NZPA — Thimphu, Bhutan
Tucked away in the eastern Himalayas lives the ruler of a fairyland little kingdom who must be one of the world’s most eligible bachelors because he is the world’s youngest reigning monarch. 

The personal life of the Druk Gyalpo (precious ruler of the dragon people) is not gossiped about in Bhutan, a mountainous kingdom of 1.4 million people sandwiched between India and China’s Tibet region. 

But nevertheless, there is intense speculation about who King Jigme Wangchuck, aged 24, will take as his queen. 

Despite his relative youth as a monarch, King Jigme Singye has been on the throne for 13 years. He handles absolute power in an easy fashion. 

He frequently sits beside his driver in most unroyal fashion as his Mercedes limousine, with a bright red licence plate simply reading “Bhutan,” purrs around Thimphu, the capital.

And there are no bodyguards in sight when the tall, slightly bald­ing man, dressed in track suit and sneakers, heads for Thimphu’s Changlimathang Stadium for a game of basketball. 

Earlier this month security was stepped up when foreign minis­ters of seven South Asian coun­tries met in Thimphu to discuss regional co-operation. 

“This is the first time most people in Thimphu discovered that Bhutan had a police force,” a senior official said. 

The King lives in a small build­ing, called the Royal Cottage, in the town, preferring its simple comforts to official palaces on Thimphu’s outskirts. 

Like other young, educated men in the kingdom he enjoys the national sport, archery, and dab­bles in golf, shooting, and photo­graphy. 

The Bhutanese are used to the informal ways of their monarch, Bhutan being a hereditary king­dom established in 1907 after decades of strife between regional overlords. 

But they are discreetly curious about his plans for marriage. 

Speculation flared three years ago when two princesses from Sikkim, the tiny Buddhist kingdom that became India’s 22nd state in 1975, visited Bhutan as the king’s guests. 

“Nothing came of it,” one official said sadly. 

King Jigme Singye, who received part of his schooling in Britain, has told colleagues he will most likely marry a Bhutanese girl “when he makes up his mind.” 

Four months before his father died in July 1972, the 16-year-old prince was considered mature enough to be appointed chairman of the country’s Planning Commission. 

The king wears no ornate robes of office. 

Except for a ceremonial sword and knee-length embroidered boots on state occasions, his clothes are the same as his people’s — a loose, colourful robe called the gho, gathered at the waist with a sash and leaving the knees bare. 

Every morning hundreds of people line up outside the king’s office in the imposing fortress like Tashichhodzong, the seat of the Government, to talk with their ruler. 

“Although the winds of change are now blowing across Bhutan … we are still firmly committed to the view that we should not lose our cultural heritage in the name of progress,” he said in a recent speech.