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| currency_code = | time_zone = BTT | utc_offset = +6 | time_zone_DST = not observed | utc_offset_DST = +6 | drives_on = left | cctld = .bt | calling_code = +975 | footnote_a = The population of Bhutan had been estimated based on the reported figure of about 1 million in the 1970s when the country had joined the United Nations and precise statistics were lacking. Thus, using the annual increase rate of 2–3%, the most population estimates were around 2 million in the year 2000. A national census was carried out in 2005 and it turned out that the population was 672,425. Consequently, United Nations Population Division reduced its estimation of the country's population in the 2006 revision for the whole period from 1950 to 2050. }} Bhutan (; Dzongkha ''Dru Ü'', ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked country in South Asia at the eastern end of the Himalayas. It is bordered to the north by China and to the south, east and west by India. To the west, it is separated from Nepal by the Indian state of Sikkim, while farther south it is separated from Bangladesh by the Indian states of Assam and West Bengal. Bhutan's capital and largest city is Thimphu. Bhutan existed as a patchwork of minor warring fiefs until the early 17th century. At that time the lama and military leader Ngawang Namgyal, the first Zhabdrung Rinpoche, who was fleeing religious persecution in Tibet, unified the area and cultivated a distinct Bhutanese identity. In the early 20th century, Bhutan came into contact with the British Empire and retained strong bilateral relations with India upon its independence. In 2006, based on a global survey, ''Business Week'' rated Bhutan the happiest country in Asia and the eighth-happiest in the world. Bhutan's landscape ranges from subtropical plains in the south to the sub-alpine Himalayan heights in the north, where some peaks exceed . Its total area was reported as approximately in 1997 and in 2002. Bhutan's state religion is Vajrayana Buddhism and the population, as of 2015 estimated as 770 thousand people,〔 is predominantly Buddhist. Hinduism is the second-largest religion.〔"Bhutan." ''World Almanac & Book Of Facts'' (2008): 752–753. Academic Search Premier. Web. 8 December 2011.〕 In 2008, Bhutan made the transition from absolute monarchy to constitutional monarchy and held its first general election.〔Wolf, Siegfried, ("Bhutan's Political Transition" ), ' ' Applied Political Science of South Asia' ', 2 July 2013〕 As well as being a member of the United Nations, Bhutan is a member of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and hosted SAARC's sixteenth summit in April 2010. ==Etymology== The precise etymology of "Bhutan" is unknown, although it is likely to derive from the Tibetan endonym "Bod" used for Tibet. Traditionally, it is taken to be a transcription of the Sanskrit ''Bhoṭa-anta'' (भोट-अन्त, "end of Tibet"), a reference to Bhutan's position as the southern extremity of the Tibetan plateau and culture.〔Taylor, Isaac. ''(Names and Their Histories; a Handbook of Historical Geography and Topographical Nomenclature )''. Gale Research Co. (Detroit), 1898. Retrieved 24 September 2011.〕〔U.S. Library of Congress, Country Studies, Bhutan, HISTORICAL SETTING, BHUTAN Origins and Early Settlement, A.D. 600–1600, http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+bt0014)〕 Since the 17th century the official name of Bhutan has been ''Dru Ü'' (country of the Drukpa Lineage, the Dragon People, or the Land of the Thunder Dragon, a reference to the country's dominant Buddhist sect) and Bhutan only appears in English-language official correspondence.〔 Names similar to Bhutan — including ''Bottanthis'', ''Bottan'' and ''Bottanter'' — began to appear in Europe around the 1580s. Jean-Baptiste Tavernier's 1676 ''Six Voyages'' is the first to record the name ''Boutan''. However, in every case, these seem to have been describing not modern Bhutan but the Kingdom of Tibet. The modern distinction between the two did not begin until well into Bogle's 1774 expedition — realizing the differences between the two regions, cultures and states, his final report to the East India Company formally proposed labeling the Druk Desi's kingdom as "Boutan" and the Panchen Lama's as "Tibet". The EIC's surveyor general James Rennell first anglicized the French name as Bootan and then popularized the distinction between it and greater Tibet.〔("History of Bhutan: How Europe heard about Bhutan" ). ''Kuensel''. 24 August 2003. Retrieved 28 September 2011.〕 Locally, Bhutan has been known by many names. One of the earliest Western records of Bhutan, the 1627 ''Relação'' of the Portuguese Jesuits Estêvão Cacella and João Cabral, records its name variously as ''Cambirasi'' (among the Koch Biharis〔Cacella, Estêvão. Trans. by Baillie, Luiza Maria. ("Report which Father Estevao Cacella of the Society of Jesus Sent to Father Alberto Laercio, Provincial of the Province of Malabar of East India, about His Journey to Cathay, until He Came to the Kingdom of Bhotanta" ) (1627). Retrieved 28 September 2011.〕), ''Potente'', and ''Mon'' (an endonym for southern Tibet).〔 The first time a separate Kingdom of Bhutan did appear on a western map, it did so under its local name as "Broukpa".〔 Others including ''Lho Mon'' ("Dark Southland"), ''Lho Tsendenjong'' ("Southland of the Cypress"), ''Lhomen Khazhi'' ("Southland of the Four Approaches") and ''Lho Menjong'' ( "Southland of the Herbs"). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Bhutan」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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