The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge spent time Thursday with another glamorous young royal couple when they received a private audience in Bhutan’s capital with the King and Queen of the remote Himalayan kingdom.
King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, 36, and Queen Jetsun Pema, 25 — often compared to the photogenic young British royal couple — met with Prince William and his wife, Catherine, at the Tashichho Dzong, a Buddhist monastery and fortress in the Bhutanese capital, Thimphu.
The duke and duchess, on the first day of the Bhutan leg of their weeklong visit to India and the kingdom, were ushered into the Dzong amid great fanfare with a traditional welcome procession known as a Chipdrel, and they later received a blessing at a temple.
They then visited Thimphu’s open-air archery venue and tried their hand at the tiny Buddhist kingdom’s national sport under the guidance of Prince Jigyel Ugyen Wangchuck, the Bhutanese king’s younger brother.
In Bhutanese archery, participants aim at small, colorful wooden targets positioned 145 meters (475 feet) away, according to an official statement detailing the itinerary of the royal tour. The Duchess of Cambridge wore an outfit made from traditional Bhutanese material.
The duke and duchess were then scheduled to have a private dinner with Bhutan’s King and Queen at Lingkana Palace on the grounds of the Tashichho Dzong.
Prince William and Catherine are on the fifth day of their tour to India and Bhutan, their first trip to the South Asian countries. So far they have visited Mumbai, New Delhi and Kaziranga National Park in the Indian state of Assam.
On their second and final day in Bhutan, the couple are scheduled to take a 5- to 6-hour hike to the Tiger’s Nest monastery, a cliffside temple complex built in 1692 that’s more than 3,000 kilometers (more than 1,860 miles) above sea level.
Bhutan is a remote nation of about 750,000 that borders India and China. It’s known for its stunning Himalayan scenery and the concept of Gross National Happiness, in which the country seeks to develop in accordance with Buddhist spiritual values rather than along a capitalist model.