The public sector expanded only in the 1950s, after a century of astonishing economic growth driven by free trade and free markets (from 1850 to 1950, average incomes multiplied eightfold, as a poor peasant society was transformed into one of the world's richest countries).

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It reached right to the heart of the Empire, to India, a country she never visited but whose problems, of famine, poor sanitation, and oppression of the peasant class by unscrupulous landowners, were a major concern in the latter part of her life.

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And with 90% of the population in peasant agriculture, most Bhutanese remain poor.

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On tiny plots, and often poor-quality soil, without modern equipment or farming methods, and sometimes beset by land disputes, many peasant farmers struggle to feed their family and grow just a little extra to sell in the village market.

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