Consort: | yes |
Pema Dechen | |
Succession: | Queen consort of Bhutan |
Regent: | Phuntsho Choden |
Reg-Type: | Co-Druk Gyaltsuen |
Reign: | 1932 – 30 March 1952 |
Full Name: | Pema Dechen Wangchuck[1] |
Issue: | Princess Choki Wangmo Wangchuck Prince Namgyel Wangchuck Princess Deki Yangzom Wangchuck Princess Pema Choden Wangchuck |
House: | Wangchuck (by marriage) |
Father: | Dasho Jamyang, Chumed Zhalgno[2] |
Mother: | Ashi Decho Dorji |
Birth Date: | 1918 |
Birth Place: | Wangducholing Palace, Bumthang |
Death Date: | 1991 (aged 72–73) |
Death Place: | Samchoeling Palace, Trongsa |
Religion: | Buddhism |
Ashi Pema Dechen (1918–1991) was the queen consort of Bhutan.[3]
Ashi Pema Dechen was born in 1918 at Wangducholing Palace to Chumed Zhalgno, Dasho Jamyang (of the Tamzhing Choji family – also known as the Myo family -) and Ashi Decho, daughter of Ashi Yeshay Choden (who was the sister of Druk Gyalpo Gongsar Ugyen Wangchuck).[4]
She had two full-brothers and two full-sisters, and another half-siblings by the second marriages of her parents:
From an early age, Ashi Pema Dechen received a traditional education.
She married Bhutan's second king, a cross cousin, Jigme Wangchuck, in 1932, when she was 14 years old.[5] They were second cousins and she was his second wife. Ashi Pema Dechen was the half-sister of the maternal grandfather of the current Queen of Bhutan, Jetsun Pema, and she was the great grandmother of the Fifth Druk Gyalpo, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck.
Her elder sister, Ashi Phuntsho Choden (1911–2003), was the first wife of her husband since 1923 when she was 12 years old, at Thinley Rabten Palace, Phodrang.[6]
Her children with the Second Druk Gyalpo were:
She died in 1991 at Samchoeling Palace.[7]