National Anthem of Bhutan
Druk
Tsenden (Dzongkha: འབྲུག་ཙན་དན, Dzongkha pronunciation: [ʈuk̚˩ t͡sen˥.te˩]; The Thunder Dragon Kingdom”) is the national
anthem of Bhutan. Adopted in 1953, the lyrics were written by Dolop Droep
Namgay and possibly translated into English by Dasho Gyaldun Thinley. The
accompanying music was composed by Aku Tongmi.
Despite
claims made in Brozović’s Enciklopedija (1999) and many subsequent authors, who
attribute the authorship of the national anthem to Gyaldun Thinley, father of
the former Prime Minister Jigme Thinley, there are many who believe that the
words and the national anthem itself were penned by Dorji Lopen Dolop Droep
Namgay of Talo, Punakha. The Dorji Lopen is the most senior of the four senior
Lopens in Bhutan’s religious establishment, and often serves as the Deputy Je
Khenpo. Dolop Droep Namgay maintained close personal and working relations with
the third King of Bhutan, Jigme Dorji Wangchuck, during whose reign Gyaldun
Thinley served in various capacities.
It
is possible that Gyaldun Thinley may have been involved in working closely with
Dolop Droep Namgay as well as translating the lyrics into English. It is also
highly likely that he (and/or his son Jigme Thinley who served in many
important government and political capacities since the 1990s) was one of the
persons of first contact for Dalibor Brozović who attributed Gyaldun Thinley as
the author of the lyrics; however, many regard Dolop Droep Namgay as the
author.
Aku
Tongmi was educated in India and had recently been appointed leader of the
military brass band when the need for an anthem rose at the occasion of a state
visit from the Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. His original score was
inspired by the Bhutanese folk tune “The Unchanging Lotus Throne”
(Thri nyampa med pa pemai thri). The melody has twice undergone changes by
Tongmi’s successors as band leaders. The original lyrics were 12 lines, but
were shortened to the present six-line version in 1964 by a secretary to the
king.
As
the anthem is inspired by a folk tune, there is a choreography to it as well,
originally directed by Tongmi.
National Anthem
Dru tsend°en kepä gäkhap na
Pä lu’nyi tensi
kyongwä gin
Dru gäpo ’ngada rinpoche
Ku gyûme tencing
chap si phe
Chö sanggä tenpa dâzh°ing gä
Bang deki nyima
shâwâsho.
English Translation
In the Kingdom of Bhutan adorned with cypress trees,
The Protector who reigns over the realm of spiritual and
secular traditions,
He is the King of Bhutan, the precious sovereign.
May His being remain unchanging, and the Kingdom
prosper,
May the teachings of the Enlightened One flourish,
May the sun of peace and happiness shine over all people.
Bhutan
འབྲུག་ཙན་དན་བཀོད་པའི་རྒྱལ་ཁབ་ནང་།།
དཔལ་ལུགས་གཉིས་བསྟན་སྲིད་སྐྱོང་བའི་མགོན་།།
འབྲུག་རྒྱལ་པོ་མངའ་བདག་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་།།
སྐུ་འགྱུར་མེད་བརྟན་ཅིང་ཆབ་སྲིད་འཕེལ་།།
ཆོས་སངས་རྒྱས་བསྟན་པ་དར་ཞིང་རྒྱས་།།
འབངས་བདེ་སྐྱིད་ཉི་མ་ཤར་བར་ཤོག་།།
