Ngalop people
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| (708,500) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Western and Northern Bhutan (Thimphu, Gasa, Punakha, Wangdue Phodrang, Haa, Paro, Chukha) | |
| Languages | |
| Dzongkha | |
| Religion | |
| Buddhism · Bon | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Tibetan · Monpa · Sharchop · Other Sino-Tibetan-speaking peoples |
The Ngalop (Dzongkha: སྔལོངཔ་ Wylie: snga long pa; "earliest risen people" or "first converted people" according to folk etymology) are people of Tibetan origin who migrated to Bhutan as early as the ninth century. Orientalists adopted the term "Bhote" or Bhotiya, meaning "people of Bod (Tibet)", a term also applied to the Tibetan people, leading to confusion, and now is rarely used in reference to the Ngalop.
The Ngalop introduced Tibetan culture and Buddhism to Bhutan and comprise the dominant political and cultural element in modern Bhutan. Furthermore, cultural, ethnic, and linguistic identity in Bhutan are not always mutually exclusive. For these reasons, Ngalops are often simply identified as Bhutanese. Their language, Dzongkha, is the national language and is descended from Old Tibetan. The Ngalop are dominant in western and northern Bhutan, including Thimphu and the Dzongkha-speaking region. The term Ngalop may subsume several related linguistic and cultural groups, such as the Kheng people and speakers of Bumthang language.
The Ngalop are concentrated in the western and central valleys of Bhutan, whose total population in 2010 was about 708,500. Together the Ngalop, Sharchops and tribal groups constituted up to 72 percent of the population in the late 1980s according to official Bhutanese statistics. The 1981 census claimed Sharchops represented 30% of the population and Ngalops about 17%.The World Factbook, however, estimates the "Bhote" Ngalop and Sharchop populations together to total about 50 percent, or 354,200. Assuming Sharchops still outnumber Ngalops some three to two, the total Ngalop population is around 141,700.
Ngalops speak Dzongkha. As Ngalops are politically and culturally dominant in Bhutan, Dzongkha is the language of government and education throughout the kingdom. Other groups that identify as culturally Ngalop speak the Kheng and Bumthang languages. To a large extent, even the Sharchops of eastern Bhutan, who speak Tshangla, have adopted Ngalop culture and may identify as Ngalop.
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