Introduction

Bhutan - popularly known as the land of thunder dragon is fast emerging from centuries of self - imposed isolation. This mountain kingdom, first opened to the outside world in 1974 as to commemorate the coronation of the present Bhutan king Jigme Singe Wanchuk, is still perhaps the world's most exclusive tourist destination.

Situated in the heart of the great Himalayas, Bhutan is flanked on the north and north - west by Tibet, the plains of north - east India to the south and south - west and the hills of India's north - eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh to the East.

This mountain kingdom occupies an area of 18,000 sq. miles (roughly the size of Switzerland) with varied climatic conditions: ranging from the hot and humid southern foothills, to the temperate inner Himalaya, and finally to the nearly 7700m high snowcaps of the high Himalayas that define Bhutan's northern frontier. Bhutan has a population of about one million and its state religion is the Drukpa sect of Kargyupa, a school of Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism. In the eleventh centuries since it was introduced, Buddhism has shaped the nation's history and it still plays a very vital role in the daily life of its people. A British journalist is so right when he says that Bhutan is a country drenched in religion. For, this country known for its undiluted culture and unspoiled ecology, the past is still present and its religion still a way of life.