Gewogs of Bhutan

This article is part of a series on the
politics and government of
Bhutan

A gewog (Dzongkha: རྒེད་འོག geok, block) refers to a group of villages in Bhutan. The head of a geo is called a gap (རྒེད་པོ་ gepo).[1] Gewogs form a geographic administrative unit below dzongkhag districts (and dungkhag subdistricts, where they exist), and above thromde municipalities.

Bhutan comprises 205 gewogs, which average 230 km² in area. The gewogs in turn are divided into chewogs for elections and thromdes "municipalities" for administration. The Parliament of Bhutan passed legislation in 2002 and 2007 on the status, structure, and leadership of local governments, including gewogs. The most recent legislation by parliament regarding gewogs is the Local Government Act of Bhutan 2009.[2][3][4] In July 2011, the government slated 11 gewogs across Bhutan for reorganization, including both mergers and bifurcations, to be debated in dzongkhag local governments. These changes are contemplated to promote ease of travel to gewog capitals and to equitably allocate development resources.[5]

Gewog administration

Under the Local Government Act of 2009, each gewog is administered by a Gewog Tshogde (gewog council), subordinate to the Dzongkhag Tshogdu (district council). The Gewog Tshogde is composed of a Gup (headman), Mangmi (deputy), and between five and eight democratically elected Tshogpas from among villages or village groups. All representatives serve five-year terms, unless the local electorate petitions for an election (by a simple majority of the voting population) to vote no confidence in the local government (by at least two-thirds of the voting population). Representatives must be citizens between the ages of 25 and 65, be a resident of their constituency for at least one year, gain certification by the Election Commission, and otherwise qualify under Electoral Law.[4]

While the Gewog Tshogde has powers to regulate resources, manage public health and safety, and levy taxes on land, grazing, cattle, entertainment, and utilities, the gewog administration and all other local governments are prohibited to pass laws. The gewog administration has jurisdiction over roads, buildings (including architecture), recreational areas, utilities, agriculture, and the formulation of local five-year development plans. The Gewog Tshogde also prepares, reports, and expends its own gewog's budget under the supervision and approval of the Minister of Finance.[4]

History

Beginning in the late 1980s, the King of Bhutan, Jigme Singye Wangchuck pursued a long-time programme of decentralization. In 1991, following this principle, the King enacted the first Geog Yargay Tshogchung as a framework for local administration.[2] Under the first Geog Yargay Tshochung, gewogs became official administrative units, each headed by a Gup or headman. The first-ever elections in Bhutan were held at that time, with a representative from each household voting to select their local Gup.

In 2002, the Parliament of Bhutan enacted a second, more comprehensive Chathrim (Act) also called the Geog Yargay Tshochung. Under the Geog Yargay Tshochung of 2002, gewog administration included the Gup, Mangmi (deputy), Tshogpa (village or village cluster representative), and the non-voting Chupon (village messenger) and Gewog Clerk. Gup and Mangmi sat for three-year terms while normal representatives sat for one year. The body had a two-thirds quorum requirement, and voted by simple majority. The Chathrim of 2002 empowered gewogs to levy rural taxes, maintain and regulate natural resources, and manage community and cultural life.[2]

The Chathrim of 2002 was superseded by the Local Government Act of 2007, which expanded local bureaucracy and vested more powers in gewog administrators, including enforcement of driglam namzha.[7] Under the Act of 2007, additional levels of local administration were carved out from gewogs, namely Dzongkhag Thromde Tshogdes and Gyelyong Thromde Tshogdus. The former were democratically elected bodies under direct dzongkhag management; the latter were democratic autonomous urban areas, or special cities, independent of dzongkhag management. Up through the enactment of the Local Government Act of 2009, gewogs were subdivided administratively into chiwogs, comprising several villages.[3]

Since the Act of 2009, Dzongkhag Thromde Tshogdes, Gyelyong Thromde Tshogdus, and chiwogs have been replaced by thromdes (municipalities) as tertiary administrative divisions. Depending on the population and development of each thromde, it either has an independent bureaucracy ("Class A" Thromdes) or is directly administered by the gewog or dzongkhag ("Class B" and "Dzongkhag Yenlag" Thromdes).[4]

Gewog changes since 2000

In 2002, there were 199 gewogs in Bhutan's 20 dzongkhags;[8] by 2005, there were 205.[9]

In Tsirang District, Chanautey, Gairigaun, Tshokhana, and Tsirang Dangra Gewogs were disestablished; in the meanwhile Barshong, Rangthangling, Tsholingkhar, and Tsirangtoe Gewogs were created. Likewise, in Sarpang District, Sarpangtar Gewog was disestablished. Chukha District no longer contains Bhulajhora Gewog, but now contains Sampheling Gewog. Samtse District no longer contains Ghumauney, Mayona, and Nainital Gewogs; it now contains Ugentse and Yoeseltse Gewogs. In Thimphu District, Bapbi Gewog disappeared. In Samdrup Jongkhar District, Bakuli and Hastinapur Gewogs disappeared, replaced by Dewathang, Langchenphu, Pemathang, Phuntshothang, Serthi, and Wangphu Gewogs. Trashiyangtse District saw the creation of three additional gewogs: Bumdeling, Khamdang, and Ramjar.[8][9]

Since 2005, gewogs and dzongkhags have continued to evolve. On April 26, 2007, Lhamozingkha Dungkhag (subdistrict) was formally transferred from Sarpang Dzongkhag to Dagana Dzongkhag,[10] affecting the town of Lhamozingkha and three constituent gewogs – Lhamoy Zingkha, Deorali and Nichula (Zinchula) – that formed the westernmost part of Sarpang and now form the southernmost part of Dagana.[11]

The gewogs of Bhutan

The following is a list of 205 gewogs of Bhutan by dzongkhag:

Dzongkhag Gewog
Bumthang[12]
Chhoekhor
ཆོས་འཁོར་
Chhume
ཆུ་མིག་
Tang
སྟང་
Ura
ཨུ་ར་
Chhukha[13]
Bjachho
བྱག་ཕྱོགས་
Bongo
སྦོང་སྒོར་
Chapcha
སྐྱབས་ཆ་
Darla
དར་ལ་
Dungna
གདུང་ན་
Geling
དགེ་གླིང་
Getana
གད་སྟག་ན་
Lokchina
ལོག་ཅི་ན་
Metakha
སྨད་བཏབ་ཁ་
Phuentsholing
ཕུན་ཚོགས་གླིང་
Sampheling
བསམ་འཕེལ་གླིང་
Dagana[14]
Dorona
རྡོ་རོ་ན་
Drujegang
འབྲུག་རྗེས་སྒང་
Gesarling
གེ་སར་གླིང་
Goshi
སྒོ་བཞི་
Kana
བཀར་ན་
Karmaling
ཀརྨ་གླིང་
Khebisa
ཁེ་སྦིས་ས་
Lajab
ལ་རྒྱབ་
Lhamoi Zingkha
ལྷ་མོའི་རྫིང་ཁ་
Nichula
ནི་ཅུ་ལ་
Trashiding
བཀྲིས་ལྡིང་
Tsangkha
གཙང་ཁ་
Tsendagang
བཙན་མདའ་སྒང་
Tseza
བརྩེ་ཟ་
Gasa[15]
Khamaed
ཁ་སྨད་
Khatoe
ཁ་སྟོད་
Laya
ལ་ཡ་
Lunana
ལུང་ནག་ན་
Haa[16]
Bji
སྦྱིས་
Gakiling
དགའ་སྐྱིད་གླིང་
Katsho
སྐར་ཚོགས་
Samar
ས་དམར་
Sangbay
གསང་སྦས་
Uesu
དབུས་སུ་
Lhuentse[17]
Gangzur
སྒང་ཟུར་
Khoma
མཁོ་མ་
Jarey
རྒྱ་རས་
Kurtoed
ཀུར་སྟོད་
Menbi
སྨན་སྦིས་
Metsho
སྨད་མཚོ་
Minjay
སྨིན་རྒྱས་
Tsenkhar
སཙན་མཁར་
Mongar[18]
Balam
བ་ལམ་
Chali
ཅ་གླིང་
Chaskhar
ལྕགས་ས་མཁར་
Drametse
དགྲ་མེད་རྩེ་
Drepong
འབྲེས་སྤུངས་
Gongdue
དགོངས་འདུས་
Jurmey
འགྱུར་མེད་
Kengkhar
སྐྱེངས་མཁར་
Mongar
མོང་སྒར་
Narang
ན་རང་
Ngatshang
སྔ་ཚང་
Saling
ས་གླིང་
Shermuhoong
ཤེར་མུ་ཧཱུྃ་
Silambi
སི་ལམ་སྦི་
Thangrong
ཐང་རོང་
Tsakaling
ཙ་ཀ་གླིང་
Tsamang
རྩ་མང་
Paro[19]
Dokar
རྡོ་དཀར་
Dopshari
རྡོབ་ཤར་རི་
Doteng
རྡོ་སྟེང་
Hungrel
ཧཱུྃ་རལ་
Lamgong
ལམ་གོང་
Lungnyi
ལུང་གཉིས་
Naja
ན་རྒྱ་
Shapa
ཤར་པ་
Tsento
བཙན་ཏོ་
Wangchang
ཝང་ལྕང་
Pema Gatshel[20]
Chimoong
ཕྱི་མུང་
Chokhorling
ཆོས་འཁོར་གླིང་
Chongshing
ལྕོང་ཤིང་
Dechheling
བདེ་ཆེན་གླིང་
Dungmaed
གདུང་སྨད་
Khar
མཁར་
Nanong
ན་ནོང་
Norbugang
ནོར་བུ་སྒང་
Shumar
ཤུ་མར་
Yurung
ཡུ་རུང་
Zobel
བཟོ་སྦལ་
Punakha[21]
Barp
བརཔ་
Chhubug
ཆུ་སྦུག་
Dzomi
འཅོམས་མི་
Goenshari
དགོམ་ཤ་རི་
Guma
གུ་མ་
Kabisa
དཀར་སྦི་ས་
Lingmukha
གླིང་མུ་ཁ་
Shenga Bjemi
ཤེལ་རྔ་_སྦྱེ་མི་
Talog
རྟ་ལོག་
Toepisa
སཏོད་པའི་ས་
Toewang
སྟོད་ཝང་
Samdrup Jongkhar[22]
Dewathang
དབེ་བ་ཐང་
Gomdar
སྒམ་དར་
Langchenphu
གླང་ཅན་ཕུ་
Lauri
ལའུ་རི་
Martshala
མར་ཚྭ་ལ་
Orong
ཨོ་རོང་
Pemathang
པདྨ་ཐང་
Phuntshothang
ཕུན་ཚོགས་ཐང་
Samrang
བསམ་རང་
Serthi
གསེར་ཐིག་
Wangphu
ཝང་ཕུག་
Dzongkhag Gewog
Samtse[23]
Dungtoe
གདུང་སྟོད་
Dophoogchen
རྡོ་ཕུག་ཅན་
Duenchukha
བདུམ་ཅུ་ཁ་
Namgaychhoeling
རྣམ་རྒྱས་ཆོས་གླིང་
Norbugang
ནོར་བུ་སྒང་
Norgaygang
ནོར་རྒྱས་སྒང་
Pemaling
པདྨ་གླིང་
Phuentshogpelri
ཕུན་ཚོགས་དབལ་རི་
Samtse
བསམ་རྩེ་
Sangngagchhoeling
གསང་སྔགས་ཆོས་གླིང་
Tading
རྟ་སྡིང་
Tashicholing
བཀྲིས་ཙོས་གླིང་
Tendruk
བསྟང་འབྲུག
Ugentse
ཨྱོན་རྩེ་
Yoeseltse
འོད་གསལ་རྩེ་
Sarpang[24]
Chhuzagang
ཆུ་འཛག་སྒང་
Chhudzom
ཆུ་འཛོམས་
Dekiling
བདེ་སྐྱིད་གླིང་
Gakiling
དགའ་སྐྱིད་གླིང་
Gelephu
དགེ་ལེགས་ཕུ་
Jigmechholing
འཇིགས་མེད་ཆོས་གླིང་
Samtenling
བསམ་གཏན་གླིང་
Senggey
སེ་ངྒེ་
Sherzhong
གསེར་གཞོང་
Shompangkha
ཤོམ་སྤང་ཁ་
Tareythang
རྟ་རས་ཐང་
Umling
ཨུམ་གླིང་
Thimphu[25]
Chang
ལྕང་
Darkala
དར་དཀར་ལ་
Genye
དགེ་བསྙེན་
Kawang
ཀ་ཝང་
Lingzhi
གླིང་གཞི་
Mewang
སྨད་ཝང་
Naro
ན་རོ་
Soe
སྲོས་
Trashigang[26]
Bartsham
བར་མཚམས་
Bidung
སྦིས་གདུང་
Kanglung
བཀང་ལུང་
Kangpar
རྐང་པར་
Khaling
ཁ་གླིང་
Lumang
ཀླུ་མང་
Merag
མེ་རག་
Phongmed
ཕོངས་མེད་
Radi
ར་དི་
Sagteng
སག་སྟེང་
Samkhar
བསམ་མཁར་
Shongphoog
ཤོང་ཕུག་
Thrimshing
ཁྲིམས་ཤིང་
Uzorong
ཨུ་མཛོ་རོང་
Yangnyer
ཡངས་ཉེར་
Trashi Yangtse[27]
Bumdeling
བུམ་སྡེ་གླིང་
Jamkhar
འཇམ་མཁར་
Khamdang
ཁམས་དྭངས་
Ramjar
རམ་སྦྱར་
Toetsho
སྟོད་མཚོ་
Tomzhang
སྟོང་མི་གཞང་ས་
Yalang
ཡ་ལང་
Yangtse
གཡང་རྩེ་
Trongsa[28]
Dragteng
བྲག་སྟེང་
Korphoog
སྐོར་ཕུག་
Langthil
གླང་མཐིལ་
Nubi
ནུ་སྦིས་
Tangsibji
སྟང་སི་སྦྱིས་
Tsirang[29]
Barshong
བར་གཤོང་
Dunglegang
དུང་ལ་སྒང་
Gosarling
སྒོ་གསར་གླིང་
Kikhorthang
དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་ཐང་
Mendrelgang
མནྜལ་སྒང་
Patshaling
པ་ཚ་གླིང་
Phuntenchu
སྤུང་རྟེན་ཆུ་
Rangthangling
རང་ཐང་གླིང་
Semjong
སེམས་ལྗོངས་
Sergithang
གསེར་གྱི་ཐང་
Tsholingkhar
མཚོ་གླིང་མཁར་
Tsirangtoe
རྩི་རང་སྟོད་
Wangdue Phodrang[30]
Athang
ཨ་ཐང་
Bjendag
སྦྱེད་ནག་
Darkar
དར་དཀར་
Dangchu
དྭངས་ཆུ་
Gangteng
སྒང་སྟེང་
Gasetsho Gom
དགའ་སེང་ཚོ་གོངམ་
Gasetsho Wom
དགའ་སེང་ཆོ་འོགམ་
Kazhi
ཀ་གཞི་
Nahi
ན་ཧི་
Nyisho
ཉི་ཤོག་
Phangyul
ཕངས་ཡུལ་
Phobji
ཕོབ་སྦྱིས་
Ruepisa
རུས་སྦིས་ས་
Sephu
སྲས་ཕུག་
Thedtsho
ཐེད་ཚོ་
Zhemgang[31]
Bardo
བར་རྡོ་
Bjoka
འབྱོག་ཀ་
Goshing
སྒོ་ཤིང་
Nangkor
ནང་སྐོར་
Ngangla
ངང་ལ་
Phangkhar
ཕང་མཁར་
Shingkhar
ཤིང་མཁར་
Trong
ཀྲོང་

See also

References

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  2. 1 2 3 "Geog Yargay Tshogchhung Chathrim 2002" (PDF). Government of Bhutan. 2002-07-22. Retrieved 2011-01-20.
  3. 1 2 "Local Government Act of Bhutan 2007" (PDF). Government of Bhutan. 2007-07-31. Retrieved 2011-01-20.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "Local Government Act of Bhutan 2009" (PDF). Government of Bhutan. 2009-09-11. Retrieved 2011-01-20.
  5. Wangchuk, Jigme (2011-07-01). "11 Gewogs Could Be Bifurcated". Retrieved 2011-07-13.
  6. "Delimitation". Election Commission, Government of Bhutan. 2011. Retrieved 2011-07-31.
  7. "Assignment of Functional and Financial Responsibilities to Local Governments" (PDF). Government of Bhutan, Gross National Happiness Commission. 2007. Retrieved 2011-01-24.
  8. 1 2 "[Ninth Five Year Plan] Part Three: Dzongkhag and Geog Health Sector" (PDF). Government of Bhutan, Ministry of Health. 2002. Retrieved 2011-01-22.
  9. 1 2 "The Kingdom of Bhutan – Administrative Units". Geo Hive. Retrieved 2011-01-22.
  10. "Sarpang Dzongkhag Administration online – "Handing-Taking"". 2008-03-19. Archived from the original on 2008-03-19. Retrieved 2011-01-23.
  11. "Sarpang Dzongkhag Ninth Plan (2002-2007)" (PDF).
  12. "Chiwogs in Bumthang" (PDF). Election Commission, Government of Bhutan. 2011. Retrieved 2011-07-28.
  13. "Chiwogs in Chukha" (PDF). Election Commission, Government of Bhutan. 2011. Retrieved 2011-07-28.
  14. "Chiwogs in Dagana" (PDF). Election Commission, Government of Bhutan. 2011. Retrieved 2011-07-28.
  15. "Chiwogs in Gasa" (PDF). Election Commission, Government of Bhutan. 2011. Retrieved 2011-07-28.
  16. "Chiwogs in Haa" (PDF). Election Commission, Government of Bhutan. 2011. Retrieved 2011-07-28.
  17. "Chiwogs in Lhuentse" (PDF). Election Commission, Government of Bhutan. 2011. Retrieved 2011-07-28.
  18. "Chiwogs in Monggar" (PDF). Election Commission, Government of Bhutan. 2011. Retrieved 2011-07-28.
  19. "Chiwogs in Paro" (PDF). Election Commission, Government of Bhutan. 2011. Retrieved 2011-07-28.
  20. "Chiwogs in Pema Gatshel" (PDF). Election Commission, Government of Bhutan. 2011. Retrieved 2011-07-28.
  21. "Chiwogs in Punakha" (PDF). Election Commission, Government of Bhutan. 2011. Retrieved 2011-07-28.
  22. "Chiwogs in Samdrup Jongkhar" (PDF). Election Commission, Government of Bhutan. 2011. Retrieved 2011-07-28.
  23. "Chiwogs in Samtse" (PDF). Election Commission, Government of Bhutan. 2011. Retrieved 2011-07-28.
  24. "Chiwogs in Sarpang" (PDF). Election Commission, Government of Bhutan. 2011. Retrieved 2011-07-28.
  25. "Chiwogs in Thimphu" (PDF). Election Commission, Government of Bhutan. 2011. Retrieved 2011-07-28.
  26. "Chiwogs in Trashigang" (PDF). Election Commission, Government of Bhutan. 2011. Retrieved 2011-07-28.
  27. "Chiwogs in Trashiyangtse" (PDF). Election Commission, Government of Bhutan. 2011. Retrieved 2011-07-28.
  28. "Chiwogs in Trongsa" (PDF). Election Commission, Government of Bhutan. 2011. Retrieved 2011-07-28.
  29. "Chiwogs in Tsirang" (PDF). Election Commission, Government of Bhutan. 2011. Retrieved 2011-07-28.
  30. "Chiwogs in Wangdue Phodrang" (PDF). Election Commission, Government of Bhutan. 2011. Retrieved 2011-07-28.
  31. "Chiwogs in Zhemgang" (PDF). Election Commission, Government of Bhutan. 2011. Retrieved 2011-07-28.

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