The national anthem of Bhutan is called: « Druk tsendhen ».
Continent: Asia
Bordering Countries:
– 🇨🇳 China
– 🇮🇳 India
History of « Druk tsendhen »
« Druk tsendhen » (The Thunder Dragon Kingdom) is the national anthem of Bhutan. The anthem reflects the country’s reverence for its monarchy, its cultural heritage, and the unity of its people.
Key Dates and People
- 1953: The lyrics of « Druk tsendhen » were written by Dasho Gyaldun Thinley, a Bhutanese official. The music was composed by Aku Tongmi, a Bhutanese musician who studied music in India.
- 1953: The anthem was officially adopted by the Kingdom of Bhutan, becoming a symbol of national pride and identity.
Anecdotes
- Royal Approval: The anthem was composed at the request of the third King of Bhutan, Jigme Dorji Wangchuck. Aku Tongmi, who had recently returned from his musical studies in India, was tasked with composing the music.
- Cultural Significance: The lyrics of the anthem celebrate the kingdom’s natural beauty, the wisdom of its leaders, and the unity of its people. It reflects the deep connection of the Bhutanese people to their land and their reverence for the monarchy.
- Performance: « Druk tsendhen » is performed at national celebrations, official ceremonies, and sporting events, reinforcing its role in uniting the Bhutanese people and celebrating their heritage. The anthem’s stirring lyrics and melody inspire a sense of unity and pride among Bhutanese.
Lyrics Excerpt
In Dzongkha
སྒྲོལ་མའི་དབྱངས་ལྡན་འབྲུག་ཡུལ་དུ།
དཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ་གྱི་བཀའ་དྲིན་དུས་གསུམ་ལས།
འབྲུག་རྒྱལ་ཁབ་རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་ཀྱི་དཔལ་འབྱོར་བརྒྱུད།
དེ་རིང་འཇམ་དབྱངས་གི་དབྱངས་ལྡན་འབྲུག་ཡུལ་དུ།
དཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ་གྱི་བཀའ་དྲིན་དུས་གསུམ་ལས།
འབྲུག་རྒྱལ་ཁབ་རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་ཀྱི་དཔལ་འབྱོར་བརྒྱུད།
དེ་རིང་འཇམ་དབྱངས་གི་དབྱངས་ལྡན་འབྲུག་ཡུལ་དུ།
དཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ་གྱི་བཀའ་དྲིན་དུས་གསུམ་ལས།
འབྲུག་རྒྱལ་ཁབ་རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་ཀྱི་དཔལ་འབྱོར་བརྒྱུད།
དེ་རིང་འཇམ་དབྱངས་གི་དབྱངས་ལྡན་འབྲུག་ཡུལ་དུ།
དཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམIn English (translation)
In the Thunder Dragon Kingdom adorned with sandalwood,
The protector who guards the teachings of the dual system,
He, the precious and glorious ruler,
Causes dominion to spread while his unchanging person abides in constancy,
As the doctrine of the Lord Buddha flourishes,
May the sun of peace and happiness shine on the people.Sources: