Bhutan has given India’s Prime Minister a rare honour, and it came at the end of an extraordinary day. On Sunday, 1 November, 40,000 trained volunteers built 108 Jangchub Chorten stupas in nine hours in Gelephu, southern Bhutan. About two hours after construction was completed, King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck dedicated Stupa No. 76 to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in gratitude for India’s support for the Gelephu Mindfulness City project.
The ceremony fell on Lhabab Duchen. Union Minister Kiren Rijiju represented the Government of India. The King, Bhutan’s Prime Minister and Rijiju offered prayers at Stupa No. 76, which the King dedicated to Modi for his commitment and steadfast support to the project. Rijiju relayed the Prime Minister’s gratitude to the King and, in a post on X, called the dedication a huge honour for India.
The scale of the undertaking was remarkable. Each of the 108 stupas stands 15 metres tall, and they are spaced 108 metres apart along the Mau Chhu river. The King’s project was also crowdfunded. Raising a single stupa cost USD 200,000. Reports on the length of the line vary between about 11.7 and 12 kilometres.
This gesture is a vindication of Modi’s Neighbourhood First approach. Gelephu sits near the Assam border, and India has been a steady partner in the city’s development. Modi has also invested in the personal and civilisational side of the relationship. Last November he travelled to Thimphu to join the Global Peace Prayer Festival and inaugurate the 1020 MW Punatsangchhu-II hydropower project. That visit coincided with the exposition of the Sacred Piprahwa Relics of Lord Buddha from India. At the time, Modi said the Buddha’s teachings are a sacred link between India and Bhutan’s shared spiritual heritage.
India does not only fund dams and roads. It shares a Dharmic inheritance with its Himalayan neighbours, and it has invested in that bond by sending the Buddha’s own relics across the border. In a region where strategic rivals compete for influence, a dedication like this suggests Delhi’s long-term goodwill in Thimphu is considerable. Critics might note that such gestures are symbolic and that Bhutan manages its relations with all its neighbours carefully. The King’s tribute was in any case a sincere expression of thanks for tangible support, offered at one of the most sacred moments in his country’s recent history.
