Constitutional democracy emerged in Bhutan, the last surviving independent Buddhist state located in the eastern Himalaya, in an unusual way. It arrived neither as the result of colonialism, as in Malaysia, nor from popular democratic movements, as in Nepal in the early 1990s. Rather, limited monarchy was introduced by royal command (kasho). The monarchy circumscribed its own power, without any overt pressure to do so.Buddhism and governance were intertwined in the Bhutanese system of government created in the early seventeenth century by Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal, 1 the Tibetan religious leader who unified the country and conceived it as a "religious" estate. This intertwining of religion and government ended on July 18, 2008, when the first written Constitution of Bhutan was enacted, seven years after the royal command to prepare its drafting. The new Constitution declared Buddhism "the spiritual heritage" of Bhutan, whilst removing representatives of the Central Monk Body from the National Assembly. This separation of religion and politics was underscored by the Electoral Commission's ban on public religious events in the six months leading up to elections (Election Commission of Bhutan 2012).Buddhism and Bhutanese social and cultural life are difficult to separate. Elizabeth Allison has observed the role of Tibetan, or Vajraya ¯na Buddhism, in shaping the "attitudes, practices and beliefs" of the eastern Himalaya (2015). The above-mentioned definition of Buddhism as the spiritual heritage of the kingdom can be found in Article 3 of the Constitution. Yet, as Matthew Moore notes, "there is very little discussion in the [constitutional] document" about Buddhism (2016, 51). Although the Constitution does not declare Buddhism to be the "state 1 The title Zhabdrung (zhabs drung) means "at the feet of/ in the presence of" and is an honorific title. It is used, unless indicated otherwise, to refer to Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal (1594-1651).
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