This is the first edition of Nepal and Bhutan: Country Studies. It supersedes the 1973 Area Handbook for Nepal, Bhutan, and Sikkim. The material on Nepal is presented in the standard five-chapter format of the country study series. A sixth chapter, on Bhutan, covers the subjects addressed the five Nepal chapters, but in a single chapter. The material on Sikkim has been dropped; readers should consult India: A Country Study for information on Sikkim.
Nepal and Bhutan: Country Studies is an effort to present an objective and concise account of the social, economic, political, and national security concerns of contemporary Nepal and Bhutan within historical frameworks. A variety of scholarly monographs and journals, official reports of government and international organizations, and foreign and domestic newspapers and periodicals were used as sources. Brief commentary on some of the more useful and readily accessible sources appears at the end of each chapter. Full references to these and other sources appear in the Bibliography. The annual editions of the Bibliography of Asian Studies will provide the reader with additional materials on Nepal and Bhutan.
The authors have limited the use of foreign and technical terms, which are defined when they first appear. Readers are also referred to the Glossary at the back of the volume. Spellings of contemporary place names generally are those approved by the United States Board on Geographic Names. All measurements are given in the metric system. A conversion table is provided for those readers who may not be familiar with metric equivalents (see table 1, Appendix).
The body of the text reflects information available as of September 1991. Certain other portions of the text, however, have been updated. The Introduction discusses significant events that have occurred since the completion of research, the Country Profile includes updated information as available, and the Bibliography includes recently published sources thought to be particularly helpful to the reader.
Data as of September 1991