The Kingdom of Bhutan, which literally translates as Land of the Thunder Dragon, is a small nation in South Asia, bordered on the South, East, and West by India and sits just beneath the Himalaya Mountains. It is a country known for its natural beauty, deep cultural heritage, and diversity of faiths. It has also, for the last few decades, been marked by strife and a government that evicted tens of thousands of ethnic Nepalese people.
Over 100,000 ethnic Nepalese, or one-sixth of Bhutan’s population were either forced out or fled in the 1980s. Most lived in refugee camps in Nepal for over two decades, when countries including the United States, Canada, Australia, and many in Eastern Europe began an international resettlement effort to help Bhutanese refugees find new homes around the world. Due to the efforts of refugee assistance organizations, most of them faith-based or administered by church communities, over 17,000 are now living in the United States. This LA Times article spotlights about 20 families living in Philadelphia, PA.
In April of 2010, local media outlet LancasterOnline.com reported on the work being done by faith-based refugee agencies – Church World Service and Lutheran Refugee Services – which are helping the Bhutanese make a new life in Pennsylvania. Check out the article and read more about the local Bhutanese who now call Lancaster home.
If you’re interested in learning more about this diverse and complex kingdom and its people, visit this site. Lonely Planet describes Bhutan as a land that exists both in the old and the new: “Bhutan is straddling the ancient and modern world and these days you’ll find monks transcribing ancient Buddhist texts into computers as traditionally dressed noblemen chat on their mobile phones.” It is indeed a nation in transition, for both those who still live there, as well as for the thousands of Bhutanese resettling across the world.
