Ngalop people
The Ngalop (Dzongkha: སྔ་ལོང་པ་ Wylie: snga long pa; "earliest risen people" or "first converted people" according to folk etymology) are people of Tibetan origin who migrated to Bhutan as early as the ninth century. Orientalists adopted the term "Bhote" or Bhotiya, meaning "people of Bod (Tibet)", a term also applied to the Tibetan people, leading to confusion, and now is rarely used in reference to the Ngalop.
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 708,500 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Western, Northern and parts of South-East and South Bhutan (Thimphu, Gasa, Punakha, Wangdue Phodrang, Haa, Paro, Chukha) | |
| Languages | |
| Dzongkha | |
| Religion | |
| Buddhism · Bon | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Tibetans · Layaps · Monpa · Sharchop · Other Sino-Tibetan-speaking peoples, Tibeto-Burman and Tai peoples of Assam |
The Ngalop introduced Tibetan culture and Buddhism to Bhutan and comprise the dominant political and cultural element in modern Bhutan. Furthermore, cultural, ethnic, and linguistic identity in Bhutan are not always mutually exclusive. For these reasons, Ngalops are often simply identified as Bhutanese. Their language, Dzongkha, is the national language and is descended from Old Tibetan. The Ngalop are dominant in western and northern Bhutan, including Thimphu and the Dzongkha-speaking region. The term Ngalop may subsume several related linguistic and cultural groups, such as the Kheng people and speakers of Bumthang language.