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Though Bhutanese society under
the theocracy by Ngawang Namgyal can generally be
described as feudalistic, it was neither hereditary
nor oppressive in the medieval European sense and
was characterized by an absence of strong social
stratification.
Broadly, there may be said to have been three
classes – the monastic community, who were, in fact
the nobility of the country; the lay civil servants,
brought up in dzong’s and places, who supervised
public services of labor such as ascertaining that
necessary provisions were duly supplied by the
common people by way of tax; and farmers who
comprised the overwhelming majority, lived in self-
sufficient village units, and provided the core of
almost all the classes of people (a phenomenon
which, to a great extent, eliminated class
distinctions). In the words of George Bogle of the
Bengal civil service, who was dispatched on a
mission to Bhutan and Tibet by the East India
Company in 1774, “Among a people where there is no
pre-eminence of birth, there cannot well be much
pride. The Bhutanese seem to have none of it, and
live among their servants on the most familiar
footing”. In times of war, all sections of the
population took up arms against the enemy.
Besides the three main classes, there was a
community in serfs, who were generally prisoners of
war from the Duar plains to the south or their
descendants. They were free to marry and own houses
(though not land), and were provided with food,
clothing and shelter by the state. The medieval
Bhutanese social structure included elements of
democratic socialism, whereby all officials starting
from the village headman or the Gup, at the bottom
rung of the ladder to the Desi at the top were
chosen through elective procession, and the
prevalence of a barter economy dovetailed with the
strictures of religion to lend society a high moral
tone, all vices associated with the lust for money
being practically unknown. George Bogle observed, “
The more I see of the Bhutanese, the more I am
pleased with them. The common people are good-
humored, downright honest and I think thoroughly
trusty”. |
