Gewogs of Bhutan


A gewog, in the past also spelled as geog, refers to a group of villages in Bhutan. The head of a gewog is called a gup. Gewogs form a geographic administrative unit below dzongkhag districts, and above Dzongkhag Thromde class B and Yenlag Thromde municipalities. Dzongkhag Thromde class A municipalities have their own independent local government body.
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. 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.

Gewog administration

Under the Local Government Act of 2009, each gewog is administered by a Gewog Tshogde, subordinate to the Dzongkhag Tshogdu. The Gewog Tshogde is composed of a Gup, Mangmi, 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 to vote no confidence in the local government. 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.
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, 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.

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. 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 also called the Geog Yargay Tshochung. Under the Geog Yargay Tshochung of 2002, gewog administration included the Gup, Mangmi, Tshogpa, and the non-voting Chupon 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.
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. 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.
Since the Act of 2009, Dzongkhag Thromde Tshogdes, Gyelyong Thromde Tshogdus, and chiwogs have been replaced by thromdes as tertiary administrative divisions. Depending on the population and development of each thromde, it either has an independent bureaucracy or is directly administered by the gewog or dzongkhag.

Gewog changes since 2000

In 2002, there were 199 gewogs in Bhutan's 20 dzongkhags; by 2005, there were 205.
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.
Since 2005, gewogs and dzongkhags have continued to evolve. On April 26, 2007, Lhamozingkha Dungkhag was formally transferred from Sarpang Dzongkhag to Dagana Dzongkhag, affecting the town of Lhamozingkha and three constituent gewogs – Lhamoy Zingkha, Deorali and Nichula – that formed the westernmost part of Sarpang and now form the southernmost part of Dagana.

The gewogs of Bhutan

The following is a list of 205 gewogs of Bhutan by dzongkhag in a chronological order:
DzongkhagGewog
Bumthang
Chhoekhor
ཆོས་འཁོར་
Bumthang
Chhume
ཆུ་མིག་
Bumthang
Tang
སྟང་
Bumthang
Ura
ཨུ་ར་
Chhukha
Bjachho
བྱག་ཕྱོགས་
Chhukha
Bongo
སྦོང་སྒོར་
Chhukha
Chapcha
སྐྱབས་ཆ་
Chhukha
Darla
དར་ལ་
Chhukha
Dungna
གདུང་ན་
Chhukha
Geling
དགེ་གླིང་
Chhukha
Getana
གད་སྟག་ན་
Chhukha
Lokchina
ལོག་ཅི་ན་
Chhukha
Metakha
སྨད་བཏབ་ཁ་
Chhukha
Phuentsholing
ཕུན་ཚོགས་གླིང་
Chhukha
Sampheling
བསམ་འཕེལ་གླིང་
Dagana
Dorona
རྡོ་རོ་ན་
Dagana
Drujegang
འབྲུག་རྗེས་སྒང་
Dagana
Gesarling
གེ་སར་གླིང་
Dagana
Goshi
སྒོ་བཞི་
Dagana
Kana
བཀར་ན་
Dagana
Karmaling
ཀརྨ་གླིང་
Dagana
Khebisa
ཁེ་སྦིས་ས་
Dagana
Lajab
ལ་རྒྱབ་
Dagana
Lhamoi Zingkha
ལྷ་མོའི་རྫིང་ཁ་
Dagana
Nichula
ནི་ཅུ་ལ་
Dagana
Trashiding
བཀྲིས་ལྡིང་
Dagana
Tsangkha
གཙང་ཁ་
Dagana
Tsendagang
བཙན་མདའ་སྒང་
Dagana
Tseza
བརྩེ་ཟ་
Gasa
Khamaed
ཁ་སྨད་
Gasa
Khatoe
ཁ་སྟོད་
Gasa
Laya
ལ་ཡ་
Gasa
Lunana
ལུང་ནག་ན་
Haa
Bji
སྦྱིས་
Haa
Gakiling
དགའ་སྐྱིད་གླིང་
Haa
Katsho
སྐར་ཚོགས་
Haa
Samar
ས་དམར་
Haa
Sangbay
གསང་སྦས་
Haa
Uesu
དབུས་སུ་
Lhuentse
Gangzur
སྒང་ཟུར་
Lhuentse
Khoma
མཁོ་མ་
Lhuentse
Jarey
རྒྱ་རས་
Lhuentse
Kurtoed
ཀུར་སྟོད་
Lhuentse
Menbi
སྨན་སྦིས་
Lhuentse
Metsho
སྨད་མཚོ་
Lhuentse
Minjay
སྨིན་རྒྱས་
Lhuentse
Tsenkhar
སཙན་མཁར་
Mongar
Balam
བ་ལམ་
Mongar
Chali
ཅ་གླིང་
Mongar
Chaskhar
ལྕགས་ས་མཁར་
Mongar
Drametse
དགྲ་མེད་རྩེ་
Mongar
Drepong
འབྲེས་སྤུངས་
Mongar
Gongdue
དགོངས་འདུས་
Mongar
Jurmey
འགྱུར་མེད་
Mongar
Kengkhar
སྐྱེངས་མཁར་
Mongar
Mongar
མོང་སྒར་
Mongar
Narang
ན་རང་
Mongar
Ngatshang
སྔ་ཚང་
Mongar
Saling
ས་གླིང་
Mongar
Shermuhoong
ཤེར་མུ་ཧཱུྃ་
Mongar
Silambi
སི་ལམ་སྦི་
Mongar
Thangrong
ཐང་རོང་
Mongar
Tsakaling
ཙ་ཀ་གླིང་
Mongar
Tsamang
རྩ་མང་
Paro
Dokar
རྡོ་དཀར་
Paro
Dopshari
རྡོབ་ཤར་རི་
Paro
Doteng
རྡོ་སྟེང་
Paro
Hungrel
ཧཱུྃ་རལ་
Paro
Lamgong
ལམ་གོང་
Paro
Lungnyi
ལུང་གཉིས་
Paro
Naja
ན་རྒྱ་
Paro
Shapa
ཤར་པ་
Paro
Tsento
བཙན་ཏོ་
Paro
Wangchang
ཝང་ལྕང་
Pema Gatshel
Chimoong
ཕྱི་མུང་
Pema Gatshel
Chokhorling
ཆོས་འཁོར་གླིང་
Pema Gatshel
Chongshing
ལྕོང་ཤིང་
Pema Gatshel
Dechheling
བདེ་ཆེན་གླིང་
Pema Gatshel
Dungmaed
གདུང་སྨད་
Pema Gatshel
Khar
མཁར་
Pema Gatshel
Nanong
ན་ནོང་
Pema Gatshel
Norbugang
ནོར་བུ་སྒང་
Pema Gatshel
Shumar
ཤུ་མར་
Pema Gatshel
Yurung
ཡུ་རུང་
Pema Gatshel
Zobel
བཟོ་སྦལ་
Punakha
Barp
བརཔ་
Punakha
Chhubug
ཆུ་སྦུག་
Punakha
Dzomi
འཅོམས་མི་
Punakha
Goenshari
དགོམ་ཤ་རི་
Punakha
Guma
གུ་མ་
Punakha
Kabisa
དཀར་སྦི་ས་
Punakha
Lingmukha
གླིང་མུ་ཁ་
Punakha
Shenga Bjemi
ཤེལ་རྔ་_སྦྱེ་མི་
Punakha
Talog
རྟ་ལོག་
Punakha
Toepisa
སཏོད་པའི་ས་
Punakha
Toewang
སྟོད་ཝང་
Samdrup Jongkhar
Dewathang
དབེ་བ་ཐང་
Samdrup Jongkhar
Gomdar
སྒམ་དར་
Samdrup Jongkhar
Langchenphu
གླང་ཅན་ཕུ་
Samdrup Jongkhar
Lauri
ལའུ་རི་
Samdrup Jongkhar
Martshala
མར་ཚྭ་ལ་
Samdrup Jongkhar
Orong
ཨོ་རོང་
Samdrup Jongkhar
Pemathang
པདྨ་ཐང་
Samdrup Jongkhar
Phuntshothang
ཕུན་ཚོགས་ཐང་
Samdrup Jongkhar
Samrang
བསམ་རང་
Samdrup Jongkhar
Serthi
གསེར་ཐིག་
Samdrup Jongkhar
Wangphu
ཝང་ཕུག་