The Kingdom of Bhutan is a small (less than 15,000 square miles) Himalayan country located between Tibet and India. The state of California is more than 10 times the size of Bhutan. The Bhutanese name for their country, Druk Yul, means "Land of the Thunder Dragon". The country is primarily Buddhist and the government is a constitutional monarchy. Until 1999, Bhutan was an absolute monarchy. Its system of government slowly evolved until 2005, when the king abdicated his throne to his son and announced the first general elections would be held in 2008.
