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GAUHATI, India: The tiny Himalayan nation of Bhutan has a new crown prince.
The Royal Media Office in the capital, Thimphu, said the baby boy was born Friday to King Jigme Khesar Namgyal Wangchuck and his wife, Queen Jetsun Pema.
The Oxford-educated Wangchuck, who is currently 35, married commoner Jetsun Pema, now 25, in an elaborate Buddhist ceremony in 2011.
The child, the royal couple’s first, was delivered by a medical team at the Lingkana Palace in Thimphu.
“Her Majesty and His Royal Highness (the newborn) are both in perfect health,” the Royal Media Office said in a statement Saturday, adding that Wangchuck was by the queen’s side during the delivery.
“We welcome the news with great joy and happiness. The day calls for a great celebration throughout the country,” Bhutan’s Prime Minister Tsering Tobgay said in a statement.
But Tobgay said that the king had directed that any celebrations be modest. “Therefore, the government has decided to declare Monday a national holiday to celebrate the joyous occasion so that people may offer their prayers and good wishes.”
In November, Wangchuck had announced that the couple was expecting their first child, saying, “I consider my son extremely fortunate because he will be born in our blessed country.”
The young couple made news in Bhutan while they were dating. Wangchuk had displayed open affection for his wife-to-be by publicly holding hands and even planting kisses on her cheek, something rare in conservative Bhutan, particularly among royalty.
Wangchuk ascended Bhutan’s throne in November 2008, when his father, King Jigme Singhye Wangchuck, abdicated in his favor.
By that time, Jigme Singhye Wangchuck had also guided the remote Himalayan kingdom toward democracy. In March that same year, the kingdom held its first democratic election and voted in a new parliament that can constitutionally impeach the king. However, with the monarchy idolized by much of the population, the king’s influence continues to be enormous.
Bhutan first began opening up to the world in the 1960s. Foreigners and the international media were first admitted in 1974, while the Internet and television finally arrived in 1999.