Wedding portraits dangled from street lamps and schoolchildren offered their congratulations as the small Himalayan nation of Bhutan, latest country hit by royal wedding fever, celebrated the marriage of Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck ’98, King of Bhutan, to Jetsum Pema on October 13.
The wedding took place in the Pnakha Dzong, or “Palace of Bliss,” a Buddhist monastery in the Bhutan’s previous capital city of Punakha, the current capital being Thimphu, Bhutan, according to the Agence France Presse. The ceremony itself was a combination of a traditional Buddhist marriage and a coronation for Queen Jetsum Pema, originally a commoner.
According to Kuensel Online, a daily Bhutanese online news site, Bhutan declared October 13 to 15 a national holiday in celebration of the wedding. The new couple will also appear at a public celebration at Changlimithang Stadium in Thimpu on October 16, wrote the Agence France Presse.
Wangchuck is the eldest son of the fourth and previous “Druk Gyalpo” or Dragon King of Bhutan, Singye Wangchuck. Jigme Wangchuck’s father abdicated the crown to him in December 2006, and he was coronated on November 6, 2008, according to an article in the Boston Globe.
Wangchuck studied at Andover with the class of 1998 and then transferred to Cushing Academy. He graduated in 2000. He also graduated from Oxford University with a degree in International Relations and completed a Foreign Service Programme, said RAO Online News for Bhutan.
While at Andover, Peter Merrill, Instructor in Russian and House Counselor in Fuess Dormitory, served as Wangchuck’s house counselor. Wangchuck lived in a single in Fuess as a new Upper.
“He was very low-key, very unpretentious and happy to talk to people, a very nice kid overall,” said Merrill.
When Wangchuck arrived on campus, a security detail and motorcade accompanied him to campus. One memorable instance, Merril said, was when Wangchuck left from the back door of Fuess to go to the gym, and his security system thought they had lost him.
According to the Business Bhutan website, Queen Jetsum Pema graduated from the Lawrence School in Sanawar, India and the Regents College in London with a major in International Relations and minors in Psychology and Art History.
Wangchuck stressed the significance of his country completing the process of becoming a constitutional monarchy, and he oversaw the deliberation of new laws concerning electoral laws and land reform, said BBC Online News. The Constitution of the Kingdom of Bhutan thus was adopted in July 18, 2008 by the first elected parliament, said Kuensel Online.
He also said at the opening of the seventh session Bhutan’s parliament in 2008 that “While [his wife] is young, she is warm and kind in heart and character. These qualities together with the wisdom that will come with age and experience will make her a great servant to the nation.”
According to the Business Bhutan website, Queen Jetsun Pema graduated from the Lawrence School in Sanawar, India and the Regents College in London with a major in International Relations and minors in Psychology and Art History.
“Even though in terms of governance we are now a democracy, there is no elected individual who will enjoy the kind of respect, trust, confidence and reverence our kings enjoy,” Bhutan’s first democratically elected Prime Minister, Jigmi Y Thinley, told Reuters, a business and financial news website, in an interview.
