Though Bhutan hasn’t been severely hit by the coronavirus pandemic—as of Friday, the country has only reported 346 cases of the virus to the WHO, and zero deaths—it has still affected day to day life in the small Himalayan nation. Last week, a new case of community spread in the country sometimes called the happiest on earth led to measures limiting public gatherings. So when the country’s royal family celebrated the wedding of Princess Eeuphelma Choden Wangchuck and her new husband, Dasho Thinlay Norb, on Thursday, the ceremony was attended only by the family, according to Royal Central, instead of the usual public blowout.
In this case, it made sense that the gathering would be a family affair. Eeuphelma is the half-sister of King Jigme Khesar Wangchuck, the country’s fifth Druk Gyalpo or “Dragon King,” and Thinlay is the younger brother of his wife, Queen Jetsun Pema. It’s not the first time that siblings of the royal couple have wed. In 2013, Jetsun’s older sister Yeatso Lhamo married the king’s half-brother Prince Jigme Dorji Wangchuck.
After the ceremony at Dechencholing Palace in the capital city of Thimphu, the king shared photos of the bride and groom in traditional Bhutanese dress on his Instagram account.
Instagram content
This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.
In 2016, Eeuphelma, 27, graduated from Georgetown University with a degree in sociology, and has since served as the president of Bhutan’s Paralympics committee. Thinlay, 28, went to nearby Delhi University, and works as an airline pilot. Both of them serve as DeSuups, or volunteers for the country’s force of about 7,000 guardians of the peace.
When the king and queen were married in 2011, it was a public affair, and citizens of the country waited for hours to see the royal couple pass on their procession from their wedding venue back to the palace. For Eeuphelma and Thinlay, things were much lower profile. According to the Daily Mail, the couple, who have been dating for a few years, kept the details of their wedding private until the day of the ceremony.
— Monica Lewinsky on the Pandemic’s Forgotten F-Word
— Why Harry and Meghan Won’t Spend Christmas With the Queen
— What One Book Critic Learned by Reading 150 Trump Books
— How Ghislaine Maxwell Recruited Young Girls for Jeffrey Epstein
— More Details Emerge on Prince Harry and Prince William’s “Bitter Explosion”
— Tracing Photographer Richard Avedon’s Bohemian Coming of Age
— From the Archive: The Mysteries of Princess Diana’s Fatal Car Crash
— Not a subscriber? Join Vanity Fair to receive full access to VF.com and the complete online archive now.
