Period      Description  ca. 500 B.C.      State of Monyul established  continues to A.D. 600.   ca. A.D. 630-640      Early Buddhist temples built.   747      Guru Rimpoche visits Bhutan  founds Nyingmapa sect several      years later.   ca. 810      Independent monarchies develop.   830s-840s      Tibetan Buddhist religion and culture firmly established.   eleventh century      Bhutan occupied by Tibetan-Mongol military forces.   1360s      Gelukpa sect monks flee to Bhutan from Tibet.   1616      Drukpa monk Ngawang Namgyal arrives from Tibet, seeking      freedom from Dalai Lama.   1629      First Westerners--Portuguese Jesuits--visit Bhutan.   1629-47      Successive Tibetan invasions of Bhutan end in withdrawal or      defeat.   1651      Ngawang Namgyal dies  theocratic Buddhist state rules unified      Bhutan (then called Drukyul) and joint civil-religious      administration established  summer capital established at      Thimphu, winter capital at Punakha. Drukpa subsect emerges as      dominant religious force.   1680s-1700      Bhutanese forces invade Sikkim.   1714      Tibetan-Mongolian invasion thwarted.   1728      Civil war accompanies struggle for succession struggle to      throne.   1730      Bhutan aids Raja of Cooch Behar against Indian Mughals.   1760s      Cooch Behar becomes de facto Bhutanese dependency  Assam Duars      come under Bhutanese control.   1770      Bhutan-Cooch Behar forces invade Sikkim.   1772      Cooch Behar seeks protection from British East India Company.   1772-73      British forces invade Bhutan.   1774      Bhutan signs peace treaty with British East India Company.   1787      Boundary disputes plague Bhutanese-Indian relations.   1826-28      Border tensions between Bhutan and British increase after      British seize Lower Assam, threaten Assam Duars.   1834-35      British invade Bhutan.   1841      British take control of Bhutanese portion of Assam Duars and      begin annual compensation payments to Bhutan.   1862      Bhutan raids Sikkim and Cooch Behar.   1864      Civil war waged in Bhutan  British seek peace relationship      with both sides.   1864-65      Duar War waged between Britain and Bhutan.   1865      Treaty of Sinchula signed  Bhutan Duars territories ceded to      Britain in return for annual subsidy.   1883-85      Period of civil war and rebellion leads to a united Bhutan      under Ugyen Wangchuck.   1904      Ugyen Wangchuck helps secure Anglo-Tibetan Convention on      behalf of Britain.   1907      Theocracy ends  hereditary monarchy, with Ugyend35
 en Wangchuck as      Druk Gyalpo (Dragon King), established.   1910      China invades Tibet, laying claim to Bhutan, Nepal, and      Sikkim  Treaty of Punakha signed with Britain, stipulating      annual increase of stipend and Bhutan's control of own      internal affairs.   1926      Ugyen Wangchuck dies and is succeeded by Jigme Wangchuck.   1947      British rule of India and British association with Bhutan end.   1949      Treaty of Friendship signed with India, essentially continuing      1910 agreement with British.   1952      Third Druk Gyalpo, Jigme Dorji Wangchuck, enthroned.   1953      National Assembly established as part of government reform.   1961      First five-year plan introduced.   1962      Indian troops retreat through Bhutan during Sino-Indian border      war.   1964      Jigme Palden Dorji assassinated  factional politics emerge.   1965      Assassination attempt on Jigme Dorji Wangchuck.   1966      Thimphu made year-round capital.   1968      Druk Gyalpo decrees that sovereign power resides in himself      and National Assembly.   1971      Bhutan admitted to United Nations.   1972      Fourth Druk Gyalpo, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, succeeds upon      father's death.   1974      New monetary system established separate from India's.   1986      One thousand illegal foreign laborers-- mostly Nepalese--      expelled.   1989      Unrest among Nepalese minority brings government efforts to      ameliorate differences between ethnic communities as well as      additional government restrictions.   1990      Antigovernment terrorist activities initiated  ethnic Nepalese      protesters in southern Bhutan clash with Royal Bhutan Army       violence and crime increase  citizen militias formed in      progovernment communities.   1991      Jigme Singye Wangchuck threatens to abdicate in face of hard-      line opposition in National Assembly to his efforts to resolve      ethnic unrest  cancels participation in annual three-day South      Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) conference      because of unrest at home  attends abbreviated one-day SAARC      session in Colombo, Sri Lanka. 

Data as of September 1991