Queen Elizabeth II 25th Anniversary Coronation First Day Cover, Bhutan postmarked on November 15, 1978.

Bhutan

Bhutan lies to the northeast of India, also bordered by Tibet and Sikkim. Its area, at 18,000 square miles, makes it larger than Switzerland and it spans the white, frozen wastes of the Himalayas in the north, and hot, humid jungle in the south. Between lie eight mountain ranges and eight valleys running north-south, forested with oak, beech and conifers, home to elephants, rhinos, tigers and bears. In well-irrigated clearings settlements of four or five homesteads are to be found growing rice, corn, wheat or millet, vegetables, oranges and cardamom. Livestock raised includes yaks, cattle, sheep, pigs and Tangun ponies, the latter being of great value in a country largely without roads. (The capital Thimphu was not connected to the Indian border until the 1960s.) Elsewhere people mine silver, copper and iron.

Although migration to the area by the Bhutias, Mongoloid tribes of Tibetan origin, began as early as the 14th century, the first king established himself only a few hundred years ago. Bhutan has succeeded ever since in maintaining its internal autonomy against Tibetan invasion, the British, who recognised its autonomy in 1910, and against China who claimed part of its territory in the 1950's. Bhutan closed its northern border in 1959 and negotiated a defense agreement with India. Apart from the Bhutias, Buddhists who call themselves the 'dragon people' and various hill tribes related to those of Assam, the other major ethnic group is that of Hindu Nepalis, who arrived mostly since 1910. The monarchy of Bhutan is still absolute, but rules in consultation with an assembly mainly composed of village headmen.

This issue of Bhutan, value 20NU, features a portrait of H.M. the Queen, and the arms of the country, consisting of two dragons supporting a flame, and guarding a thunderbolt in the form of a cross. The word druk in Bhutan means both dragon and thunder, the two being closely associated in oriental and many other mythologies.