THIMPHU, Bhutan (AP) - Children composed poems of joy, flight attendants and bank clerks practiced celebratory dances and the airwaves were flooded with wedding fever as the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan prepared for the marriage of its beloved fifth Dragon King.
In this May 7, 2011 file photo provided by Bhutan`s Royal Office for Media, Bhutan`s 31-year-old Oxford-educated monarch Jigme Khesar Namgyal Wangchuck (left) poses with his fiance 20-year-old Jetsun Pema, a student at London`s Regent College, in Thimphu, Bhutan. The monarch of the Himalayan kingdom plans to marry his fiance on Thursday. (AP-Yonhap News)
The ceremony Thursday, while far less star-studded than the year's other royal wedding -- of William and Kate -- will be no less elaborate in its uniquely Bhutanese way.
``It's the biggest occasion I'll ever see in my life,'' said Tshewang Rinzin, 27, a loan officer.
The couple will be married by Bhutan's top Buddhist cleric in the country's most sacred monastery fortress in the old capital of Punakha early in the morning at an auspicious time determined by astrologers.
During the hours of ceremonies, the 31-year-old king, Jigme Khesar Namgyal Wangchuck, will be adorned with royal scarves. His bride, 21-year-old Jetsun Pema, will present him a chalice filled with the ambrosia of eternal life that he will drink, and he will place a crown upon the new queen's head.
``It's a very emotional experience, a spiritual experience as well,'' Prime Minister Jigmi Thinley told The Associated Press.
Yet there will be no foreign princes, no visiting heads of state, no global celebrities, just the royal family, thousands of nearby villagers and the rest of the country's 700,000 people watching live on TV.
``The whole theme of the wedding was to keep it a simple family affair, that is the Bhutanese family,'' said Kinley Dorji, Bhutan's secretary of information.
Bhutanese have been waiting for their bachelor king to find a bride and start a family of his own since his father retired and handed power to him five years ago.
The Oxford-educated king is adored for pushing development and ushering in democratic reforms. His teen-idol looks _ slicked back hair, long sideburns _ his penchant for evening bike rides through the streets and his reputation as a laid back, accessible leader, also make him the rare monarch whose picture adorns the bedroom walls of teenage girls.
``He's lovable, he's kind, he loves his people, he always interacts with us, he always makes us feel like we are his family,'' said Anu Chhetri, 14, who often sees the king peddling through nearby villages. ``He inspires us. He's everything to us.''
His bride, the daughter of a pilot, has been on an introductory tour of the remote villages of the nation since the king told Parliament in May, ``It's now time for me to marry.''
The country has not had a royal wedding since the fourth king held a mass ceremony in 1988 with his four wives _ four sisters whom he had informally married years earlier. The current king says he will take only one wife, so the country is unlikely to see another such celebration for a long time.
``It's a moment when the entire nation is coming together,'' said Dorji Wangchuk, spokesman for the king.
Bhutanese TV has been running a wedding countdown clock as it repeatedly shows footage of the royal couple on tour, including a puzzling shot of the royal bride hitting putts on a golf course as the king looks on. Local radio has been broadcasting endless greetings from government agencies hoping the wedding will bring ``more happiness in this land of happiness'' and ``the light of hope and aspiration to all couples around the globe.''
Phub Dorji, a flight attendant for the national airline, Druk Air, has been practicing four hours a day for more than a month for a dance exhibition he and his colleagues will perform for the couple at a mass celebration Saturday at the main stadium in the capital, Thimphu.
``The king and queen and royal family have done so much for the people,'' he said. ``We wanted to give something back.''
Students have composed poems to the couple _ ``the brightest stars in the sky.'' Their images adorn traffic circles and buildings across Thimphu, and every other person seems to be wearing a button with their official picture.
Phub Dorji, 70, a retired soldier unrelated to the flight attendant, spent the relative fortune of 200 ngultrum ($4) to come to Thimphu for the wedding festival.
``I might die any time,'' he said. ``I would have paid anything to see the wedding of the king and queen.''
Now that the king is fulfilling their pleas for him to marry, many Bhutanese are hoping he will move on to his next mission: producing an heir.
``I'm eager to see the sixth king,'' Ugyen Gazom, 15, said with a giggle.
<한글기사>
히말라야 소국 부탄 국왕 13일 결혼
'은둔의 왕국' 부탄의 지그메 케사르 남기 엘 왕추크(31) 국왕이 오는 13일 일반인 여성과 화촉을 밝힌다.
영국 옥스퍼드대를 졸업하고 미국에서도 수학한 왕추크 국왕은 이날 항공기 조 종사의 딸로 11살 연하인 제선 페마와 결혼식을 올린다.
결혼식의 주요 행사는 과거 수도였던 푸나카에 있는 17세기 요새에서 진행된다.
결혼식은 왕추크 국왕의 지시로 검소하고 전통적인 방식으로 치러질 예정이다.
결혼식 준비위 관계자는 결혼식장의 좌석 부족으로 다른 나라의 국가원수나 왕족은 한 명도 초청하지 않았고 장관들도 결혼식에 아내를 동반하지 않도록 요청했다고 밝혔다고 AFP 통신이 11일 전했다.
지난 5월 결혼식 발표가 있은 뒤 70만 국민은 들뜬 마음으로 결혼식을 고대해오 고 있다.
2008년 28살에 5대 국왕에 오른 왕추크는 궁이 아닌 조그마한 시골집에 거주하고 있어 겸손하고 국민의 입장을 배려한다는 찬사를 국민에게서 듣고 있다.
그는 신부가 될 페마와 함께 농구를 즐기기도 하고 신하들을 불러 차를 마시며 그들의 문제에 관해 이야기를 나눈다고 한다.
왕실 자료에 따르면 페마는 인도와 영국 레전트 대학에서 유학한 재원으로 미술 과 그림, 야구도 좋아한다.
중국과 인도 사이에 끼어 있는 히말라야의 소국 부탄에는 1960년대까지 도로와 통화가 없었고 TV는 1999년에야 허용됐다.
부탄은 또 1970년대까지 외국 관광객의 입국을 허용하지 않았으나 최근 오랜 폐 쇄에서 벗어나 연간 일정 수의 관광객을 받아들이고 외부세계와 사업교류도 추진하 고 있다. (연합뉴스)
