Prior studies have proposed tectonic and climatic mechanisms to explain surface uplift throughout the Bhutan Himalaya. While the resulting enigmatic, low-relief landscapes, elevated above deeply incised canyons, are a popular setting to test ideas of interacting tectonic and climatic forces, when and why these landscapes formed is still debated. We test the idea that these landscapes were creat...

The Kingdom of Bhutan is seeking to progressively realize the human right to health without addressing the cross-cutting human rights principles essential to a rights-based approach to health. Through a landscape analysis of the Bhutanese health system, documentary review of Bhutanese reporting to the United Nations human rights system, and semi-structured interviews with health policymakers in...

Suicide and mental disorders are a growing public health issue in Bhutan, due in part to a rapidly transitioning society. The burden of suicide has been recognized by the Royal Government of Bhutan and, as a result, it introduced the country's first ever national suicide-prevention plan in 2015. The 3-year action plan takes a holistic approach to making suicide-prevention services a top social ...

BACKGROUND The cicadas of the Indian subcontinent, like many other insects in the region, have remained understudied since the early part of the 20th Century, and await modern taxonomic, systematic and phylogenetic treatment. This paper presents an updated systematic catalogue of cicadas (Hemiptera: Cicadidae) from India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal and Sri Lanka, the first in over a cen...

1. Recent progress in poverty reduction. Bhutan has achieved remarkable socioeconomic progress and poverty reduction on the back of robust economic growth and the government’s efforts to improve the living standards of the country’s people. Poverty incidence declined from 31.7% in 2003 to 23.2% in 2007 and 12.0% in 2012 (Table 1). The reduction was particularly significant during 2007–2012, whe...

The objective of this paper is to describe how Bhutanese society has become monetised over the years, at first very slowly, but rapidly during the last half century. I will briefly comment on the effect that monetisation has had on Bhutanese Society, and the potential conflict that exists between traditional values in Bhutan, which are largely non-monetary based, and so-called “modern” values, ...

Scrub typhus is an acute, febrile illness, caused by the bacterium Orientia tsutsugamushi, that affects millions annually in the endemic Asia-Pacific region. In untreated cases, the case-fatality rates range from 6% to 35%. In Bhutan, there was a probable outbreak in Gedu in 2009, which resulted in heightened awareness of the disease. Nevertheless, information on scrub typhus in Bhutan is limit...

We report a molecular epidemiological study of rabies virus (RABV) strains circulating in animal populations in Bhutan, and investigate potential origins of these viruses. Twenty-three RABV isolates originating from dogs and other domestic animals were characterized by sequencing the partial nucleoprotein (N) gene (395 bp). Phylogenetic analysis was conducted and the Bhutanese isolates were com...