The Raven Crown: The Origins of Buddhist Monarchy in Bhutan

In 1907 the small eastern Himalayan country of Bhutan formally established a hereditary monarchy under the Wangchuk dynasty, thus introducing one of the world's most recent experiments in kingship. The new order quickly replaced a divisive form of theocratic rule which had lasted since the state was first unified by a Tibetan lama in the seventeenth century. The first king of the new dynasty, Ugyen Wangchuk, was a charismatic figure who came to power against a turbulent background of incessant and complex fielding. He adopted as the main symbol of his authority a crown surmounted with the head of a raven, representing an aspect of Bhutan's protective deity Mahakala. The crown had first been devised for his father, Jigme Namgyal, the so-called Black Regent and arch-enemy of the British.