This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. From being an Englishman to now a Bhutanese citizen. Michael shares over 40 years of association with Bhutan and its transformation from a subsistence farming society with paddy fields that have given way to cities, highways, airports and industries.
Michael a graduate of Physics and Mathematics at King’s College, University of London was a Commissioned Officer in the Royal Air Force, serving in England and in Malta from 1960 to 1965. From 1966 until 1970 Michael Rutland was a teacher of physics at Shrewsbury School and later St. Edward’s School Oxford. It was during this time in 1970 he was invited by Her Majesty The Queen of Bhutan to become the Science and Mathematics Tutor to HRH The Crown Prince, later the Fourth King of Bhutan, and to assist in opening the Ugyen Wangchuck Academy, a boarding school for the Crown Prince and fifteen other boys in the Paro Valley, immediately opposite the famous Tiger’s Nest Temple.
After his Bhutan tenure, he returned to teaching in the United Kingdom and became an Major in the Sultan of Oman’s Armed Forces in Muscat, Oman, and during that time he traveled widely across the Sultanate and commanded the Sultan of Oman’s Air Force Technical Training Institute.
In all those years he visited Bhutan every year and in 1990 Michael worked again for six months in Bhutan for the United Nations as a Consultant in Technical and Vocational Education.
Michael Rutland was awarded the title of ‘Physics Teacher on the Year’ in 2000 in recognition of his services to Physics teaching in the United Kingdom and retired from teaching physics. Michael is a member of the International Council of the English Speaking Union, and a member of Rotary International.
In 1992 he founded the Bhutan Society of the United Kingdom, of which he is the Chairman.
In 2003 he was appointed the first Honorary Consul of Bhutan to the United Kingdom, and in 2006 was decorated by HM Queen Elizabeth II as an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to British-Bhutan relations.
In 2012 he was appointed the first Honorary Consul of the United Kingdom in Bhutan. In 2010 he was invited to represent Bhutan at an International Seminar on Democracy and the Rule of Law held at Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, London.
He continues to have a deep interest in education, and specially Science Education. He served for three years as a Member of the Royal Education Council in Bhutan. He is a Member of the Bhutan Post Stamp Advisory Committee.
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