Research
The Impact of Christianity in the Development of Biomedicine and English Education in Bhutan
During the colonial period European missionaries had opportunities to established English education and biomedicine services in the neighboring states of Sikkim, Darjeeling and as far as Tibet. But in Bhutan, it was introduced a century later, mainly because of two reasons. Firstly the county was closed to the foreign influence particularly the missionaries. Secondly, since it was not economically benefited for British India. Moreover, due to financial restrictions in the country, and without help from British India development in the field of biomedicine and English education was very difficult. But the European missionaries took the challenge, gave much time and interest to help Bhutanese ruling elites. British India’s political officers begun to visit Bhutan from the year 1905 for the diplomatic reasons. Since 1910 Bhutan’s foreign affairs were formally bound with British India control but did not involved in the internal affairs and British India paid 100,000 subsidies for the annexed Duars.
The Socio-Economic and Historical Background of the Nepalese in Bhutan
Bhutan is a small land locked Himalayan kingdom located between Tibet to the north and India to the south, east and west, with a population of less than 800,000. The geographical features have highly influenced the settlement pattern of the people. So, the people live scattered around in the valleys and hills across the country. During the ancient times, the country was known by several names, but from 17th century it was known as Bhutan to the outside world.1The country practice Tibetan Buddhism from 7th century, Hinduism came along with the immigrant Nepalese form 1865 and Christianity began to grow in minimal rates since the 1960s. Historically, scholars have agreed that the people in Nepal have come in migratory waves from her two great neighbouring countries Tibet and India, while Nepal became the meeting ground. The Nepalese includes not only the people who are inside Nepal but also descendants of Nepalese who may not have ever visited their fore-father’s origin place, regardless of their birth place or citizenship.
