Kurtoed Province

Kurtoed Province (Dzongkha: ཀུར་སྟོད་; Wylie: kur-stod; "Upper Kur") was one of the nine historical Provinces of Bhutan.

Kurtoed Province occupied lands in northeastern Bhutan. It was administered together with Kurmaed Province. Although it had its own de jure governor, actual power was wielded through the 19th century by the Penlop of Trongsa, who effectively ruled eastern Bhutan.

Under Bhutan's early theocratic dual system of government, decreasingly effective central government control resulted in the de facto disintegration of the office of Shabdrung after the death of Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal in 1651. Under this system, the Shabdrung reigned over the temporal Druk Desi and religious Je Khenpo. Two successor Shabdrungs – the son (1651) and stepbrother (1680) of Ngawang Namgyal – were effectively controlled by the Druk Desi and Je Khenpo until power was further splintered through the innovation of multiple Shabdrung incarnations, reflecting speech, mind, and body. Increasingly secular regional lords (penlops and dzongpons) competed for power amid a backdrop of civil war over the Shabdrung and invasions from Tibet, and the Mongol Empire. The penlops of Trongsa and Paro, and the dzongpons of Punakha, Thimphu, and Wangdue Phodrang were particularly notable figures in the competition for regional dominance. During this period, there were a total of nine provinces and eight penlops vying for power.

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