Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 3, Athens-BOI

631
B H U-
badci territory, on the S.W. by the possessions of HolkAr
and SindhiA, and on the N.W. by Sindhik’s districts and
Omatw&rl Length of the state from E. to W., 157
miles; breadth from N. to S., 76 miles; estimated area,
6764 square miles. The surface of the country is uneven,
being traversed by the Yindhya ranges, a peak of which
near Raysen is upwards of 2500 feet above sea-level.
The general inclination of the country is towards the
noi-th, in which direction most of the streams of the
state flow, while others, passing through the Vindhyan
ranges, flow to the Narbada. The population of the state
is estimated at 663,656, comprising Hindus, Mahomet¬
ans, and the Gonds, an aboriginal tribe. Principal crops :
wheat, Indian corn, oil-seeds, pulses, opium. Chief routes :
(1), from Sagar through the town of BhopM to the British
cantonment of Mhow; (2), from Bhilsa to Hoshanghb&d
and thence to Mhow ; (3), from Hoshang&b&d to Mmach ;
(4), from Jabalpur through Hoshangabad to Mhow. Prin¬
cipal towns : Bhop&l the capital, Islamnagar, Ashtd, Sihor,
and Raisen. In 1871-72 the annual income of the state
was estimated at £240,000. Bhopal state was founded in
1723 by Dost Muhammad Khdn, an Afghan adventurer.
In 1818 a treaty of dependence was concluded between
the chief and the British Government. Since then BhopM
has been steadily loyal to the British Government, and
during the mutiny it rendered good services. The present
ruler is a lady, and both she and her mother, who preceded
her as head of the state, have displayed the highest ca¬
pacity for administration. Both have been appointed
Knights of the Star of India, and their territory is the
best governed native state in India.
BHUTAN, an independent kingdom in the Eastern
Himalayas, between 26° and 28° N. lat., and 89° and 93°
E. long. It is bounded on the N. by Thibet; on the
E. by a tract inhabited by various uncivilized independ¬
ent mountain tribes; on the S. by the British province
of Assam, and the district of Jalpkigurf; and on the W.
by the independent native state of Sikim. The whole of
Bhutan presents a succession of lofty and rugged moun¬
tains abounding in picturesque and sublime scenery. “ The
prospect,” says Captain Turner, “ between abrupt and
lofty prominences is inconceivably grand ; hills clothed
to their very summits with trees, dark and deep glens,
and the high tops of mountains lost in the clouds, con¬
stitute altogether a scene of extraordinary magnificence
and sublimity.” As might be expected from its physical
structure, this alpine region sends out numerous rivers in
a southerly direction, which, forcing their passage
through narrow defiles, and precipitated in cataracts over
the precipices, eventually pour themselves into the Brah¬
maputra. One torrent is mentioned by Turner as falling
over so great a height that it is nearly dissipated in mid-air,
and looks from below like a jet of steam from boiling water.
Of the rivers traversing Bhutan, the most considerable is
the Mands, flowing in its progress to the Brahmaputra
under the walls of T&sg&on, below which it is unfordable.
At the foot of T&sg&on Hill it is crossed by a suspension
bridge. The other principal rivers are the Mfichu, Tchin-
chu, Torshft, M&nchi, and Dharla.
Previous to the British annexation of the Dw&rs from
Bhutan, the area of the kingdom was reckoned at 20,000
sq. miles. The population of the country now remaining to
BhuUn was estimated in 1864 at 20,000 souls. Later
information, however, points to a larger figure. The
people are industrious, and devote themselves to agricul¬
ture, but from the geological structure of the country, and
from the insecurity of property, regular husbandry is
limited to comparatively few spots. The people are
oppressed and poor. “ Nothing that a BhutH possesses is
his own,” wrote the British envoy in 1864 ; “ he is at all
-B H U
times liable to lose it if it attracts the cupidity of any one
more powerful than himself. The lower classes, whether
villagers or public servants, are little better than the
slaves of higher officials. In regard to them no rights of
property are observed, and they have at once to surrender
anything that is demanded of them. There never was, I
fancy, a country in which the doctrine of ‘ might is right ’
formed more completely the whole and sole law and cus¬
tom of the land than it does in Bhut&n. No official
receives a salary; he has certain districts made over to
him, and he may get what he can out of them ; a certain
portion of his gains he is compelled to send to the Darbdr;
and the more he extorts and the more he sends to his
superior, the longer his tenure of office is likely to be.”
Captain Pemberton thus describes their moral condition—
“ I sometimes saw a few persons in whom the demoralizing
influences of such a state of society had yet left a trace of
the image in which they were originally created, and where
the feelings of nature still exercised their accustomed in¬
fluence, but the exceptions were rare, and although I have
travelled and resided amongst various savage tribes on our
frontiers, I have never yet known a people so wholly degraded
as the Bhuti&s.” Physically the Bhuti&s are a fine race,
although dirty in their habits and persons. Their food
consists of meat, chiefly pork, turnips, rice, barley-meal,
and tea made from the brick-tea of China. Their favourite
drink is chong, distilled from rice or barley and millet, and
Marwd, beer made from fermented millet. A loose
woollen coat reaching to the knees, and bound round the
waist by a thick fold of cotton cloth, forms the dress of
the men; the women’s dress is a long cloak with loose
sleeves. The houses of the Bhutids are of three and four
stories ; all the floors are neatly boarded with deal; and on
two sides of the house is a verandah ornamented with
carved work generally painted. The Bhutids are neat
joiners, and their doors, windows, and panelling are perfect
in their way. No iron-work is used ; the doors open on
ingenious wooden hinges. The appearance of the houses
is precisely that of Swiss chalets, picturesque and com¬
fortable—the only drawback being a want of chimneys,
which the Bhutids do not know how to construct. The
people nominally profess the Buddhist religion, but in
reality their religious exercises are confined to the pro¬
pitiation of evil spirits, and the mechanical recital of a
few sacred sentences. Around the cottages in the moun¬
tains the land is cleared for cultivation, and produces
thriving crops of barley, wheat, buckwheat, millet, mus¬
tard, chillies, &c. Turnips of excellent quality are
extensively grown ; they are free from fibre and remark¬
ably sweet. The wheat and barley have a full round
grain, and the climate is well adapted to the production
of both European and Asiatic vegetables. Potatoes have
been introduced. The Bhutids lay out their fields in a
series of terraces cut out of the sides of the hills ; each
terrace is rivetted and supported by stone embankments,
sometimes twenty feet high. Every field is carefully
fenced with pine branches, or protected by a stone wall.
A complete system of irrigation permeates the whole culti¬
vated part of a village, the wrater being often brought from
a long distance by stone aqueducts. Bhutids do not care
to extend their cultivation, as an increased revenue is
exacted in proportion to the land cultivated, but devote
their whole energies to make the land yield twice what it
is estimated to produce. The forests of Bhutdn abound
in many varieties of stately trees. Among them are the
beech, ash, birch, maple, cypress, and yew. Firs and
pines cover the mountain heights; and below these, but
still at an elevation of eight or nine thousand feet, is a
zone of vegetation, consisting principally of oaks and
rhododendrons. The cinnamon tree is also found. Some