Ensconced in the recesses of the Eastern Himalayas, Bhutan is a little kingdom with an area of about 47,000 sq.km. It is bordered by Chinese Tibet and North Eastern India. The country has very high mountains, fertile valleys and thick forests. Bhutan is ruled by hereditary monarchy since 1907. The present monarch King Jigme Singye Wangchuk was crowned in 1974 and has taken the kingdom from virtual isolation to the new millennium of prosperous modernization. The process is still on but not at the cost of the country's rich tradition and heritage. The present population of Bhutan is about 2.1 million, comprising three ethnic groups - the Sarchops in the east, the Ngalongs in the central and west and the Lhotshampas in the south. The country is subdivided into 20 administrative districts under a decentralized system of governance. Bhutan is the last bastion of Mahayana Buddhism. Legend says that the famous Buddhist saint Guru Padmasambhava brought this religion to Bhutan in the middle of the 8th century A.D. Riding upon a flying tigress the guru alighted in Taktshang in Paro. Taktshang monastery is of great importance even today to the practitioners of Mahayana Buddhism. In modern Bhutan, the spiritual system continues to thrive with the Je Khenpo (chief Abot) in charge of the monastic school.