Bhutan has long ago promoted a fairly inclusive marriage system, the most popular of which is that it was once popular with polygamy and polyandry, and the most criticized is child marriage.
In 1980, the Government of Bhutan introduced the modern Marriage Act, which provided for monogamy and explicitly prohibited child marriage.
But this does not affect the Bhutanese people's pursuit of free love, and their yearning for love has long been deeply rooted in the marrow and carved into the soul. It is also in this cultural context that the romantic love story of Cinderella and the prince slowly opens the curtain.
1. Prince Jigme of Bhutan
In 1980, Jigme was born into Bhutan's most honorable royal family, and his family gave him unlimited glory and wealth, but also brought him great responsibility pressure.
As the prince of Bhutan, Jigme was very strict with himself. He has a pair of deep eyes and a high nose bridge, handsome appearance and a graceful demeanor, making him very popular with young girls in various social situations
Under the elite education of the royal family, Prince Jigme has excellent grades, rich knowledge, excellent personal ability, and even successfully passed the examination and entered the famous Oxford University for further study, which added a lot of personal charm to him.
Jigme's ability development never worried the rest of the royal family, but seeing that the prince was getting older and older, and he had not yet had a girlfriend at the age of 17, the rest of the family began to worry. You know, as the next king, Gigme really has a throne to inherit!
Jigme's mother came up with a good idea, she began to hold frequent family banquets, and lowered the threshold, invited many families who wanted to associate with the royal family to the banquet, and specially ordered that they could bring their families with them, and if there were daughters of the right age in the family, it would be perfect.
People who want to build a relationship with the royal family, in addition to having courage and ambition, are also a little clever, how can they not understand the real intention of the royal family to hold a banquet, the meaning of the drunkard is not to drink, but to choose a concubine for the prince!
Suddenly, merchants, nobles, and ministers brought the young and beautiful girls of their families to the royal banquet, hoping to form a good relationship with the noble prince.
The girls are beautiful, and Jigme's mother is full of praise for each girl, and she has dragged Prince Gigme over and over in front of the girls, and the intention of matchmaking has long been overflowing.
In the face of so many young and beautiful girls, the prince did not feel moved, on the contrary, if there was no royal etiquette and self-cultivation cultivated from childhood to restrain him, he would have turned around and left this place long ago.
It turned out that Jigme's understanding of love was very different from the rest of the family.
In his heart, love is pure and flawless, supreme, and should not be a bargaining chip for the exchange of benefits, and it should not be a casual marriage to a "suitable" object in the eyes of his family and ministers in order to become the next king, which he believes is a serious taint to good love.
Unable to leave the banquet, the prince could only find an excuse to leave the crowd and walk alone in the garden, trying to relieve his inner bitterness and depression, and it was at this time that he finally met the destined love.
2. Romantic first encounter
Prince Jigme met a lovely Tibetan girl while relaxing in the garden.
The girl looked only six or seven years old, looked well-behaved and cute, and seemed to be holding hands with the adults in the family to ask for something, and it could be seen that the little girl did not understand, but she still nodded her head in confusion.
The little girl's delicate appearance and well-behaved smile washed away the clouds in Prince Jigme's heart.
He finally regained his spirits and reflected on the great responsibilities he had to carry, and he finally returned to the banquet hall, where he continued to communicate with the young girls under his mother's arrangement.
Towards the end of the banquet, Jigme's mother specially designed a blessing ceremony for the prince, asking a little girl to hold flowers in her hand and offer them to the prince to express the purest and sincere wishes.
Prince Jigme stood in the middle of the banquet hall waiting for the girl to offer flowers, and when he looked up, he found that the little friend of the flowers was the little girl who had inadvertently helped herself to adjust her mood in the garden.
Before he could happily accept the bouquet of flowers, he found that the little girl looked panicked, perhaps because there were too many onlookers, or perhaps because she was not ready, the little girl accidentally took a bouquet of fiery red and delicate roses in the tension, and the bouquet representing the blessing was missing, and the atmosphere at the scene was momentarily awkward.
Jigme couldn't help but look at the little girl's panicked movements and felt very cute, but in order to avoid the other party being reprimanded by the adults after the palace banquet, he cleverly played a round.
He took the rose, and crouched down to ask the little girl if she knew what the symbolism of the rose was, and the seven-year-old girl, who knew the romantic flower language, could only stand there in a daze, looking at him with a pair of big black grape-like eyes.
Against the background of the bouquet, the little girl's skin appears more white, the whole person is cute, and the most eye-catching thing is the pair of black and white eyes, the eyes are clear and pure.
Unknowingly attracted to these eyes, Prince Gigme jokingly got down on one knee and asked the little girl if she would marry him.
The onlookers thought the prince was joking, and the atmosphere began to become lively, and some people even booed. Only the prince knew how happy he was in his heart after seeing the girl nod her silly.
After the palace feast, Jigme told his mother that he thought he had found his destined lover, and when he said the little girl's name, Pema, the queen was horrified.
The queen did not understand why her son did not fall in love with the young girl she had carefully selected for him, preferring a silly little girl.
The queen did not ignore the prince's perfunctory attitude at the banquet, she guessed that Jigme only saw her cute, and then used her as an excuse to prevaricate the marriage between herself and the ministers, and the love for the little girl was not really love.
In order to see the intentions of Prince Jigme, the queen and Pema's family began to have frequent contact.
Pema's parents often brought their daughter into the palace to play with Prince Jigme.
When the queen saw her son in the company of Pema, a relaxed smile appeared on her usually serious face, and she became more and more satisfied with Pema, plus Pema was smart and lovely, and the queen felt that whether it was one more daughter-in-law or one more righteous daughter, Pema was the right person.
3. Thirteen years of waiting
Prince Jigme did not understand his mother's complicated thoughts, he only wanted to silently guard Pema, accompany her to grow up healthy and happy, and when Peema reached the age when she first opened her love, it was not too late for him to formally confess and propose to her.
Jigme was a mentor and friend to Pema's growth. In addition to playing with her, Prince Guigme often shared what he saw with Peema, allowing Peema to see a very wide world at a young age and cultivating her yearning for freedom.
Encouraged by Jigme, Pema was willing to try various challenges from an early age.
In her study and life, Pema developed a wealth of interests, not only proficient in multi-Chinese, but also learned excellent photography skills; in sports, Pema trained harder and harder, and became the captain of the school's women's basketball team.
In addition, Pema's organizational skills are also quite outstanding, and she is an excellent leader in the class.
Pema is like a piece of jade excavated by Jigme's own hands, and under the polishing and care of the prince, she increasingly shows her powerful personal charm.
As Pema grew older, those who had once thought that the prince's choice of concubines was ridiculous had to marvel at the prince's unique wisdom, and even chose a young sapling in the midst of the kaleidoscope, no matter how delicate the flowers were, they could not grow into a towering tree like a sapling.
However, the love affair between Jigme and Pema did not go as smoothly as outsiders expected.
The first thing that stood in front of the two was the issue of age that could not be changed.
At the time of the first encounter, Jigme was already a 17-year-old youth, and Pema was only 7 years old, and there was a 10-year age difference between the two, although Prince Gigme was willing to grow up with Peema silently, but the royal family and ministers could not tolerate the prince's "wayward" approach.
The idea of starting a family and then starting a career is also quite popular in Bhutan. As the king grew older, the prince's succession to the throne was imminent. Countless times, ministers put pressure on the prince and queen to marry the prince as soon as possible so that he could justifiably take over the throne.
Although they were once touched by the prince's persistent pursuit of love, they would undoubtedly choose the latter in the face of the prince's love and the development of the country.
However, according to the relevant provisions of Bhutan's Marriage Law, the minimum age for a woman to marry is 20 years old, which means that if the prince only wants to marry Pema, he will have to wait at least 13 years, and the prince is almost the age of establishment.
As a prince of Bhutan, he has not yet married a princess at the age of nearly thirty, what a system!
Under the influence of this idea, the opposition of the palace and the people to Jigme's marriage to Pema grew, and even more "clever" reasons were proposed.
The man said that Prince Jigme was the most honorable person in the whole country of Bhutan, except for the king, and although he could not find a lady to match the prince, he should at least find a noblewoman from a famous background to be a princess.
The princess is the one who will become the queen in the future, representing the image of the whole country, how can she choose a woman of commoner origin to be the one at random?
This statement was particularly sought after by the princes and nobles, and the invitation to invite the prince to the family banquet drifted to him like snowflakes, and the prince was indignant, not thinking that his waiting would become an excuse for the world to attack Pema.
In the face of the doubts of the courtiers and the people, Jigme felt helpless, and for the first time he felt that the love of pursuing freedom would encounter so many obstacles.
The queen finally saw her son's true heart in a few years, she knew that his son had a deep affection for Pema, but she also knew the pressure the two were currently facing, and in order to alleviate this stalemate, the queen made several suggestions to Guigme.
The queen said that Pema's academic performance was excellent, and that for her personal development alone, she should be supported to study abroad, and when she returned from overseas studies, her excellent academic background would dilute her status as a commoner, and the ministers and the people could no longer use their bodies as an excuse to prevent her from becoming a veritable princess. In addition, the current public opinion orientation is easy to have a bad impact on Pema, and studying abroad can also temporarily avoid the limelight.
In order to protect Peema and allow Pema to develop freely, Gemma shared with her a lot of experience in studying abroad, and still maintained telephone communication during her study abroad, intimately giving a lot of guidance on study and life, which made Peema very moved.
The queen's second suggestion made Gigme embarrassed.
The queen said that although polygamy had been abolished in the latest Marriage Act, marriage within the royal family had not been governed by the statute in recent decades, as well as for Gigme, who could marry one or more women in addition to Pema.
Since the ministers believed that the prince of Jigme must first marry a family before he could inherit the throne, the prince could also marry a few wives to block their mouths, take over the duties of the king smoothly, and wait until Pema reached marriageable age, and then solemnly marry Pema, so that he could balance career and love.
Jigme is very entangled, he is loyal to love, but he is also forced by love to have no way back, and he still has unshirkable responsibilities on his shoulders, but he cannot give up love.
After tossing and turning, Jigme took the initiative to mention this matter to Pema, a woman who understands the righteousness, she understands the prince's inner struggle and pain, and also recognizes the prince's loyalty to love, but in front of the country, the children's private feelings are not enough to worry about, so she accepted the queen's suggestion and advised the prince to marry a famous lady first to complain about the commoner.
But In his heart, Jigme never wanted Pema to share her husband with other women like his mother, he only wanted to live with Peema for a lifetime.
The prince's hot confession also made Pema firm in her determination, and they decided to work hard together, using their ability and personality to gain the trust of the ministers and the people, and to break a way out for this difficult love.
In this way, Jigme became more and more focused on assisting his father in handling state affairs, and things became more and more properly handled, and finally received the approval of the ministers.
In 2008, Gygme successfully took over from his father and became the fifth king of Bhutan.
At the same time, Pema also studied hard overseas, and after she returned from her studies, in the face of her excellent academic qualifications and personal ability, no one could rightly accuse her of being a civilian who could not stand on the table.
In 2011, Pema finally reached the legal marriageable age, and Jigme, who had been waiting for her for 13 years, was so excited that she formally proposed to her.
This is The second marriage proposal that Jigme has made to Pema, spanning 13 years, and their faces have been changed by the years, but the only thing that has not changed is the sincere and hot heart and the pure and unblemished love.
On May 20, 2011, the two announced their engagement.
On Pema's 21st birthday, the two had a low-key wedding.
The 31-year-old Jigme took Pema's hand and told the media affectionately that Pema would be his only wife in this life, although she was still young, but she had a warm and kind heart, Peema had a spirit of selfless dedication beyond ordinary women, and she would undoubtedly become an excellent queen.
With the joint efforts of the two, the seed of love finally blossomed, and the diligent king and gentle queen were greatly respected by the people of Bhutan, who affectionately called King Jigme "father", and were also proud that the country had such a wise and kind queen. The love story of King Jigme and Queen Pema has become the most beautiful fairy tale in Bhutan.
4. Conclusion
A big tree needs another big tree, and only when two people grow together can love go farther and farther. Sometimes love will face many obstacles, whether it is forced to compromise by reality, or try to improve itself, accumulate strength to climb over the wall, and different people will give different answers. In the love story of Guigme and Pema, the two chose the latter and successfully maintained the dignity and holiness of love, which deserves our respect.
Some people say that the most beautiful love is to make yourself a better person in this love, and to make yourself love yourself more when you love each other deeply. I wish everyone can have such a sincere and pure love!
bibliography
1. Southern Metropolis Daily: "The King and Queen of Bhutan Release 'Family Portrait' Group Photo show of love and love to commemorate the 10th wedding anniversary"
2, Global People Magazine: "Wind meals and camping all over the country shouting for people to get vaccinated!" "The world's most handsome king" this time does not rely on appearance and love circle fans"