Gewogs of Bhutan
A gewog, in the past also spelled as geog, is 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 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, zepa is head of geog 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 (including architecture), 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
Image:Bhutan gewog location map.svg|thumb|right|350px|Gewogs of Bhutan ahead of [2011 Bhutanese local government elections|local government elections, 2011]Beginning in the late 1980s, the King of Bhutan, Jigme Singye Wangchuck pursued a long-term 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 (Zinchula) – 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 alphabetical order:| Dzongkhag | Gewog |
| Bumthang [Image:Bumthang Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Chhoekhor (1) ཆོས་འཁོར་ |
| Bumthang [Image:Bumthang Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Chhume (2) ཆུ་མིག་ |
| Bumthang [Image:Bumthang Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Tang (3) སྟང་ |
| Bumthang [Image:Bumthang Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Ura (4) ཨུ་ར་ |
| Chhukha [Image:Chukha Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Bjachho བྱག་ཕྱོགས་ |
| Chhukha [Image:Chukha Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Bongo སྦོང་སྒོར་ |
| Chhukha [Image:Chukha Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Chapcha སྐྱབས་ཆ་ |
| Chhukha [Image:Chukha Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Darla དར་ལ་ |
| Chhukha [Image:Chukha Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Dungna གདུང་ན་ |
| Chhukha [Image:Chukha Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Geling དགེ་གླིང་ |
| Chhukha [Image:Chukha Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Getana གད་སྟག་ན་ |
| Chhukha [Image:Chukha Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Lokchina ལོག་ཅི་ན་ |
| Chhukha [Image:Chukha Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Metakha སྨད་བཏབ་ཁ་ |
| Chhukha [Image:Chukha Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Phuentsholing ཕུན་ཚོགས་གླིང་ |
| Chhukha [Image:Chukha Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Sampheling བསམ་འཕེལ་གླིང་ |
| Dagana [Image:Dagana Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Dorona རྡོ་རོ་ན་ |
| Dagana [Image:Dagana Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Drujegang འབྲུག་རྗེས་སྒང་ |
| Dagana [Image:Dagana Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Gesarling གེ་སར་གླིང་ |
| Dagana [Image:Dagana Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Goshi སྒོ་བཞི་ |
| Dagana [Image:Dagana Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Kana བཀར་ན་ |
| Dagana [Image:Dagana Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Karmaling ཀརྨ་གླིང་ |
| Dagana [Image:Dagana Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Khebisa ཁེ་སྦིས་ས་ |
| Dagana [Image:Dagana Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Lajab ལ་རྒྱབ་ |
| Dagana [Image:Dagana Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Lhamoi Zingkha ལྷ་མོའི་རྫིང་ཁ་ |
| Dagana [Image:Dagana Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Nichula ནི་ཅུ་ལ་ |
| Dagana [Image:Dagana Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Trashiding བཀྲིས་ལྡིང་ |
| Dagana [Image:Dagana Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Tsangkha གཙང་ཁ་ |
| Dagana [Image:Dagana Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Tsendagang བཙན་མདའ་སྒང་ |
| Dagana [Image:Dagana Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Tseza བརྩེ་ཟ་ |
| Gasa [Image:Gasa Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Khamaed ཁ་སྨད་ |
| Gasa [Image:Gasa Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Khatoe ཁ་སྟོད་ |
| Gasa [Image:Gasa Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Laya ལ་ཡ་ |
| Gasa [Image:Gasa Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Lunana ལུང་ནག་ན་ |
| Haa [Image:Haa Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Bji སྦྱིས་ |
| Haa [Image:Haa Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Gakiling དགའ་སྐྱིད་གླིང་ |
| Haa [Image:Haa Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Katsho སྐར་ཚོགས་ |
| Haa [Image:Haa Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Samar ས་དམར་ |
| Haa [Image:Haa Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Sangbay གསང་སྦས་ |
| Haa [Image:Haa Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Uesu དབུས་སུ་ |
| Lhuentse [Image:Lhuntse Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Gangzur སྒང་ཟུར་ |
| Lhuentse [Image:Lhuntse Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Khoma མཁོ་མ་ |
| Lhuentse [Image:Lhuntse Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Jarey རྒྱ་རས་ |
| Lhuentse [Image:Lhuntse Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Kurtoed ཀུར་སྟོད་ |
| Lhuentse [Image:Lhuntse Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Menbi སྨན་སྦིས་ |
| Lhuentse [Image:Lhuntse Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Metsho སྨད་མཚོ་ |
| Lhuentse [Image:Lhuntse Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Minjay སྨིན་རྒྱས་ |
| Lhuentse [Image:Lhuntse Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Tsenkhar སཙན་མཁར་ |
| Mongar [Image:Mongar Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Balam བ་ལམ་ |
| Mongar [Image:Mongar Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Chali ཅ་གླིང་ |
| Mongar [Image:Mongar Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Chaskhar ལྕགས་ས་མཁར་ |
| Mongar [Image:Mongar Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Drametse དགྲ་མེད་རྩེ་ |
| Mongar [Image:Mongar Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Drepong འབྲེས་སྤུངས་ |
| Mongar [Image:Mongar Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Gongdue དགོངས་འདུས་ |
| Mongar [Image:Mongar Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Jurmey འགྱུར་མེད་ |
| Mongar [Image:Mongar Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Kengkhar སྐྱེངས་མཁར་ |
| Mongar [Image:Mongar Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Mongar མོང་སྒར་ |
| Mongar [Image:Mongar Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Narang ན་རང་ |
| Mongar [Image:Mongar Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Ngatshang སྔ་ཚང་ |
| Mongar [Image:Mongar Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Saling ས་གླིང་ |
| Mongar [Image:Mongar Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Shermuhoong ཤེར་མུ་ཧཱུྃ་ |
| Mongar [Image:Mongar Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Silambi སི་ལམ་སྦི་ |
| Mongar [Image:Mongar Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Thangrong ཐང་རོང་ |
| Mongar [Image:Mongar Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Tsakaling ཙ་ཀ་གླིང་ |
| Mongar [Image:Mongar Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Tsamang རྩ་མང་ |
| Paro [Image:Paro Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Dokar རྡོ་དཀར་ |
| Paro [Image:Paro Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Dopshari རྡོབ་ཤར་རི་ |
| Paro [Image:Paro Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Doteng རྡོ་སྟེང་ |
| Paro [Image:Paro Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Hungrel ཧཱུྃ་རལ་ |
| Paro [Image:Paro Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Lamgong ལམ་གོང་ |
| Paro [Image:Paro Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Lungnyi ལུང་གཉིས་ |
| Paro [Image:Paro Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Naja ན་རྒྱ་ |
| Paro [Image:Paro Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Shapa ཤར་པ་ |
| Paro [Image:Paro Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Tsento བཙན་ཏོ་ |
| Paro [Image:Paro Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Wangchang ཝང་ལྕང་ |
| Pema Gatshel [Image:Pemagatshel Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Chimoong ཕྱི་མུང་ |
| Pema Gatshel [Image:Pemagatshel Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Chokhorling ཆོས་འཁོར་གླིང་ |
| Pema Gatshel [Image:Pemagatshel Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Chongshing ལྕོང་ཤིང་ |
| Pema Gatshel [Image:Pemagatshel Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Dechheling བདེ་ཆེན་གླིང་ |
| Pema Gatshel [Image:Pemagatshel Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Dungmaed གདུང་སྨད་ |
| Pema Gatshel [Image:Pemagatshel Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Khar མཁར་ |
| Pema Gatshel [Image:Pemagatshel Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Nanong ན་ནོང་ |
| Pema Gatshel [Image:Pemagatshel Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Norbugang ནོར་བུ་སྒང་ |
| Pema Gatshel [Image:Pemagatshel Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Shumar ཤུ་མར་ |
| Pema Gatshel [Image:Pemagatshel Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Yurung ཡུ་རུང་ |
| Pema Gatshel [Image:Pemagatshel Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Zobel བཟོ་སྦལ་ |
| Punakha [Image:Punakha Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Barp བརཔ་ |
| Punakha [Image:Punakha Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Chhubug ཆུ་སྦུག་ |
| Punakha [Image:Punakha Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Dzomi འཅོམས་མི་ |
| Punakha [Image:Punakha Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Goenshari དགོམ་ཤ་རི་ |
| Punakha [Image:Punakha Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Guma གུ་མ་ |
| Punakha [Image:Punakha Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Kabisa དཀར་སྦི་ས་ |
| Punakha [Image:Punakha Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Lingmukha གླིང་མུ་ཁ་ |
| Punakha [Image:Punakha Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Shenga Bjemi ཤེལ་རྔ་_སྦྱེ་མི་ |
| Punakha [Image:Punakha Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Talog རྟ་ལོག་ |
| Punakha [Image:Punakha Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Toepisa སཏོད་པའི་ས་ |
| Punakha [Image:Punakha Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Toewang སྟོད་ཝང་ |
| Samdrup Jongkhar [Image:Samdrup Jongkhar Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Dewathang དབེ་བ་ཐང་ |
| Samdrup Jongkhar [Image:Samdrup Jongkhar Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Gomdar སྒམ་དར་ |
| Samdrup Jongkhar [Image:Samdrup Jongkhar Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Langchenphu གླང་ཅན་ཕུ་ |
| Samdrup Jongkhar [Image:Samdrup Jongkhar Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Lauri ལའུ་རི་ |
| Samdrup Jongkhar [Image:Samdrup Jongkhar Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Martshala མར་ཚྭ་ལ་ |
| Samdrup Jongkhar [Image:Samdrup Jongkhar Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Orong ཨོ་རོང་ |
| Samdrup Jongkhar [Image:Samdrup Jongkhar Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Pemathang པདྨ་ཐང་ |
| Samdrup Jongkhar [Image:Samdrup Jongkhar Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Phuntshothang ཕུན་ཚོགས་ཐང་ |
| Samdrup Jongkhar [Image:Samdrup Jongkhar Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Samrang བསམ་རང་ |
| Samdrup Jongkhar [Image:Samdrup Jongkhar Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Serthi གསེར་ཐིག་ |
| Samdrup Jongkhar [Image:Samdrup Jongkhar Bhutan location map.png|frameless|center|200px] | Wangphu ཝང་ཕུག་ |