List of villages in Bhutan

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Villages in Bhutan are made up of groups of individual settlements, grouped together by chiwog for election purposes. This list is based mainly on information of the Election Commission, which not necessarily follows the general usage.[1]: p. 8 

Village populations vary widely, from dozens to hundreds. Generally, greater numbers of villages within chiwogs indicate lower populations in the vast majority of those villages.

Villages in Bhutan are governed directly by Gewog (village block) governments, which in turn are subordinate to Dzongkhag (district) or Dungkhag (sub-district) governments. Villages in Bhutan may be distinguished from Thromdes (municipalities), which are larger settlements not part of any Chiwog, and which may be self-governing under the Local Government Act of Bhutan 2009. This Act also provides for the redrawing of chiwog borders and regrouping of villages by the Demarcation Commission in order to define relatively equally populated single member constituencies. Village and chiwog demarcations, therefore, are subject to considerable change.[2]

Many village names are recurring, and may be shared even among neighboring settlements. Sometimes this indicates a large village spread among more than one chiwog. Geographical names frequently include: wom (Dzongkha: འོགམ་; "lower"), gom (སྒོངམ་; "upper/higher"), (kha)toed (སྟོད་; "upper [valley]"), (kha)maed (སྨད་; "lower [valley]"), nang (ནང་; "inner"), -gang (སྒང་; "hilltop, ridge"), -ling (གླིང་; "place"), -la (ལ་; "mountain pass"), -thang (ཐང་; "valley"), -pelri (དཔལ་རི་; "mountain"), -chhu (ཆུ་; "river"), and -dey (སྡེ་; "part, section").[3] Popular name parts also include choekhor (ཆོས་འཁོར་; "dharma wheel"), dekid (བདེ་སྐྱིད་; "peace"), phel (འཕེལ་; "flourish"), phuen (ཕུན་; "complete, perfect, wonderful"), tashi (བཀྲ་ཤིས་/བཀྲིས་; "auspicious"), goenpa (དགོན་པ་; "monastery"), lhakhang (ལྷ་ཁང་ "temple"), pema (པདྨ་; "lotus"), and norbu (ནོར་བུ་; "jewel").[3] Spelling variations are frequent; in government documents certain transliterations are equivalent: "oo" and "u;" "ay" and "ey;" and in some circumstances, "a" and "e."

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference post was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "Local Government Act of Bhutan 2009" (PDF). Government of Bhutan. 2009-09-11. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-06. Retrieved 2011-01-20.
  3. ^ a b "Tibetan-English-Dictionary of Buddhist Teaching & Practice". Diamond Way Buddhism Worldwide. Rangjung Yeshe Translations & Publications. 1996. Archived from the original on 2010-03-28. Retrieved 2011-08-05. entries: 'ogm, 'phel, bkra shis; dpal ri; gling; kha stod; la; nor bu; pad ma; sgang; sde; smad; stod.