| In Bhutan , wherever you go, you will be greeted with traditional Bhutanese hospitality. It is in the Bhutanese tradition to honour every guest with great hospitality. In general, Bhutanese people are friendly and well-disposed towards foreigners.
Bhutanese people still wear their traditional dress in schools, offices and public places. On the left, the picture shows a Bhutanese girl in women's traditional dress known as 'Kira'. Men's traditional dress is known as 'Gho' and it looks like a knee-length overcoat.
Bhutan's population can be divided into three broad ethnic groups: the Eastern Bhutanese known as the Sharchops, the Western Bhutanese known as the Ngalungs, and the Southern Bhutanese known as the Lhotshampas.
Bhutanese people continue to live in valleys. These valleys are now connected by roads. In the past, the rivers and gorges isolated different valleys and as a result, different dialects developed and it is common to see different dialects spoken in different valleys.
Believed to be the earliest inhabitants of Bhutan , the Sharchops are of Mongoloid origins, though their exact origin is unknown ( Tibet being the most likely source). At present, they live mainly in the east of Bhutan .
The western region is the home of the Ngalung people, who are also of Mongoloid origin. Most breed cattle or cultivate the land, and their dwellings are spread over a wide area. Their anscestors are believed to have migrated to Bhutan from Tibet over the centuries.
The Northern Himalayan Zone, over 3,000 meters (9,000 feet), is the haunt of semi nomadic yak herdsmen. They spend most of the year in their black yak hair tents, but also possess dry-stone walled houses, where they spend the coldest months of the year and which are used to store their goods.
Southern Bhutan is inhabited mainly by Nepalese farmers who arrived in the country at the end of the 19th century. They are known to Bhutanese as the 'Lhotshampas' which means 'people of the southern region'.
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