How Can a King Retire?
The fourth Druk Gyalpo’s retirement shocked the Bhutanese. “We have never heard of such a thing. How can a King retire? What kind of a foreign idea is this?” asks 74-year-old Agay Dago from Paro. “He is the sun in our lives… what we eat, what we wear, we owe to him.”
Agay said he and his family felt very hurt when His Majesty announced through the draft Constitution that the Druk Gyalpo must retire at the age of 65 years. “We begged him, saying that if this was an international idea that we simple people did not understand, then he should retire at 70 or 75 years.”
“Then His Majesty announced in Trashiyangtse that he would retire in 2008. We had grave doubts and fears. And in 2006 he stepped down from the throne.”
“But now, how can we complain when he left his own prince to rule? We can only expect that our new King will achieve as much if not more than his forefathers.”
By: Agay Dago, Silversmith, Paro
Source: The Legacy of a King