1 Reconstructing Nineteenth Century Trade Route between Bhutan and Assam: Evidences from British Political Missions*

Recent studies contradict a longheld western perception that Bhutan was a landlocked and isolated kingdom until the recent times without any significant trade relation with the rest of the world.1 They have dug the contemporary documents to prove her vibrant trade with the neighbours at least from the seventeenth century onwards. Side by side with the present jurisdiction of West Bengal, the kingdom carried out trade with Assam in those days. The extent of her historical interconnection with Assam is understood from the evidence of seven duars (doors)2 between these two places. All those duars were not, however, safe for long-distance traffic. The problem of dense forest stood on their ways, and it was compounded by the settlement of robbers and other anti-social people in their vicinities.3 Safety was ensured only in the Banska duar through which ran, as the evidence in this study suggests, a long-distance trade route between Bhutan and Assam. The present article seeks to identify that trade route, and to analyse its various facets. The route has not yet been studied in any detail presumably because of inadequate source materials. We seek to reconstruct it based on the data and information from the reports of two British politica