The tiny Himalayan nation of Bhutan has crowned it’s 5th king in an elaborate Buddhist ceremony.
Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck became the world’s youngest reigning monarch and head of the newest democracy on Thursday after he was adorned with Bhutan’s Raven Crown at an ornate coronation ceremony in Thimphu.
On Thursday morning, King Jigme Singye Wangchuck placed the Raven Crown on the head of his son, 28-year-old Jigme Khesar Namgyal Wangchuck, giving him the title of Druk Gyalpo, or Dragon King.
The Oxford educated 28-year-old king has thus stepped into a new stage of the royal lineage in this Shangri-la of jaw-dropping beauty.
Jigme Khesar is the oldest son of the former Bhutanese king and his third wife Ashi Tshering Yangdon. He has a younger sister and brother as well as four half-sisters and three half-brothers by his father’s other three wives.
Also sitting at the coronation ceremony were a host of foreign dignitaries, including Indian President Pratibha Patil and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, and Bhutan Prime Minister Jigmi Y Thinley. Ambassadors of 23 countries were witness to the historic ceremony.
The festivities, symbolizing the strength of the monarchy, are seen as a deeply reassuring moment for the last independent Himalayan Buddhist kingdom.
Once one of the most cut off, tightly controlled places on earth, the country is now slowly opening up to the uncertainties of modernity and vagaries of democracy.
Festive spirit was seen all around Thimphu city with men in colourful tied at the waist called khos and women dressed in sarong-like wraps.Bhutan will enjoy three days of national celebrations following Thursday’s ceremony.
King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, however, would not have the same absolute powers as his predecessors – Bhutan held its first parliamentary elections in March making a historic shift from 100-year-old monarchy to democracy.
“This coronation is significant as it marks the end of an era (the former king’s rule) and the beginning of a new chapter in Bhutan’s history as the people has great hope and confidence on the new king,” Thinley, Bhutan’s first democratically elected prime minister, said after the coronation ceremony.
The largely Buddhist kingdom of about 650,000 people grudgingly marched towards democracy after the former king Jigme Singye Wangchuck’s sudden decision in December 2006 to abdicate the throne in favour of his eldest son and announce parliamentary elections to change with the times and relinquish absolute rule.
The former king had set the process in 2001 for Bhutan’s transformation from an absolute monarch to a parliamentary democracy that led to the country having a new constitution. The king is now head of state, but parliament would have the power to impeach him by a two-thirds vote.