Ngalop

The Ngalop are a people of Tibetan origin who began migrating into Bhutan as early as the ninth century and became the dominant population of its western and northern valleys. They brought Tibetan culture and Tibetan Buddhism. Their language, Dzongkha, descends from Old Tibetan and later served Bhutan's government and monasteries.

Most Ngalop adhere to the Drukpa Kagyu school, which spread through Bhutan from the twelfth century, while some follow the Nyingma school. They farmed rice and barley, built fortress-monasteries called dzongs, and passed land and livestock down the matrilineal line.

In 1616 the Tibetan lama Ngawang Namgyal, the Zhabdrung, defeated three Tibetan invasions, subdued rival sects, codified Bhutan's law and united the Ngalop valleys under a dual clerical and civil administration. After his death that order slowly eroded through two centuries of factional fighting among the governors of the dzongs.