Jigme Singye Wangchuck - Early Life

Early Life

He acceded to the throne at the age of seventeen, in 1972, after the sudden death of his father, Jigme Dorji Wangchuck. When he was formally crowned on 2 June 1974, he was the youngest monarch in the world at eighteen years of age, and the coronation was notable for the presence of foreign dignitaries, thus signalling the end of the long isolation of the country. He was educated in Bhutan, India and the United Kingdom. He is not to be confused with his cousin who has a similar name; his cousin attended Rice University in Houston, Texas.

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