Villages in Bhutan are made up of groups of individual settlements, grouped together by chiwog for election purposes. This list is based mainly on information of the Election Commission, which not necessarily follows the general usage.
Village populations vary widely, from dozens to hundreds. Generally, greater numbers of villages within chiwogs indicate lower populations in the vast majority of those villages.
Villages in Bhutan are governed directly by Gewog (village block) governments, which in turn are subordinate to Dzongkhag (district) or Dungkhag (sub-district) governments. Villages in Bhutan may be distinguished from Thromdes (municipalities), which are larger settlements not part of any Chiwog, and which may be self-governing under the Local Government Act of Bhutan 2009. This Act also provides for the redrawing of chiwog borders and regrouping of villages by the Demarcation Commission in order to define relatively equally populated single member constituencies. Village and chiwog demarcations, therefore, are subject to considerable change.
Many village names are recurring, and may be shared even among neighboring settlements. Sometimes this indicates a large village spread among more than one chiwog. Geographical names frequently include: wom (Dzongkha: à ½ à ½¼à ½Âà ½Âà ¼Â; "lower"), gom (à ½¦à ¾Âà ½¼à ½Âà ½Âà ¼Â; "upper/higher"), (kha)toed (à ½¦à ¾Âà ½¼à ½Âà ¼Â; "upper [valley]"), (kha)maed (à ½¦à ¾¨à ½Âà ¼Â; "lower [valley]"), nang (à ½Âà ½Âà ¼Â; "inner"), -gang (à ½¦à ¾Âà ½Âà ¼Â; "hilltop, ridge"), -ling (à ½Âà ¾³à ½²à ½Âà ¼Â; "place"), -la (à ½£à ¼Â; "mountain pass"), -thang (à ½Âà ½Âà ¼Â; "valley"), -pelri (à ½Âà ½Âà ½£à ¼Âà ½¢à ½²à ¼Â; "mountain"), -chhu (à ½Âà ½´à ¼Â; "river"), and -dey (à ½¦à ¾¡à ½ºà ¼Â; "part, section"). Popular name parts also include choekhor (à ½Âà ½¼à ½¦à ¼Âà ½ à ½Âà ½¼à ½¢à ¼Â; "dharma wheel"), dekid (à ½Âà ½Âà ½ºà ¼Âà ½¦à ¾Âà ¾±à ½²à ½Âà ¼Â; "peace"), phel (à ½ à ½Âà ½ºà ½£à ¼Â; "flourish"), phuen (à ½Âà ½´à ½Âà ¼Â; "complete, perfect, wonderful"), tashi (à ½Âà ½Âà ¾²à ¼Âà ½¤à ½²à ½¦à ¼Â/à ½Âà ½Âà ¾²à ½²à ½¦à ¼Â; "auspicious"), goenpa (à ½Âà ½Âà ½¼à ½Âà ¼Âà ½Âà ¼Â; "monastery"), lhakhang (à ½£à ¾·à ¼Âà ½Âà ½Âà ¼ "temple"), pema (à ½Âà ½Âà ¾¨à ¼Â; "lotus"), and norbu (à ½Âà ½¼à ½¢à ¼Âà ½Âà ½´à ¼Â; "jewel"). Spelling variations are frequent; in government documents certain transliterations are equivalent: "oo" and "u;" "ay" and "ey;" and in some circumstances, "a" and "e."
The following are lists of villages in Bhutan by District as of 2011. Slashes indicate names combined names and disambiguations. Parenthetical names are alternative designations and may reflect a Nepali name.