List of rulers of Bhutan

Bhutan was founded and unified as a country by Ngawang Namgyal, 1st Zhabdrung Rinpoche in the mid–17th century. After his death in 1651, Bhutan nominally followed his recommended "dual system of government". Under the dual system, government control was split between a civil administrative leader, the Druk Desi (འབྲུག་སྡེ་སྲིད་, aka Deb Raja); and a religious leader, the Je Khenpo (རྗེ་མཁན་པོ་). Since the rise of the unified House of Wangchuk in 1907, the Druk Gyalpo (འབྲུག་རྒྱལ་པོ་; lit. "Dragon King") have been the head of state of the Kingdom of Bhutan.

List of rulers of Bhutan

Bhutan was founded and unified as a country by Ngawang Namgyal, 1st Zhabdrung Rinpoche in the mid–17th century. After his death in 1651, Bhutan nominally followed his recommended "dual system of government". Under the dual system, government control was split between a civil administrative leader, the Druk Desi (འབྲུག་སྡེ་སྲིད་, aka Deb Raja); and a religious leader, the Je Khenpo (རྗེ་མཁན་པོ་). Since the rise of the unified House of Wangchuk in 1907, the Druk Gyalpo (འབྲུག་རྒྱལ་པོ་; lit. "Dragon King") have been the head of state of the Kingdom of Bhutan.