Change in the land use system in Bhutan Ecology history culture and power..pdf

CHANGE IN THE LAND USE SYSTEM IN BHUTAN:
ECOLOGY, HISTORY, CULTURE, AND POWER
Tashi Wangchuk
*
Abstract
In this two part analysis I attempt to answer questions with
reference to historical land use and tenurial systems in
Bhutan. The first part throws light on the popularly held view
that land tenure in Bhutan was feudal prior to the advent of
moderisation. By looking at the lived experiences of peasants
in Bhutan, as human agents at the nexus of social, political,
economic, and ecological forces, a nuanced and complex
picture of land use systems in Bhutan emerges. I argue that
in contradistinction to a feudal tenancy mode, historically
land has been held in private for the most part although other
arrangements existed alongside private property ownership.
Monastic estates, and estates belonging to the handful of
nobility were worked by tenured serfs and slaves.
In part II, I have tried to build an analytical framework for an
alternative explanation to feudalism in Bhutan. Rather than
relying on the 'Tibetan model' and the 'empty land model'
which are closely linked, I instead build a layer model for the
explanation of land use systems in Bhutan.
Acknowledgement and Disclaimation
Professor William Burch of the School of Forestry and
Environmental Studies, Yale University, provided inspiration,
advise, support, and guidance. Certain names of people and
places have been changed for reasons of privacy. The views
expressed here are solely those of the writer.
*
Tashi Wangchuk is a civil servant with the Nature Conservation Section,
Department of Forestry Services, Ministry of Agriculture

Introduction
There is much confusion today as to the land use system in
Bhutan prior to 1960. When one looks at the lived
experiences of the day to day lives of the peasantry, questions
as to what exactly was happening arise. Was Bhutan a feudal
society prior to the advent of modernisation? Or was the land
tenurial and distribution system more akin to tribal
organisation? How did the current land use systems in
Bhutan come into being? What were the forces of change
affecting land tenure? What role did the farmers play in the
land and ecosystem management decisions historically?
I will attempt to answer these questions by an analysis of the
social and ecological history of Bhutan. For analytical
purposes, the study is divided into two parts. The first part
will look at currently practised systems, which will be
compared to the period prior to the advent of modernisation
in 1960. This will constitute a comparative analysis both in
space and time. Feudalism as practised in Europe will be
looked at and compared to the land use systems in Bhutan
prior to 1960, which is generally dubbed as "feudal" Bhutan.
The second part of the analysis is more of a research proposal
to generate some clues to the questions that arise in the first
part and more speculative in nature. It is an attempt to look
back deeper in history and find the "origins" of not only the
diverse peoples of current day Bhutan but also to the land
use systems that they practised prior to state formation in the
1600's. The nation state of Bhutan came into existence only
in the mid 1600's prior to which the region consisted of "one
valley kingdoms" ruled by hereditary kings, chiefs, or lamas
(Aris, 1979). The second part then is a more general look at
Bhutanese origions. It is assumed that by looking at the