I am always intrigued and awed by the various names given to our country. We, the Bhutanese, have been enjoying peace and prosperity while some countries in the world are plagued by the problems of internal strife and wars. Therefore, some sections of our society, and rightly so, equate our country to that of the dewa chengyi zhing kham (pure land or sukhavati), the abode of which is Amitabha (འོད་དཔག་མེད). In this celestial country or the land of Gross National Happiness, the Gelegphu Mindfulness City (GMC) conceived and crafted by our Boddhisatava King is coming up, which will be a model city in the region and beyond. This has made me write this article on the original sources of the epithets and names of our country because some of them are relevant.
Both Bhutanese and foreign scholars and historians quote the origins of various names such as Lho Yuel (the Southern country), Lho Jong (the Southern Valleys), Lho Mon Tsenden Jong (the Southern Mon Country of Sandalwwod), Lho Jong Men Jong (the Southern Valleys of Medicinal Herbs), Lho Mon Kha Zhi (the Southern Mon Country of Four Approaches), Bhutan, and later Druk Yuel. This article is intended to briefly describe the origins of the two names (Bhutan and Lho Mon Kha Zhi) based on the personal communication I have had with a Buddhist Scholar and Secret Yogi (སྦས་པའི་རྣལ་འབྱོར), popularly known as Lopon Thegchhog Rinpochhe.
Scholars, particularly the Indian scholars, explain the origin of the name, Bhutan. It is derived from the Sanskrit term, Bhotanta – the end of Bhota or Tibet. As Karma Phuntsho argues that Bhutan is at the edge of Tibet but never part of Tibet. Karma Phuntsho also quotes Balaram Chakravarti, who rejects these hypotheses and suggests that “the word Bhutan is perhaps simply derivative of Bhotanam, that is, of the Bhotas, just as Iran is derived from Aryanam”. Lopon Thegchhog on the 26th of June 2024 shared with me the findings of a research carried out by the Tibetan Buddhist University in Varanasi, India. Bhutan is derived from the Sanskrit term Bhu-ti-tan. Bhu (བྷཱུ་) means the land of ju-nor-long-choed (wealth and riches), Ti means jor-pa (acquirement of riches), and Tan means place (ས་གནས). Another version – Bhu ta (བྷཱུཏ) refers to a ‘source’ and (བྷཱུཏཱན) refers to a place of such ‘sources’. Thus, Bhu Ti Tan means the land of acquired riches. Geographically and politically, this name has nothing to do with the country on the north or the south. This origin of name needs to be incorporated in our history.
Lho Mon Kha Zhi is another designation for our country. If I correctly understand that this name precedes all other names mentioned above. Etymologically, the word ‘mon’ is intriguing in the sense that scholars quote various sources from which the word is derived. Muen in the Tibetan language means darkness; the Chinese word maan means barbarians. These are two sources quoted for the derivation of the word ‘mon’. The word ‘mon’ is pejoratively and also derogatively used – unkempt, uncivilised and barbarian. According to Lopon Thegchhog, ‘mon’ is a distorted version of mu-ren (མུ་རན), which means the surrounding or periphery or Tha-Khorp མཐའ་འཁོརཔ or མཐའ་འཁོར་པ་. Anything considered as surrounding or periphery is a relative term expressed with a specific reference to one central point or region. A place or region was considered central region or དབུས where the Buddha Dharma or Buddhist civilization was flourishing. In the light of the fact that Buddhism was spread from Tibet to its neighbouring Himalayan countries like Bhutan, it was assumed that Tibet was the centre of Buddhist civilization. Mu-ren or mon, a periphery was generally referred to a place where the Buddha Dharma was either absent or not popular. Thus, lho mon can be interpreted as the southern surrounding or periphery where the Buddha Dharma or Buddhist civilisation was yet to arrive. This also clarifies that mon is not referred to a tribe but to a specific area.
Lho Mon Kha Zhi, literally translated as the southern land of four approaches, are Dungsamkha to the east, Pasakha to the south, Dalingkha to the west, and Taktsekha to the north. Thus, it defines broadly the territory of sovereign Bhutan. A Bhutanese historian argues that “this enumeration of four approaches in order to explain the ancient name Lhokhazhi presents a problem, as it suggests a territorial unity long before the country was formally united into one state.” Could it be then a divine blessing? According to Lopon Thegchhog (perscommun), the name lho mon kha zhi was designated by Guru Rinpochhe, while he was in Tibet and Lopon Chenpo Sangye Sangwa from India in the eighth century.
Before his departure for Mahaparinirvana, Buddha had visited the area of ri-dag-chen (part of the snowy Himalayan region –kha wa chen) with his disciple Chhana Dorji (Vajrapani). This area happened to be Bhutan. It was prophesised that this land (Bhutan) would be the centre for spreading the Buddhism. Thus, Buddha commanded all local dieties inhabiting the area to support the spread of Buddhism. Vajprapani putting his chha gkhar with force into the ground, sought the assurance of compliance from the dieties. This was the prophesy of the historical Buddha (Lopon Thegchhog).
As prophesied by Buddha, Buddhism in Bhutan is flourishing as is evident by the increase of monastic schools and colleges being established by both private and Zhung Dratshang. Besides the Zhung Drasthang, there are currently 127 Chhoe- tshogs (ཆོས་ཚོགས) including three Hindu Chhoe-tshogs registered under the Commission for Religious Organizations of Bhutan. We now have a Buddhist University at Tango, Thimphu. Our Boddhisattva King has declared that Bhutan will be the centre of Vajrayana Buddhism (གསང་སྔགས་རྡོ་རྗེ་ཐེག་པ) studies and practice, a part of Gelegphu Mindfulness City (GMC).
GNH was the Gong-ter (དགོངས་གཏེར) of our beloved Fourth Druk Gyalpo and GMC is the Gongter of His Majesty The King. The development philosophy of GNH has attracted the attention of the world community in the midst of plights stemming from the failures of economic models of Capitalism and Communism. The address by a former foreign minister of the then Czechoslovakia at the UN General Assembly was quoted in a UN Report in 1983, which reads something like this: “ Capitalism knows how to make money but does not know to how distribute it. Communism knows how to distribute wealth but does not how to create wealth.” There are flaws both in capitalist and communist models of economy. Thus, GNH, if I correctly understand, is an attempt to harmonise the two extreme models. This is also in line with the Buddhist principle of middle path. The world community has discovered necessary wisdom in GNH urgently required to mend the failures of both models of economy and come up with the a new paradigm..
Similarly, the rapid technological advancement such as the Artificial Intelligence (AI) shrouds our future in uncertainty; its impact on socio-religious, economic and political life of homo sapiens will be of great significance. GMC, as I perceive, is an answer to this emerging problem. As the name of the country bhu-ti-tan suggests, GMC will bring about the abundance of wealth and happiness under the clairvoyant leadership and stewardship of our great Boddhisattva King.
Contributed by
Dasho Zangley Dukpa,
Thimphu