Mongar District (Dzongkha: མོང་སྒར་རྫོང་ཁག་; Wylie: Mong-sgar rdzong-khag) is one of the 20 dzongkhags (districts) comprising Bhutan. Mongar is the fastest-developing dzongkhag in eastern Bhutan. A regional hospital has been constructed and the region is bustling with many economic activities. Mongar is noted for its lemon grass, a plant that can be used to produce an essential oil. It also has a hydro power plant on the Kuri Chhu river.
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Mongar is home to a variety of Bhutanese languages and dialects. In the east, the East BodishTshangla (Sharchopkha) is the dominant language, also used as a regional lingua franca.[1]
Central Mongar is the only region where the East Bodish Chali language is spoken, in all by about 8,200 people in Wangmakhar, Gorsum and Tormazhong villages, mainly in and around Chhali Gewog on east bank of Kuri Chhu River.[1]
Southern Mongar is likewise unique for its 1,000 Gongduk speakers living in a few inaccessible villages of Gongdue Gewog near the Kuri Chhu river. The language appears to be the sole representative of a unique branch of the Tibeto-Burman language family [2] and retains the complex verbal agreement system of Proto-Tibeto-Burman.[3]
In southwestern Mongar, residents speak Khengkha, an East Bodish language closely related to Bumthangkha languages including Kurtöp. Bumthangkha itself is also spoken by the natives of extreme northwest Mongar. Residents of the Kuri Chhu valley of northern Mongar speak Chocangacakha, a Central Bodish language very closely related to Dzongkha, the national language.[1][4][5][6][7]
Mongar is divided into seventeen gewogs:[8]
Western Mongar contains part of Thrumshingla National Park (Saling, Tsamang Gewogs), and northeastern Mongar contains part of Bumdeling Wildlife Sanctuary (Sharmung Gewog).[8][9]
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