Bhutanese passport

A Bhutanese passport is a document which authorizes and facilitates travel and other activities in Bhutan or by Bhutanese citizens. Foreign travel passports are issued to citizens of Bhutan for international travel by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It is valid for all countries unless otherwise endorsed.

History

In the Kingdom of Bumthang, which constitutes a part of modern-day Bhutan, feudal passbooks or dzeng were issued to court messengers in order to travel from kingdom to kingdom. Diplomacy and mediating were crucially important measures in pre-modern Bhutan chiefdoms.
Foreign travel passports are issued to citizens of Bhutan for international travel. New Bhutanese passports are issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In 1988, Bhutanese passport holders abroad were ordered to surrender their passports upon their return to Bhutan.
The current version of the Bhutanese passports were first issued around 2006.

Languages

The passport contains text in English and Dzongkha.

Visa requirements

As of 2024, Bhutanese citizens have visa-free or visa on arrival access to 52 countries and territories, ranking the Bhutanese passport 92nd in the world according to the Henley Passport Index, together with Chad and Comoros.

In popular culture

In 2013, a Wikipedia user claiming to be Bhutanese and a native speaker of Dzongkha added a spoken article audio file to the Bhutanese passport article on the English Wikipedia. It was considered humorous by internet commentators, spawning an internet meme. The audio file was deleted in 2015 following debate on the article's talk page.