| Bumthang district | |
| Native Name: | བུམ་ཐང་རྫོང་ཁག |
| Settlement Type: | District |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: | Bhutan |
| Seat Type: | Headquarters |
| Seat: | Jakar |
| Unit Pref: | Metric |
| Area Total Km2: | 2,717 |
| Population Total: | 17,820 |
| Population As Of: | 2017 |
| Population Density Km2: | auto |
| Blank Name Sec2: | HDI (2019) |
| Blank Info Sec2: | 0.661[1] · 6th |
| Timezone1: | BTT |
| Utc Offset1: | +6 |
Bumthang District (Dzongkha: བུམ་ཐང་རྫོང་ཁག་; Wylie: Bum-thang rzong-khag) is one of the 20 dzongkhag (districts) comprising Bhutan. It is the most historic dzongkhag if the number of ancient temples and sacred sites is counted. Bumthang consists of the four mountain valleys of Ura, Chumey, Tang and Choekhor ("Bumthang"), although occasionally the entire district is referred to as Bumthang Valley.
Bumthang directly translates as "beautiful field" – thang means field or flat place, and bum is said be an abbreviation of either bumpa (a vessel for holy water, thus describing the shape and nature of the valley), or simply bum ("girl", indicating this is the valley of beautiful girls). The name is said to have arisen after the construction of Jambay Lhakhang.
Bumthang farms yield buckwheat, dairy products, honey, apples, potato, rice, woolen products and many other products. Bumthang is rich in producing wheat, buckwheat, dairy products, and potatoes. Bumthang is also nationally famous for yatha and bumthna matha weaving.
East Bodish languages are primarily spoken in Bumthang District.[2]
The language spoken in the Bumthang district is known as Bumthangkha. It is a Tibeto-Burman language mutually intelligible with Khengkha and closely related to Dzongkha, the national language of Bhutan. Bumthangkha is partially comprehensible to speakers of Dzongkha, which originated in valleys to the west of Bumthang. Each of the four valleys of Bumthang has its own dialect, and the remnants of the Kheng kingdom, near and in Zhemgang District to the south, speak Khengkha. Historically, Bhumthangkha and its speakers have had close contact with speakers of Kurtöpkha to the east, Nupbikha to the west, and Khengkha to the south, to the extent that they may be considered part of a wider collection of "Bumthang languages."[3] [4] [5] [6]
Brokkat, an endangered[7] Southern Bodish language, is spoken by about 300 people in the village of Dhur in Bumthang Valley. The language is a remnant of pastoral yakherd communities.[8] [9]
Bumthang District is divided into four village blocks (or gewogs):
1) Chhume Gewog
3) Tang Gewog
4) Ura Gewog
Most of Bumthang District is part of Bhutan's extensive protected areas network. The northern two-thirds of the district (the gewogs of Chhoekhor and Tang) belong to Wangchuck Centennial Park, buffered by pockets of biological corridors. Southern Bumthang (the gewogs of Chhumig, Tang and Ura) is part of another protected area, Thrumshingla National Park.[10] [11] Bumthang is known for its important population of black-necked cranes migrating in winter.
Bumthang also contains several notable towns:
Annual Jakar Tshechus:
Tandindang school was started on 17 July 2010, to benefit the children going to school.