Bhutia

The Bhutia བོད་རིགས (in Sikkim: Denzongpa / Drejongpa ; Tibetan: འབྲས་ལྗོངས་པ་, Wylie: 'Bras-ljongs-pa; "inhabitants of Denzong;" in Bhutan: Dukpa) are a community of people of Tibetan ancestry, who speak Sikkimese, a Tibetan dialect fairly mutually intelligible to standard Tibetan. In 2001, the Bhutia numbered around 70,300. Bhutia here refers to Sikkimese and Nepalese of Tibetan ancestry; in contrast, the Bhotiya are a larger family of related Tibetan peoples in northeastern Nepal of which the Bhutia are one member group.