Bhutan Crowns a New King - Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck

All of the sudden, all the cars on the road swerved to the side with brakes locked.  The first time it happened, I had no idea what was going on and kept driving our tiny Maruti car up the road.  A truck roared up packed with military, frantically waving us off the road.  I parked just in time for a purple Toyota Landcruiser to roar by with more guards behind.  It was a member of the Bhutanese Royal Family.  In this mountain kingdom, Landcruisers are the royal car of choice and the royals have special license plates that read “Bhutan 1″ for the king and then the numbers grow higher as the rank in the royal family recedes.

In fact, the only time we ever saw the former king, Jigme Singye Wangchuk, was on the windy mountain pass between Thimphu and Punakha.  We were on a blind corner when suddenly the lead guard cars rounded the corner.  I slammed on the brakes and pulled to the side of the road on a tiny slice of shoulder next to a 150 foot cliff.  Making sure I didn’t pull off the road too far, the royal cars roared by and Andrea started shouting “It’s the king!  It’s the king!”  He passed us less than 6 feet away and I missed him. 

That was the fourth king and he recently stepped down to hand power over to his son Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuk in a coronation celebration in Thimphu, Bhutan.  It must have been an amazing event and we really wish we could have seen it.

Check out this great photo gallery of the event from the Boston Globe to see what we all missed.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/11/bhutan_crowns_a_new_king.html