Coronation Celebration Committee officials say the festivities would continue for 42 days, culminating on December 17. A group of royal astrologers decided the dates, and His Majesty travelled yesterday to Punakha to receive a “sacred dhar” (cloth) from a royal priest. A series of ceremonies are lined up at the Tashichhodzong Tendrel Thang ( Bhutanese National Assembly) and the Changlimthang ground.

King Jigme Singye Wangchuk, father of King-in-Waiting Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuk, announced in December 2005 his decision to step down in favour of his son. A decree announcing Bhutan would become a democracy followed, and the general election of March 2008 saw the installation of the country’s first democratically-elected government.

Despite apprehensions about the transition among many in Bhutan, King Jigme Singye has stuck to his position. A senior Bhutanese bureaucrat said: “The transition that the country is passing through is unprecedented and would help the Bhutanese people to graduate from a secretive, protected community to a global community. These steps indicate the Kingdom’s final farewell to self-imposed isolation.”

(Subrata Nagchoudhury will be covering the Coronation ceremony for The Indian Express from Bhutan)