on the size of the fort that was built by them.
Reinforcements from Special Constables.
During the attack, Sergeant Wan Yaacob heard the gunfiring and he knew that the Malay platoon was in under attacked. He told the Chinese to stay where they were and he led his men to the place where the gunfiring came from.
Sergeant Wan Yaacob and his 15 Special Constables hasted towards the sound of battle and split into two groups. Seven SCs came under fire and suffered casualties while attempt to cross the river. The Sergeant and the remainder, scouting round the flank of the communist positions on the north bank, spotted a communist Bren gunner and shot him dead, but then, on seeing that the platoon was being finally overwhelmed.


Iese, Prince of Mukhrani

Iese Mukhranbatoni () (died 1716) was a Georgian nobleman of the House of Mukhrani, a collateral branch of the royal Bagrationi dynasty of Kartli. He was Prince ("batoni") of Mukhrani and "ex officio" commander of the Banner of Shida Kartli and Grand Master of the Household ("msakhurt-ukhutsesi") at the court of Kartli c. 1700.
Iese was a son of Ashotan II, Prince of Mukhrani, and succeeded his cousin Constantine II, Prince of Mukhrani.
Ashotan had a son, Ashotan (died 1750)


Ala Singh

Raja Baba Ala Singh (1691–1765) was the first king of the princely state of Patiala.
He was born in 1691 at Phul, in present-day Bathinda district of the Punjab, to Chowdhari Ram Singh of Phulkian Misl. His father had six kids, from eldest to youngest Dunna, Subha, Ala, Bakha, Budha, Ludha. The Chowdhriat of the Misl had been originally conferred on his ancestor Brahm by Babur, after the First battle of Panipat in 1526 A.D.
Ahmad Shah Durani attacked Barnala in the absence of the Maharaja, when he was at Moonak. He forced the Maharaja to pay Rs. four lacs, out of which only Rs. fifty thousand were paid. The Durani King conferred upon him the title of "Raja" and granted him an area comprising 727 villages. Ala Singh at the age of 57, in 1763 A.D., laid the foundation of the city of Patiala. In the same year heading the sikh confederacy he conquered Sirhind and surrounding territories along with Nanu Singh Saini. He died in 1765, leaving the "gaddi" to his grandson Maharaja Amar Singh, his three sons having predeceased him. Sardaul Singh the eldest died in 1753, Bhumian Singh died in 1742 and Lal SIngh the youngest died in 1748.


List of Arakanese monarchs

The following is a list of monarchs of Arakan. The dates before the Mrauk-U period (1429–1785) are unattested.
Mrauk-U (1429–1785).
The reign dates are per the Arakanese chronicle "Rakhine Razawin Thit" (Sandamala Linkara Vol. 2 1931), converted into Western dates using (Eade 1989). (Some Arakanese chronicles state the foundation of the kingdom a year later, 1430. Moreover, the end of the kingdom is given per Burmese records, 2 January 1785. Arakanese records give a day earlier, 1 January 1785.)


Mazar-i-Sharif Province

Mazar-i-Sharif Province is a defunct province of Afghanistan, which in 1964 was divided into Balkh Province and Jowzjan Province. The former province's capital was Mazar-i-Sharif. As of 1946, it had a population of 944,020. In 1929, the province was governed by Khwajah Mir Alam, who had possibly been assigned the office in January 1929, during the events of the Afghan civil war of 1928-29, when Habibullāh Kalakāni took control of Kabul.


Central Philippine University - College of Engineering

The Central Philippine University College of Engineering, also referred to as CPU COE, CPU College of Engineering or CPU Engineering, is one of the academic units of Central Philippine University, a private university in Iloilo City, Philippines. Founded in 1936 during the American presidency of Central, Harland F. Stuart, it is one of the oldest engineering schools in the Philippines founded by the Americans. It later changed its status to a full college when Central Philippine College became a university in 1953.
The college has been recognized as National Centers of Development in Chemical Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Electronics Engineering by the Commission on Higher Education (the only engineering school in the Western Visayas region and one of the few in the country with such designation). The college is also the only Department of Science and Technology (Philippines) (DOST) Engineering school, Heat Transfer Facility and Center for Civil Engineering Education for Western Visayas region.
The college has various research and auxiliary centers under its umbrella which include the CPU Affiliated Renewable Energy Center (serves the whole Western Visayas area which is funded jointly by the Department of Energy (Philippines)) and the CPU Philippine Center for Packaging Engineering and Technology, "the first of its kind in the South East Asia" (backed by the college's department of Packaging Engineering and the Department of Science and Technology (Philippines).) The college collaborates since 2012 in the fields of Transportation and Structural engineering research with De la Salle University.
The college confers seven undergraduate degrees with two degrees, the Bachelor of Science in Packaging Engineering and Bachelor of Science in Software, both firsts in the Philippines.
The incumbent dean of the college, Engineering Dany Molina, serves as the National President of the Philippine Association of Engineering Schools (PAES), the first to held such position from outside of Manila since 1955.
Academic Programs.
The college is the only "Department of Science and Technology (DOST) – Philippines School for Western Visayas" and is accredited by Philippine Accrediting Association of Schools, Colleges and Universities (PAASCU). It offers seven (Five-year and Six-year curriculum) undergraduate programs through the college alone and graduate programs through the Central Philippine University School of Graduate Studies.
Facilities.
The CPU College of Engineering is housed in the 3,791.6 square meter 4-storey Engineering Building which houses college's classroom facilities and the auxiliary and extension CPU Affiliated Renewable Energy Center, a center funded by the Philippine Department of Energy and the university that covers the whole Western Visayas region area, and laboratory and research facilities of the programs of mechanical engineering, civil engineering, electronics and communications engineering, electrical engineering, and the two pioneer programs in the country, the packaging engineering and software engineering. Later, a new floor was added to the structure which has now a total of four storeys.
A packaging testing center and laboratory facility which is the first of its kind in the Southeast Asian region, the CPU Philippine Center for Packaging Engineering (CPU PC-PET) – Packaging Engineering Laboratory, is located separately from the Engineering Building, but under the supervision and umbrella of the college's program of Packaging Engineering. The Center is backed by the Philippine- Department of Science and Technology, the industry's Packaging Institute of the Philippines and a private sector's packaging advocate, Systemat-PackEDGE.
CPU PC-PET's construction on-time scheduled finishing in 2012 aligned with the first Philippine International Packiging Engineering convention, the "Global Pack 2012", the first of its kind in the South East Asian Region. The center is a combination of the College of Engineering's Packaging Engineering department and the facilities of the Packaging Testing Laboratory and the Packaging Technology Resource Center (PTRC). It is backed by the Philippine Department of Science and Technology and the Packaging Institute of the Philippines.
The CPU Affiliated Renewable Energy Center (CPU AREC) which is housed at the Engineering building, was established in 1989 and is under the umbrella of the College of Engineering. It is jointly funded by Department of Energy (Philippines) and the university. The center covers the whole Western Visayan region. The Engineering Building on the other hand, was built through a 4 million peso loan from Asian Development Bank and Development Bank of the Philippines.
The sporting and library needs of the CPU College of Engineering students are served by the university's athletic and bibliotheque facilities.
Notable alumni.
People associated with the college are called Centralians. The college maintains its own alumni association subsequent to the Central Philippine University Alumni Association. Notable people of the college include:


Provincial Government of East Pakistan

The Provincial Government of East Pakistan governed the East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) province and was centered in its provincial capital Dhaka. The head of the province was the Governor, who was nominated by the President of Pakistan. While the head of the province of East Pakistan was the Chief Minister who was elected by the East Pakistan Assembly.
The East Pakistani government was dominated by the Awami League. It was succeeded by the Government of Bangladesh following the province's secession in 1971.
Governance.
After absorption into the Dominion of Pakistan, the province of East Pakistan (former East Bengal) was administered by a ceremonial Governor and an indirectly elected Chief Minister. During the year from May 1954 to August 1955, executive powers were exercised by the Governor and there was no Chief Minister.


Siege of Ambur

The Siege of Ambur (10 November – 7 December 1767) was conducted by a combined force of Mysorean and Hyderabadi troops under the command of Hyder Ali against the town of Ambur in southern India during the First Anglo-Mysore War. The town was successfully defended by a garrison of local troops and a small force of British East India Company troops under the command of Captain Calvert.
References.


Tuyuhun invasion of Gansu

The Tuyuhun invasion of Gansu was a battle between the Tuyuhun Kingdom and the Tang Dynasty in 623. During the battle, the Tang general Chai Shao distracted the Tuyuhun soldiers with an
erotic dance performed by two dancing girls. While the nomads watched the dance, Chai Shao attacked from the rear and defeated the Tuyuhun. The Tuyuhun suffered more than five hundred casualties over the course of the battle.
Battle.
The Tuyuhun and Tanguts regularly raided Chinese settlements along the western Tang frontier. In 623, the Tuyuhun departed from their homeland in the pastures surrounding Qinghai Lake, known in Mongolian as Kokonur, and invaded Gansu. The Tang general Chai Shao was dispatched to defeat the nomads and prevent further incursions. The Tuyuhun held the higher ground and shot arrows against the encroaching Tang forces.
Chai Shao, in the words of historian Charles Patrick Fitzgerald, "was a general of many, if unorthodox, resources." He devised a decoy by sending two dancing girls and a group of musicians to a small hill near the Tuyuhun camp. The musicians played the pipa, a stringed instrument of foreign origin, while the girls positioned themselves on top of a hill. On the hill, the dancing girls performed an erotic dance in front of the nomads. The attention of the Tuyuhun was diverted entirely towards the girls as the soldiers disbanded their military formation and rushed to the hill for a clearer view of the dance.
Seizing the opportunity, Chai Shao surprised the soldiers who were distracted by the performance, and attacked them in the rear with his cavalry. Over five hundred Tuyuhun soldiers were killed in the ensuing battle, forcing the Tuyuhun's retreat from Gansu. Fitzgerald ends his description of the Tuyuhun defeat with the moral that "it is most unwise, in the midst of battle, to let the mind dwell on the delights of peace."
Aftermath.
Hostilities between the Tuyuhun and Tang continued after the battle. Between 634 and 635, Emperor Taizong conducted a large military expedition against the Tuyuhun led by the general Li Jing. The Tang forces were reinforced with allied Tangut and Turkic soldiers during the invasion. Tuyuhun was defeated, and capitulated to the Tang court as a vassal.


Taspar Qaghan

Taspar Qaghan (Sogdian: "t’asp’r γ’γ’n") or Tatpar Qaghan (Sogdian: "t’tp’r x’γ’n", Rouran: "Tadpar qaɣan"; Old Turkic: 𐱃𐱃𐰯𐰺𐰴𐰍𐰣 Tatpar qaγan, 佗缽可汗/佗钵可汗, Pinyin: tuóbō kěhàn, Wade-Giles: t'o-po k'o-han) was the third son of Bumin Qaghan and Wei Changle (長樂公主), and the fourth khagan of the Turkic Khaganate (572–581).
Reign.
His reign saw further rise of Turkic power even to the point calling both Zhou and Qi emperors as his sons. He appointed his nephews Ashina Shetu as Erzhu khagan to east and Börü khagan to west as lesser khagans.
He switched his alliance from Zhou to Qi. Sent a horse as gift in 572 and granted defeated Qi prince Gao Shaoyi asylum. He transferred the former Northern Qi subjects, whether they fled to or were captured to Tujue, to be under Gao Shaoyi's command. However, he still maintained good relationship with Zhou, sending another horse as gift in 574.
Around the new year 578, Gao Baoning, sent a petition to Gao Shaoyi, requesting that he take imperial title. Gao Shaoyi therefore declared himself emperor, with military assistance from Tujue.
Taspar attacked Zhou repeatedly until spring 579, when he sought peace with Northern Zhou. Emperor Xuan of Northern Zhou created the daughter of his uncle Yuwen Zhao (宇文招) the Princess Qianjin, offering to give her to Taspar in marriage if khagan would be willing to surrender Gao Shaoyi. Khagan refused.
In 580, after Emperor Xuan's death, Yang Jian, the regent for Emperor Xuan's son Emperor Jing of Northern Zhou, nevertheless sent Princess Qianjin to Tujue to marry Tuobo Khan. After the marriage, Yang then sent the official Heruo Yi (賀若誼) to Tujue to bribe khagan to give up Gao Shaoyi. Khagan agreed, and as a ruse, he invited Gao Shaoyi to a hunt, but instead had Heruo Yi capture Gao Shaoyi. In fall 580, Gao Shaoyi was delivered to Northern Zhou's capital Chang'an, and he was exiled to modern Sichuan.
Taspar died in 581 from illness, leaving throne to his nephew Talopien.
Legacy.
Unlike his father and older brothers he embraced Chinese culture, especially Buddhism. He was converted to Buddhism by the Qi monk Huilin, for whom he built a pagoda. Taspar's death marked the beginning of a long decline and subjugation of the Göktürks to China. During his reign there was a veitable flood of Sogdian Manichean refugees from Persia and Buddhist Refugees from Qi and Zhou, both the result of pogroms. These Sogdians devised the Göktürk Runes to write the Turkic language, for translations of the sutras to Turkic, notably the Nirvana Sutra in 575.
Succession.
Taspar's death created a dynastic crisis in the khaganate. His Chinese wife Qianjin survived him, but Taspar bequeathed the throne of the Empire to Talopien, the son of his elder brother Muqan Qaghan. His bequest ran contrary to the traditional system of inheritance which demanded the throne to be passed to the son of the eldest brother, in this case Ishbara Qaghan. The council rejected the legality of Taspar's will stating his mother's non-Turkic origin. Thus appointed Amrak as the next khagan. Talopien's faction did not recognize Amrak. This crisis ultimately resulted in the civil war of 581-603, which greatly weakened the state.
Family.
He had at least two issues:


Gaya Prasad

Gaya Prasad was the Chaube of Taraon State from 1812 to 1840.


Hassan IV of the Maldives

Sultan Hassan IV was the sultan of the Maldives from 1480 to 1481. He was the son of Sultan Mohamed II and Queen Golhaavehi rani kilege. Just one month after his succession to the lion throne (singasanaa) of Maldives, he was deposed by Omar (later sultan Omar II), one of his relatives.


History of Bhutan

Bhutan's early history is steeped in mythology and remains obscure. Some of the structures provide evidence that the region has been settled as early as 2000 BC. According to a legend it was ruled by a Cooch-Behar king, Sangaldip, around the 7th century BC, but not much is known prior to the introduction of Tibetan Buddhism in the 9th century, when turmoil in Tibet forced many monks to flee to Bhutan. In the 12th century, the Drukpa Kagyupa school was established and remains the dominant form of Buddhism in Bhutan today. The country's political history is intimately tied to its religious history and relations among the various monastic schools and monasteries.
Bhutan is one of only a few countries which has been independent throughout her history, never conquered, occupied, or governed by an outside power (notwithstanding occasional nominal tributary status). Although there has been speculation that it was under the Kamarupa Kingdom or the Tibetan Empire in the 7th to 9th centuries, firm evidence is lacking. From the time historical records are clear, Bhutan has continuously and successfully defended its sovereignty.
The consolidation of Bhutan occurred in 1616 when Ngawanag Namgyal, a lama from western Tibet known as the Zhabdrung Rinpoche, defeated three Tibetan invasions, subjugated rival religious schools, codified the "Tsa Yig", an intricate and comprehensive system of law, and established himself as ruler over a system of ecclesiastical and civil administrators. After his death, infighting and civil war eroded the power of the Zhabdrung for the next 200 years. In 1885 Ugyen Wangchuck was able to consolidate power, and began cultivating closer ties with the British in the subcontinent.
In 1907, Ugyen Wangchuck was elected as the hereditary ruler of Bhutan, crowned on December 17, 1907, and installed as the head of state, the Druk Gyalpo (Dragon King). In 1910, King Ugyen and the British signed the Treaty of Punakha which provided that British India would not interfere in the internal affairs of Bhutan if the country accepted external advice in its external relations. When Ugyen Wangchuck died in 1926, his son Jigme Wangchuck became the ruler, and when India gained independence in 1947, the new Indian Government recognized Bhutan as an independent country. In 1949, India and Bhutan signed the Treaty of Peace and Friendship, which provided that India would not interfere in Bhutan's internal affairs, but would guide its foreign policy. Succeeded in 1952 by his son Jigme Dorji Wangchuck, Bhutan began to slowly emerge from its isolation and began a program of planned development. The National Assembly of Bhutan, the Royal Bhutanese Army, and the Royal Court of Justice were established, along with a new code of law. Bhutan became a member of the United Nations in 1971.
In 1972, Jigme Singye Wangchuck ascended the throne at age 16. He emphasized modern education, decentralization of governance, the development of hydroelectricity and tourism and improvements in rural developments. He was perhaps best known internationally for his overarching development philosophy of "gross national happiness." It recognizes that there are many dimensions to development and that economic goals alone are not sufficient. Satisfied with Bhutan's transitioning democratization process, he abdicated in December 2006 rather than wait until the promulgation of the new constitution in 2008. His son, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, became King upon his abdication.
Prehistory.
Neolithic tools found in Bhutan indicate that people have been living in the Himalayan region for at least 11,000 years. The earliest inhabitants of Bhutan and the adjoining Himalayan areas of South Asia were people from the Indus Valley Civilization.
Origins and early settlement, 600–1600.
A state of Lhomon (literally, southern darkness) or Monyul (dark land, a reference to the Monpa one of the Tibeto-Burman people of Bhutan), possibly a part of Tibet that was then beyond the pale of Buddhist teachings. Monyul is thought to have existed between AD 100 and AD 600. The names Lhomon Tsendenjong (southern Mon sandalwood country) and Lhomon Khashi (southern Mon country of four approaches), found in ancient Bhutanese and Tibetan chronicles, may also have credence and have been used by some Bhutanese scholars when referring to their homeland. Variations of the Sanskrit words Bhota-ant (end of Bhot) or Bhu-uttan (meaning highlands) have been suggested by historians as origins of the name Bhutan, which came into common foreign use in the late 19th century and is used in Bhutan only in English-language official correspondence. The traditional name of the country since the 17th century has been Drukyul—country of the Drukpa, the Dragon people, or the Land of the Thunder Dragon, a reference to the country's dominant Buddhist sect.
Some scholars believe that during the early historical period the inhabitants were fierce mountain aborigines, the Monpa, who were of neither the Tibetan or Mongol stock that later overran northern Bhutan. The people of Monyul practiced a shamanistic religion, which emphasized worship of nature and the existence of good and evil spirits. During the latter part of this period, historical legends relate that the mighty king of Monyul invaded a southern region known as the Duars, subduing the regions of modern Assam, West Bengal, and Bihar in India.
Arrival of Buddhism.
Buddhism was first introduced to Bhutan in the 7th century. Tibetan king Songtsän Gampo (reigned 627–49), a convert to Buddhism, ordered the construction of two Buddhist temples, at Bumthang in central Bhutan and at Kyichu (near Paro) in the Paro Valley. Buddhism was propagated in earnest in 746 under King Sindhu Rāja ("also" Künjom; Sendha Gyab; Chakhar Gyalpo), an exiled Indian king who had established a government in Bumthang at Chakhar Gutho Palace.
Buddhism replaced but did not eliminate the Bon religious practices that had also been prevalent in Tibet until the late 6th century. Instead, Buddhism absorbed Bon and its believers. As the country developed in its many fertile valleys, Buddhism matured and became a unifying element. It was Buddhist literature and chronicles that began the recorded history of Bhutan.
In 810AD, a Buddhist saint, Padmasambhava (known in Bhutan as Guru Rimpoche and sometimes referred to as the Second Buddha), came to Bhutan from India at the invitation of one of the numerous local kings. After reportedly subduing eight classes of demons and converting the king, Guru Rimpoche moved on to Tibet. Upon his return from Tibet, he oversaw the construction of new monasteries in the Paro Valley and set up his headquarters in Bumthang. According to tradition, he founded the Nyingmapa sect—also known as the "old sect" or Red Hat sect—of Mahayana Buddhism, which became for a time the dominant religion of Bhutan. Guru Rimpoche plays a great historical and religious role as the national patron saint who revealed the tantras—manuals describing forms of devotion to natural energy—to Bhutan. Following the guru's sojourn, Indian influence played a temporary role until increasing Tibetan migrations brought new cultural and religious contributions.
There was no central government during this period. Instead, small independent monarchies began to develop by the early 9th century. Each was ruled by a deb (king), some of whom claimed divine origins. The kingdom of Bumthang was the most prominent among these small entities. At the same time, Tibetan Buddhist monks (lam in Dzongkha, Bhutan's official national language) had firmly rooted their religion and culture in Bhutan, and members of joint Tibetan-Mongol military expeditions settled in fertile valleys. By the 11th century, all of Bhutan was occupied by Tibetan-Mongol military forces.
Sectarian rivalry.
By the 10th century, Bhutan's political development was heavily influenced by its religious history. Following a period in which Buddhism was in decline in Tibet in the 11th century, contention among a number of subsects emerged. The Yuan dynasty overlords of Tibet and Bhutan patronized a sequence of subsects until their own political decline in the 14th century. By that time, the Gelugpa or Yellow Hat school had, after a period of anarchy in Tibet, become a powerful force resulting in the flight to Bhutan of numerous monks of various minor opposing sects. Among these monks was the founder of the Lhapa subsect of the Kargyupa school, to whom is attributed the introduction of strategically built dzong. Although the Lhapa subsect had been successfully challenged in the 12th century by another Kargyupa subsect—the Drukpa—led by Tibetan monk Phajo Drugom Shigpo, it continued to proselytize until the 17th century. The Drukpa spread throughout Bhutan and eventually became a dominant form of religious practice. Between the 12th century and the 17th century, the two Kargyupa subsects vied with one another from their respective dzong as the older form of Nyingmapa Buddhism was eclipsed.
Theocratic government, 1616–1907.
Consolidation and defeat of Tibetan invasions, 1616–51.
In the 17th century, a theocratic government independent of Tibetan political influence was established, and premodern Bhutan emerged. The theocratic government was founded by an expatriate Drukpa monk, Ngawang Namgyal, who arrived in Bhutan in 1616 seeking freedom from the domination of the Gelugpa subsect led by the Dalai Lama (Ocean Lama) in Lhasa. After a series of victories over rival subsect leaders and Tibetan invaders, Ngawang Namgyal took the title Zhabdrung (At Whose Feet One Submits, or, in many Western sources, Dharma Raja), becoming the temporal and spiritual leader of Bhutan. Considered the first great historical figure of Bhutan, he united the leaders of powerful Bhutanese families in a land called Drukyul. He promulgated a code of law and built a network of impregnable dzong, a system that helped bring local lords under centralized control and strengthened the country against Tibetan invasions. Many dzong were extant in the late 20th century.
During the first war with Tibet, c. 1627, Portuguese Jesuits Estêvão Cacella and João Cabral were the first recorded Europeans to visit Bhutan on their way to Tibet. They met with Ngawang Namgyal, presented him with firearms, gunpowder and a telescope, and offered him their services in the war against Tibet, but the Zhabdrung declined the offer. After a stay of nearly eight months Cacella wrote a long letter from the Chagri Monastery reporting the travel. This is a rare report of the Zhabdrung remaining.
Tibetan armies invaded Bhutan around 1629, in 1631, and again in 1639, hoping to throttle Ngawang Namgyal's popularity before it spread too far. In 1634 Ngawang Namgyal defeated Karma Tenkyong's army in the Battle of Five Lamas. The invasions were thwarted, and the Drukpa subsect developed a strong presence in western and central Bhutan, leaving Ngawang Namgyal supreme. In recognition of the power he accrued, goodwill missions were sent to Bhutan from Cooch Behar in the Duars (present-day northeastern West Bengal), Nepal to the west, and Ladakh in western Tibet. The ruler of Ladakh even gave a number of villages in his kingdom to Ngawang Namgyal.
Bhutan's troubles were not over, however. In 1643, a joint Mongol-Tibetan force sought to destroy Nyingmapa refugees who had fled to Bhutan, Sikkim, and Nepal. The Mongols had seized control of religious and civil power in Tibet in the 1630s and established Gelugpa as the state religion. Bhutanese rivals of Ngawang Namgyal encouraged the Mongol intrusion, but the Mongol force was easily defeated in the humid lowlands of southern Bhutan. Another Tibetan invasion in 1647 also failed.
During Ngawang Namgyal's rule, administration comprised a state monastic body with an elected head, the Je Khenpo (lord abbot), and a theocratic civil government headed by the Druk Desi (regent of Bhutan, also known as Deb Raja in Western sources). The Druk Desi was either a monk or a member of the laity—by the 19th century, usually the latter; he was elected for a three-year term, initially by a monastic council and later by the State Council (Lhengye Tshokdu). The State Council was a central administrative organ that included regional rulers, the Zhabdrung's chamberlains, and the Druk Desi. In time, the Druk Desi came under the political control of the State Council's most powerful faction of regional administrators. The Zhabdrung was the head of state and the ultimate authority in religious and civil matters. The seat of government was at Thimphu, the site of a 13th-century dzong, in the spring, summer, and fall. The winter capital was at Punakha Dzong, a dzong established northeast of Thimphu in 1527. The kingdom was divided into three regions (east, central, and west), each with an appointed ponlop, or governor, holding a seat in a major dzong. Districts were headed by dzongpon, or district officers, who had their headquarters in lesser dzong. The ponlop were combination tax collectors, judges, military commanders, and procurement agents for the central government. Their major revenues came from the trade between Tibet and India and from land taxes.
Ngawang Namgyal's regime was bound by a legal code called the Tsa Yig, which described the spiritual and civil regime and provided laws for government administration and for social and moral conduct. The duties and virtues inherent in the Buddhist dharma (religious law) played a large role in the new legal code, which remained in force until the 1960s.
Administrative integration and conflict with Tibet, 1651–1728.
To keep Bhutan from disintegrating, Ngawang Namgyal's death in 1651 apparently was kept a carefully guarded secret for fifty-four years. Initially, Ngawang Namgyal was said to have entered into a religious retreat, a situation not unprecedented in Bhutan, Sikkim, or Tibet during that time. During the period of Ngawang Namgyal's supposed retreat, appointments of officials were issued in his name, and food was left in front of his locked door.
Ngawang Namgyal's son and stepbrother, in 1651 and 1680, respectively, succeeded him. They started their reigns as minors under the control of religious and civil regents and rarely exercised authority in their own names. For further continuity, the concept of multiple reincarnation of the first Zhabdrung—in the form of either his body, his speech, or his mind—was invoked by the Je Khenpo and the Druk Desi, both of whom wanted to retain the power they had accrued through the dual system of government. The last person recognized as the bodily reincarnation of Ngawang Namgyal died in the mid-18th century, but speech and mind reincarnations, embodied by individuals who acceded to the position of Zhabdrung Rinpoche, were recognized into the early 20th century. The power of the state religion also increased with a new monastic code that remained in effect in the early 1990s. The compulsory admission to monastic life of at least one son from any family having three or more sons was instituted in the late 17th century. In time, however, the State Council became increasingly secular as did the successive Druk Desi, ponlop, and dzongpon, and intense rivalries developed among the ponlop of Tongsa and Paro and the dzongpon of Punakha, Thimphu, and Wangdue Phodrang.
During the first period of succession and further internal consolidation under the Druk Desi government, there was conflict with Tibet and Sikkim. Internal opposition to the central government resulted in overtures by the opponents of the Druk Desi to Tibet and Sikkim. In the 1680s, Bhutan invaded Sikkim in pursuit of a rebellious local lord. In 1700, Bhutan again invaded Sikkim, and in 1714 Tibetan forces, aided by Mongolia, invaded Bhutan but were unable to gain control.
Western outposts.
During the 17th century Bhutan maintained close relations with Ladakh, and assisted Ladakh in its 1684 war with Tibet. Ladakh had earlier granted Bhutan several enclaves near Mount Kailash in western Tibet; these were monasteries of the Drukpa sect and so fell under the authority of the Bhutanese Je Khenpo and the Zhabdrung. These enclaves persisted under Bhutanese control even after the rest of western Tibet came under the control of the Dalai Lama and his Gelugpa sect. Not until 1959 were the Bhutanese enclaves seized by the Chinese. In addition to these outposts in Tibet, Bhutan for a time held monastic fiefs in Ladakh, Zanskar, and Lahul (now part of India), as well as in Lo Manthang and Dolpo (now part of Nepal).
Civil conflict, 1728–72.
Though the invaders were unable to take control, the political system remained unstable. Regional rivalries contributed to the gradual disintegration of Bhutan at the time the first British agents arrived.
In the early 18th century, Bhutan had successfully developed control over the principality of Cooch Behar. The raja of Cooch Behar had sought assistance from Bhutan against the Indian Mughals in 1730, and Bhutanese political influence was not long in following. By the mid-1760s, Thimphu considered Cooch Behar its dependency, stationing a garrison force there and directing its civil administration. When the Druk Desi invaded Sikkim in 1770, Cooch Behari forces joined their Bhutanese counterparts in the offensive. In a succession dispute in Cooch Behar two years later, however, the Druk Desi's nominee for the throne was opposed by a rival who invited British troops, and, in effect, Cooch Behar became a dependency of the British East India Company.
British intrusion, 1772–1907.
Under the Cooch Behari agreement with the British, a British expeditionary force drove the Bhutanese garrison out of Cooch Behar and invaded Bhutan in 1772–73. The Druk Desi petitioned Lhasa for assistance from the Panchen Lama, who was serving as regent for the youthful Dalai Lama. In correspondence with the British governor general of India, however, the Panchen Lama instead punished the Druk Desi and invoked Tibet's claim of suzerainty over Bhutan.
Failing to receive help from Tibet, the Druk Desi signed a Treaty of Peace with the British East India Company on April 25, 1774. Bhutan agreed to return to its pre-1730 boundaries, paid a symbolic tribute of five horses to Britain, and, among other concessions, allowed the British to harvest timber in Bhutan. Subsequent missions to Bhutan were made by the British in 1776, 1777, and 1783, and commerce was opened between British India and Bhutan, and, for a short time, Tibet. In 1784, the British turned over to Bhutanese control Bengal Duars territory, where boundaries were poorly defined. As in its other foreign territories, Bhutan left administration of the Bengal Duars territory to local officials and collected its revenues. Although major trade and political relations failed to develop between Bhutan and Britain, the British had replaced the Tibetans as the major external threat.
Boundary disputes plagued Bhutanese–British relations. To reconcile their differences, Bhutan sent an emissary to Calcutta in 1787, and the British sent missions to Thimphu in 1815 and 1838. The 1815 mission was inconclusive. The 1838 mission offered a treaty providing for extradition of Bhutanese officials responsible for incursions into Assam, free and unrestricted commerce between India and Bhutan, and settlement of Bhutan's debt to the British. In an attempt to protect its independence, Bhutan rejected the British offer. Despite increasing internal disorder, Bhutan had maintained its control over a portion of the Assam Duars more or less since its reduction of Cooch Behar to a dependency in the 1760s. After the British gained control of Lower Assam in 1826, tension between the countries began to rise as Britain exerted its strength. Bhutanese payments of annual tribute to the British for the Assam Duars gradually fell into arrears. British demands for payment led to military incursions into Bhutan in 1834 and 1835, resulting in defeat for Bhutan's forces and a temporary loss of territory.
The British proceeded in 1841 to annex the formerly Bhutanese-controlled Assam Duars, paying a compensation of 10,000 rupees a year to Bhutan. In 1842, Bhutan gave to the British control of some of the troublesome Bengal Duars territory it had administered since 1784.
Charges and countercharges of border incursions and protection of fugitives led to an unsuccessful Bhutanese mission to Calcutta in 1852. Among other demands, the mission sought increased compensation for its former Duars territories; instead the British deducted nearly 3,000 rupees from the annual compensation and demanded an apology for alleged plundering of British-protected lands by members of the mission. Following more incidents and the prospect of an anti-Bhutan rebellion in the Bengal Duars, British troops deployed to the frontier in the mid-1850s. The Sepoy Rebellion in India in 1857-58 and the demise of the British East India Company's rule prevented immediate British action. Bhutanese armed forces raided Sikkim and Cooch Behar in 1862, seizing people, property, and money. The British responded by withholding all compensation payments and demanding release of all captives and return of stolen property. Demands to the Druk Desi went unheeded, as he was alleged to be unaware of his frontier officials' actions against Sikkim and Cooch Behar.
Britain sent a peace mission to Bhutan in early 1864, in the wake of the recent conclusion of a civil war there. The dzongpon of Punakha—who had emerged victorious—had broken with the central government and set up a rival Druk Desi, while the legitimate Druk Desi sought the protection of the ponlop of Paro and was later deposed. The British mission dealt alternately with the rival ponlop of Paro and the ponlop of Tongsa (the latter acting on behalf of the Druk Desi), but Bhutan rejected the peace and friendship treaty it offered. Britain declared war in November 1864. Bhutan had no regular army, and what forces existed were composed of dzong guards armed with matchlocks, bows and arrows, swords, knives, and catapults. Some of these dzong guards, carrying shields and wearing chainmail armor, engaged the well-equipped British forces.
The Duar War (1864–65) lasted only five months and, despite some battlefield victories by Bhutanese forces, resulted in Bhutan's defeat, loss of part of its sovereign territory, and forced cession of formerly occupied territories. Under the terms of the Treaty of Sinchula, signed on November 11, 1865, Bhutan ceded territories in the Assam Duars and Bengal Duars, as well as the eighty-three-square-kilometer territory of Dewangiri in southeastern Bhutan, in return for an annual subsidy of 50,000 rupees. The land that was to become Bhutan House was ceded from Bhutan to British India in 1865 at the conclusion the Duar War and as a condition of the Treaty of Sinchula.
In the 1870s and 1880s, renewed competition among regional rivals—primarily the pro-British ponlop of Tongsa and the anti-British, pro-Tibetan ponlop of Paro—resulted in the ascendancy of Ugyen Wangchuck, the Ponlop of Tongsa. From his power base in central Bhutan, Ugyen Wangchuck had defeated his political enemies and united the country following several civil wars and rebellions in 1882–85. His victory came at a time of crisis for the central government, however. British power was becoming more extensive to the south, and in the west Tibet had violated its border with Sikkim, incurring British disfavor. After 1,000 years of close ties with Tibet, Bhutan faced the threat of British military power and was forced to make serious geopolitical decisions. The British, seeking to offset potential Russian advances in Lhasa, wanted to open trade relations with Tibet. Ugyen Wangchuck, on the advice of his closest adviser Ugyen Dorji, saw the opportunity to assist the British and in 1903-4 volunteered to accompany a British mission to Lhasa as a mediator. For his services in securing the Anglo-Tibetan Convention of 1904, Ugyen Wangchuck was knighted and thereafter continued to accrue greater power in Bhutan. Ugyen Dorji, as well as his descendants, went on to maintain British favor on behalf of the government from Bhutan House in Kalimpong, India.
Establishment of the hereditary monarchy, 1907.
Ugyen Wangchuck's emergence as the national leader coincided with the realization that the dual political system was obsolete and ineffective. He had removed his chief rival, the ponlop of Paro, and installed a supporter and relative, a member of the pro-British Dorji family, in his place. When the last Zhabdrung died in 1903 and a reincarnation had not appeared by 1906, civil administration came under the control of Ugyen Wangchuck. Finally, in 1907, the fifty-fourth and last Druk Desi was forced to retire, and despite recognitions of subsequent reincarnations of Ngawang Namgyal, the Zhabdrung system came to an end.
In November 1907, an assembly of leading Buddhist monks, government officials, and heads of important families was held to end the moribund 300-year-old dual system of government and to establish a new absolute monarchy. Ugyen Wangchuck was elected its first hereditary Druk Gyalpo ("Dragon King") and subsequently reigned from 1907 to 1926. Bhutan's Political Officer John Claude White took photographs of the coronation ceremony. The Dorji family became hereditary holders of the position of Gongzim (Chief Chamberlain), the top government post. The British, wanting political stability on their northern frontier, approved of the entire development.
Britain's earlier entreaties in Lhasa had unexpected repercussions at this time. The Chinese Qing dynasty, concerned that Britain would seize Tibet, established direct rule in Tibet in 1910 (the Qing dynasty had previously incorporated Tibet in 1720 but placed it under the administration of the Lifan Yuan). The Dalai Lama then fled to India. China laid claim not only to Tibet but also to Bhutan, Nepal, and Sikkim. With these events, Bhutanese and British interests coalesced.
On January 8, 1910, Sikkim Political Officer and Tibetologist Sir Charles Alfred Bell engaged Bhutan and signed the Treaty of Punakha. The Treaty of Punakha amended two articles of the 1865 treaty: the British agreed to double their annual stipend to 100,000 rupees and "to exercise no interference in the internal administration of Bhutan." In turn, Bhutan agreed "to be guided by the advice of the British Government in regard to its external relations." The Treaty of Punakha guaranteed Bhutan's defense against China; China, in no position to contest British power, conceded the end of the millennium-long Tibetan-Chinese influence. It also assigned land in Motithang (Thimphu) and a hill station between Chukha and Thimphu to the British, assigning a portion of Kalimpong (Bhutan House) to Bhutan.
Much of Bhutan's modern development has been attributed by Bhutanese historians to the first Druk Gyalpo. Internal reforms included introducing Western-style schools, improving internal communications, encouraging trade and commerce with India, and revitalizing the Buddhist monastic system. Toward the end of his life, Ugyen Wangchuck was concerned about the continuity of the family dynasty, and in 1924 he sought British assurance that the Wangchuck family would retain its preeminent position in Bhutan. His request led to an investigation of the legal status of Bhutan vis-à-vis the suzerainty held over Bhutan by Britain and the ambiguity of Bhutan's relationship to India. Both the suzerainty and the ambiguity were maintained.
Development of centralized government, 1926–52.
Ugyen Wangchuck died in 1926 and was succeeded by his son, Jigme Wangchuck (reigned 1926–52). The second Druk Gyalpo continued his father's centralization and modernization efforts and built more schools, dispensaries, and roads. During Jigme Wangchuck's reign, monasteries and district governments were increasingly brought under royal control. However, Bhutan generally remained isolated from international affairs.
The issue of Bhutan's status vis-à-vis the government of India was reexamined by London in 1932 as part of the issue of the status of India itself. It was decided to leave the decision to join an Indian federation up to Bhutan when the time came. When British rule over India ended in 1947, so too did Britain's association with Bhutan. India succeeded Britain as the de facto protector of the Himalayan kingdom, and Bhutan retained control over its internal government. It was two years, however, before a formal agreement recognized Bhutan's independence.
Following the precedent set by the Treaty of Punakha, on August 8, 1949, Thimphu signed the Treaty of Friendship Between the Government of India and the Government of Bhutan, according to which external affairs, formerly guided by Britain, were to be guided by India. Like Britain, India agreed not to interfere in Bhutan's internal affairs. India also agreed to increase the annual subsidy to 500,000 rupees per year. Important to Bhutan's national pride was the return of Dewangiri. Some historians believe that if India had been at odds with China at this time, as it was to be a decade later, it might not have acceded so easily to Bhutan's request for independent status.
Modernization under Jigme Dorji, 1952–72.
The third Druk Gyalpo, Jigme Dorji Wangchuck, was enthroned in 1952. Earlier he had married the European-educated cousin of the chogyal (king) of Sikkim and with her support made continual efforts to modernize his nation throughout his twenty-year reign. Among his first reforms was the establishment of the National Assembly — the Tshogdu — in 1953. Although the Druk Gyalpo could issue royal decrees and exercise veto power over resolutions passed by the National Assembly, its establishment was a major move toward a constitutional monarchy.
When the Chinese communists took over Tibet in 1951, Bhutan closed its frontier with Tibet and sided with its powerful neighbor to the south. To offset the chance of Chinese encroachment, Bhutan began a modernization program. Land reform was accompanied by the abolition of slavery and serfdom and the separation of the judiciary from the executive branch of government. Mostly funded by India after China's invasion of Tibet in 1959, the modernization program also included the construction of roads linking the Indian plains with central Bhutan. An all-weather road was completed in 1962 between Thimphu and Phuntsholing, the overland gateway town on the southwest border with India. Dzongkha was made the national language during Jigme Dorji's reign. Additionally, development projects included establishing such institutions as a national museum in Paro and a national library, national archives, and national stadium, as well as buildings to house the National Assembly, the High Court (Thrimkhang Gongma), and other government entities in Thimphu. The position of gongzim, held since 1907 by the Dorji family, was upgraded in 1958 to lonchen (prime minister) and was still in the hands of the Dorji. Jigme Dorji Wangchuck's reforms, however, although lessening the authority of the absolute monarchy, also curbed the traditional decentralizatio of political authority among regional leaders and strengthened the role of the central government in economic and social programs.
Modernization efforts moved forward in the 1960s under the direction of the lonchen, Jigme Palden Dorji, the Druk Gyalpo's brother-in-law. In 1962, however, Dorji incurred disfavor with the Royal Bhutan Army over the use of military vehicles and the forced retirement of some fifty officers. Religious elements also were antagonized by Dorji's efforts to reduce the power of the state-supported religious institutions. In April 1964, while the Druk Gyalpo was in Switzerland for medical care, Dorji was assassinated in Phuntsholing by an army corporal. The majority of those arrested and accused of the crime were military personnel and included the army chief of operations, Namgyal Bahadur, the Druk Gyalpo's uncle, who was executed for his part in the plot.
The unstable situation continued under Dorji's successor as acting lonchen, his brother Lhendup Dorji, and for a time under the Druk Gyalpo's brother, Namgyal Wangchuck, as head of the army. According to some sources, a power struggle ensued between pro-Wangchuck loyalists and "modernist" Dorji supporters. The main issue was not an end to or lessening of the power of the monarchy but "full freedom from Indian interference." Other observers believe the 1964 crisis was not so much a policy struggle as competition for influence on the palace between the Dorji family and the Druk Gyalpo's Tibetan consort, Yanki, and her father. Lhendup Dorji had earlier threatened to kill Yanki—his sister's rival—and ordered her arrest when, fearing for her life and that of her 2-year-old son by the Druk Gyalpo, she sought refuge in India during the political crisis. Lhendup also incurred the disapproval of the Druk Gyalpo by seeking to become sole regent of the kingdom after his brother's death, eliminating the Queen and the king's brother. Before returning to Bhutan from Switzerland, Jigme Dorji met with the Indian Secretary General and Foreign Secretary in Calcutta who offered Indian support, including paratroopers if necessary, to help the Druk Gyalpo restore order in the kingdom. Unable to regain the Druk Gyalpo's trust, Lhendup fled to London, while other supporters in the military and government fled to Nepal and Calcutta. Afterwards, in concurrence of the National Assembly, Lhendup Dorji and other family members were exiled in 1965. However, the exiles continued their attacks on the Druk Gyalpo and India, worsening relations between India and China. The tense political situation continued and in July 1965 there was an assassination attempt on the Druk Gyalpo. The Dorjis were not implicated in the attempt—which was described as a "private matter"—and the would-be assassins were pardoned by the Druk Gyalpo.
In 1966, to increase the efficiency of government administration, Jigme Dorji Wangchuck made Thimphu the year-round capital. In May 1968, the comprehensive Rules and Regulations of the National Assembly revised the legal basis of the power granted to the National Assembly. The Druk Gyalpo decreed that henceforth sovereign power, including the power to remove government ministers and the Druk Gyalpo himself, would reside with the National Assembly. The following November, the Druk Gyalpo renounced his veto power over National Assembly bills and said he would step down if two-thirds of the legislature passed a no-confidence vote. Although he did nothing to undermine the retention of the Wangchuck dynasty, the Druk Gyalpo in 1969 called for a triennial vote of confidence by the National Assembly (later abolished by his successor) to renew the Druk Gyalpo's mandate to rule.
Diplomatic overtures also were made during Jigme Dorji Wangchuck's reign. Although always seeking to be formally neutral and nonaligned in relations with China and India, Bhutan also sought more direct links internationally than had occurred previously under the foreign-policy guidance of India. Consequently, in 1962 Bhutan joined the Colombo Plan for Cooperative, Economic, and Social Development in Asia and the Pacific known as the Colombo Plan, and in 1966 notified India of its desire to become a member of the United Nations (UN). In 1971, after holding observer status for three years, Bhutan was admitted to the UN. In an effort to maintain Bhutan as a stable buffer state, India continued to provide substantial amounts of development aid.
Jigme Dorji Wangchuck ruled until his death in July 1972 and was succeeded by his seventeen-year-old son, Jigme Singye Wangchuck. The close ties of the Wangchuck and Dorji families were reemphasized in the person of the new king, whose mother, Ashi Kesang Dorji (Ashi means Queen), was the sister of the lonchen, Jigme Palden Dorji. Jigme Singye Wangchuck, who had been educated in India and Britain, had been appointed ponlop of Tongsa in May 1972 and by July that year had become the Druk Gyalpo. With his mother and two elder sisters as advisers, the new Druk Gyalpo was thrust into the affairs of state. He was often seen among the people, in the countryside, at festivals, and, as his reign progressed, meeting with foreign dignitaries in Bhutan and abroad. His formal coronation took place in June 1974, and soon thereafter the strains between the Wangchucks and Dorjis were relieved with the return that year of the exiled members of the latter family. The reconciliation, however, was preceded by reports of a plot to assassinate the new Druk Gyalpo before his coronation could take place and to set fire to the Tashichho Dzong (Fortress of the Glorious Religion, the seat of government in Thimphu). Yanki (who had four children with the Druk Gyalpo, including two sons, between 1962 and 1972) was the alleged force behind the plot, which was uncovered three months before the coronation; thirty persons were arrested, including high government and police officials. However, Lawrence Sittling, secretary to Jigme Dorji Wangchuck, later reported that the assassination plot was a fabrication by a Chinese diplomat designed to alienate Bhutan from India. But the truth was not any more politically acceptable—those arrested were Tibetan Khampas rebels, trained in India, who were traveling through Bhutan on a mission to Tibet. (Encyclopaedia of Saarc Nations, Syed) Under pressure from China, the Bhutanese government demanded that the four thousand Tibetan refugees living in Bhutan either become Bhutanese citizens or go into exile. Most chose exile. (Syed)
International relations, 1972–present.
When civil war broke out in Pakistan in 1971, Bhutan was the first nation to recognize the new government of Bangladesh, and formal diplomatic relations were established in 1973. An event in 1975 may have served as a major impetus to Bhutan to speed up reform and modernization. In that year, neighboring Sikkim's monarchy, which had endured for more than 300 years, was ousted following a plebiscite in which the Nepalese majority outvoted the Sikkimese minority. Sikkim, long a protectorate of India, became India's twenty-second state.
To further ensure its independence and international position, Bhutan gradually established diplomatic relations with other nations and joined greater numbers of regional and international organizations. Many of the countries with which Bhutan established relations provided development aid. Moderization of daily life brought new problems to Bhutan in the late 1980s. Television broadcast was official introduced in Bhutan in 1999.
Assamese separatists.
Several guerrilla groups seeking to establish an independent Assamese state in northeast India have set up guerrilla bases in the forests of southern Bhutan, from which they launched cross-border attacks on targets in Assam. The largest guerrilla group was the ULFA (United Liberation Front of Asom). Negotiations aimed at removing them peacefully from these bases failed in the spring of 2003. Bhutan was faced with the prospect of having to strengthen its token army force to evict the guerrillas.
Military action against Assamese separatists December 2003.
On 15 December 2003 the Royal Bhutan Army began military operations against guerrilla camps in southern Bhutan, in coordination with Indian armed forces who lined the border to the south to prevent the guerrillas from dispersing back into Assam. News sources indicated that of the 30 camps that were targeted, 13 campers were controlled by ULFA, 12 camps by the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), and 5 camps by the Kamatapur Liberation Organisation (KLO). By January, government news reports indicated the guerillas had been routed from their bases.
Refugee community.
In 1988, Bhutan evicted some number of Nepali-speaking residents (Bhutanese reports say about 5,000 and Refugee reports says over 100,000) from districts in southern Bhutan, creating a large refugee community that was now being detained in seven temporary United Nations refugee camps in Nepal and Sikkim. The actual numbers were difficult to establish, as many of those in the camps were reported to be holding forged identity papers, and impoverished Nepalese citizens and started to migrate to the Nepalese community leaving their refugee camps. The reason for leaving refugee camps was to find a job, and services to those living in camps. Few of them returned to the refugee camps. As a result, the number of people living in the camps decreased exponentially. Although the Bhutanese government claimed that only about 5000 initially left the country, the number of actual migration was more than that.
After years of negotiations between Nepal and Bhutan, in 2000 Bhutan agreed in principle to allow certain classes of the refugees to return to Bhutan. However the situation was at a standstill, after violence was committed on Bhutanese officials by the angered people in the camps. Significant unrest was now reported to be fomenting in the camps, especially as the United Nations terminated a number of educational and welfare programmes in an effort to force Bhutan and Nepal to come to terms.
As the Bhutanese government was unwilling to take them into their country many developed nations offered the refugees to allow them to settle in their own countries which included USA and Australia. As many as 20,000 Bhutanese refugees have been resettled in these countries.
Formalized democracy.
Constitution.
On March 26, 2005, "an auspicious day when the stars and elements converge favourably to create an environment of harmony and success", the king and government distributed a draft of the country's first constitution, requesting that every citizen review it. A new house of parliament, the National Council, is chartered consisting of 20 elected representatives from each of the dzonghags, persons selected by the King. The National Council would be paired with the other already existing house, the National Assembly.
Per the Constitution, the monarchy is given a leadership role in setting the direction for the government as long as the King shall demonstrate his commitment and ability to safeguard the interests of the kingdom and its people.
Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck.
On December 15, 2006, the fourth Druk Gyalpo, His Majesty Jigme Singye Wangchuck, abdicated all of his powers as King to his son, Prince Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, with a specific intention to prepare the young King for the country's transformation to a full-fledged, democratic form of government due to occur in 2008.
The previous King's abdication in favour of his son was originally set to occur in 2008 as well, but there was an apparent concern that the new King should have hands-on experience as the nation's leader before presiding over a transformation in the country's form of government. According to the national newspaper, the Kuensel, the previous King stated to his cabinet that "as long as he himself continued to be King, the Crown Prince would not gain the actual experience of dealing with issues and carrying out the responsibilities of a head of state. With parliamentary democracy to be established in 2008, there was much to be done; so it was necessary that he gained this valuable experience."
The fourth Druk Gyalpo further stated that


Guangfulin

Guangfulin is an archaeological site in Songjiang District, Shanghai, China. It is estimated to be over 5,000 years old. Artifacts from the Zhou Dynasty have also been unearthed at the site. The site covers 250 square kilometers (c.97 square miles). It was announced to be the Shanghai Cultural Relics Protection Site in December 1977, and was approved by the state council as one of the seventh batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units in May 2013. The Guangfulin Relics Park is under construction.
Discovery.
In 1958, local residents discovered Guangfulin Relics which leads to four archaeological excavation afterwards.
In 1961, archaeologists confirmed that Guangfulin Relics belonged to Liangzhu Cultural Relics, which formed between the period of Maqiao Relics and that of Songze Relics.
From 1999 to 2001, archaeologists began their second and third excavation. Large architecture artifacts in Han Dynasty were unearthed . Later, different kinds of new artifacts in Liangzhu characteristics were also known to the public, due to which Guangfulin Relics gained its name.
In 2008, great success has been achieved. Eight Guangfulin cultural graves were found. Many bronze sacrificial vessels of Spring and Autumn Period were uncovered. Rice, deer horns and pig bones found depicted the original life of the residents living long ago.
Significance.
At the beginning of the 21st century, discoveries in Songjiang Guangfulin Cultural Relics made great contribution to archaeology. Firstly, it clearly divided the primitive society into types like Songze Cultural, Liangzhu Cultural and Guangfulin Cultural, which was considered to be the cultural relics of New Stone Era in Taihu area; secondly, immigrants from the Yellow River were conformed to be the first group of immigrants coming Shanghai; thirdly, there were towns in Shanghai dating back to as far as Zhou Dynasty; fourthly, two unique types of houses in primitive society were found: stilt house and ground house.
Guangfulin Relics Park.
As of 2014, the Guangfulin Relics Park was under construction now, and was expected to open to the public in 2016. There are more than 20 attractive sites in it, such as museums like Gangfang in Ming Dynasty and Yao Shun Yu Museum, a communication center, a scroll Room, Fulin Tower, an art exhibition area, a music fountain, Zhiye Temple, a play center and restaurants. In addition, by 2019, folk art exhibition halls and a religious cultural display center will be featured in the park.
Zhiye Temple.
Zhiye Temple was named by a monk, Dazhi, during the Tang Dynasty. Legend has it that, when Dazhi toured here from Luoyang, he was greatly attracted by the beautiful local scenery, so he decided to build a temple here to promote Buddhism and help local residents. After ten years, he completed his work, and named it Zhiye Temple. The temple is famous in Songjiang, and attracts many Buddhists.
Chen Zilong's tomb.
Chen Zilong, a famous poet in the late Ming Dynasty was buried here. The tombstone was established in order to memorize Chen Zilong, who had struggled to death against the Qing Dynasty. He made great achievements in literature and poetry and composed many masterpieces, including Selected Huangming poems.


Seal of Khingila

The Seal of Khingila is an historical seal from the region of Bactria, on southern Central Asia. The seal was published recently by Pierfrancesco Callieri and Nicholas Sims-Williams. It is now in the private collection of Mr. A. Saeedi (London). Kurbanov considers it as a significant Hephthalite seal. It has also been considered as intermediate between the Kidarites and the Hephthalites.
The seal has a Bactrian language inscription mentioning the ruler "Eshkingil", with the title "xoadeo" ("Lord", "King"), and has been dated to the 5th-6th century CE, or to the first half of the 5th century CE. The legend, deciphered by Nicholas Sims-Williams, reads:
The complete reading may be "Eshkingil, lord of (the people) such-and-such" or "Eshkingil, son of so-and-so, the lord".
"Eshkingil" (, εϸκιγγιλο, "Eškiŋil") may be a title consisting in the Turkic prefix "Eš-" meaning “comrade, companion of” and "-kenglu", the sacred sword and god ("Kenglu-shen") worshipped by the Xiongnu, so that "Eškiŋgil" could be a Hunnic name or title meaning “Companion of the Sword”, or even "Companion of the God of War".
The seal may also have belonged to the Alchon Hun ruler Khingila, who appears in his coinage with the Bactrian legend (χιγγιλο αλχοννο "Khiggilo Alchono"), or another ruler of the same name. A Narendraditya Khinkhila, of the same Alchon Hun ethnicity, is dated to the early 7th century CE. A Turk Shahi ruler of Kabul is also known in Arab sources as Khinkhil or Khinjil, who, according to Al-Yakubhi, gave his submission to Al-Mahdi in 775–785. A ruler Khingila is also mentioned in the dedication of the Gardez Ganesha. The identity of this Khingala is uncertain.
It is not certain however if the title "Eshkingil" should be equated with the name "Khingila", and the linguistic evolution from "Khingila" to "Eškiŋil" is problematic.
The figure in the seal wears what is called a "tulip headress", a type of headress well known in Bactria from the time of the Kidarites (4th century CE), to the time of the Turks (6th century) and beyond.