Sadness, gratitude in Bhutan as king quits throne

Wangchuck, 50, who has ruled over the remote Buddhist kingdom for over three decades, on Saturday announced that he was handing over the sceptre to his Oxford-educated 26-year-old son, Crown Prince Jigme Kesar Namgyel, a year earlier than expected.

"It's a mixed feeling for me," Penden Jamtsho, a government employee in the capital, Thimphu, told Reuters by telephone.

"I am also very sad that our guardian is leaving us, but at the same time happy to see a humble, friendly and polite ruler taking over his majesty's place."

Wangchuck, who took over the throne in 1972 at the age of 16, sought to lift the "Gross National Happiness" of the isolated country of 700,000 people, with policies aimed at preserving the traditional culture and environment of the nation.

In recent years, he has slowly pulled his mountainous state into the modern world, relinquishing much of the monarchy's power and introducing a more democratic form of governance.

Bhutan, sandwiched between India and China, has remained largely untouched by modern influences, with a limited number of foreign visitors allowed each year. Television arrived in 1999 and the Internet a year later.

The kingdom will also formally adopt a constitution later this month and plans to hold parliamentary elections in 2008.