Period
Description
ca. 500 B.C.
State of Monyul established; continues to A.D. 600.
ca. A.D. 630-640
Early Buddhist temples built.
747
Guru Rimpoche visits Bhutan; founds Nyingmapa sect several
years later.
ca. 810
Independent monarchies develop.
830s-840s
Tibetan Buddhist religion and culture firmly established.
eleventh century
Bhutan occupied by Tibetan-Mongol military forces.
1360s
Gelukpa sect monks flee to Bhutan from Tibet.
1616
Drukpa monk Ngawang Namgyal arrives from Tibet, seeking
freedom from Dalai Lama.
1629
First Westerners--Portuguese Jesuits--visit Bhutan.
1629-47
Successive Tibetan invasions of Bhutan end in withdrawal or
defeat.
1651
Ngawang Namgyal dies; theocratic Buddhist state rules unified
Bhutan (then called Drukyul) and joint civil-religious
administration established; summer capital established at
Thimphu, winter capital at Punakha. Drukpa subsect emerges as
dominant religious force.
1680s-1700
Bhutanese forces invade Sikkim.
1714
Tibetan-Mongolian invasion thwarted.
1728
Civil war accompanies struggle for succession struggle to
throne.
1730
Bhutan aids Raja of Cooch Behar against Indian Mughals.
1760s
Cooch Behar becomes de facto Bhutanese dependency; Assam Duars
come under Bhutanese control.
1770
Bhutan-Cooch Behar forces invade Sikkim.
1772
Cooch Behar seeks protection from British East India Company.
1772-73
British forces invade Bhutan.
1774
Bhutan signs peace treaty with British East India Company.
1787
Boundary disputes plague Bhutanese-Indian relations.
1826-28
Border tensions between Bhutan and British increase after
British seize Lower Assam, threaten Assam Duars.
1834-35
British invade Bhutan.
1841
British take control of Bhutanese portion of Assam Duars and
begin annual compensation payments to Bhutan.
1862
Bhutan raids Sikkim and Cooch Behar.
1864
Civil war waged in Bhutan; British seek peace relationship
with both sides.
1864-65
Duar War waged between Britain and Bhutan.
1865
Treaty of Sinchula signed; Bhutan Duars territories ceded to
Britain in return for annual subsidy.
1883-85
Period of civil war and rebellion leads to a united Bhutan
under Ugyen Wangchuck.
1904
Ugyen Wangchuck helps secure Anglo-Tibetan Convention on
behalf of Britain.
1907
Theocracy ends; hereditary monarchy, with Ugyen Wangchuck as
Druk Gyalpo (Dragon King), established.
1910
China invades Tibet, laying claim to Bhutan, Nepal, and
Sikkim; Treaty of Punakha signed with Britain, stipulating
annual increase of stipend and Bhutan's control of own
internal affairs.
1926
Ugyen Wangchuck dies and is succeeded by Jigme Wangchuck.
1947
British rule of India and British association with Bhutan end.
1949
Treaty of Friendship signed with India, essentially continuing
1910 agreement with British.
1952
Third Druk Gyalpo, Jigme Dorji Wangchuck, enthroned.
1953
National Assembly established as part of government reform.
1961
First five-year plan introduced.
1962
Indian troops retreat through Bhutan during Sino-Indian border
war.
1964
Jigme Palden Dorji assassinated; factional politics emerge.
1965
Assassination attempt on Jigme Dorji Wangchuck.
1966
Thimphu made year-round capital.
1968
Druk Gyalpo decrees that sovereign power resides in himself
and National Assembly.
1971
Bhutan admitted to United Nations.
1972
Fourth Druk Gyalpo, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, succeeds upon
father's death.
1974
New monetary system established separate from India's.
1986
One thousand illegal foreign laborers-- mostly Nepalese--
expelled.
1989
Unrest among Nepalese minority brings government efforts to
ameliorate differences between ethnic communities as well as
additional government restrictions.
1990
Antigovernment terrorist activities initiated; ethnic Nepalese
protesters in southern Bhutan clash with Royal Bhutan Army;
violence and crime increase; citizen militias formed in
progovernment communities.
1991
Jigme Singye Wangchuck threatens to abdicate in face of hard-
line opposition in National Assembly to his efforts to resolve
ethnic unrest; cancels participation in annual three-day South
Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) conference
because of unrest at home; attends abbreviated one-day SAARC
session in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Data as of September 1991