Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal (b. late 16th century, died mid-17th century) was the founder of Bhutan. In addition to unifying the country for the first time in the 1630s, he also sought to create a distinctly Bhutanese cultural identity apart from the Tibetan culture from which it was derived.

Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal descended from a powerful religious family in central Tibet. His grandfather was driven out of Tibet in a political conflict and chose to settle in the Paro valley in western Bhutan, the valley having a close association with his branch of Tibetan Buddhism.

In 1627, the first European visitors to Bhutan (the Portugese Jesuits Esteva Cacella and João Cabral ) found the Shabdrung to be a compassionate and intelligent host, of high energy and fond of art and writing. In keeping with his position as a high lama he was also meditative and had just completed a three year silent retreat. He was proud to have the Jesuits as guests of his court and was reluctant to grant them permission to leave and offered to support their proselytizing efforts with manpower and church-building funds (but they chose to press on pressed on to Tibet in search of the apostate church said to be isolated in the heart of central Asia).

In the Battle of Five Lamas Ngawang Namgyal prevailed over the Bhutanese and Tibetan forces allied against him and thus united Bhutan as a country for the first time in 1634.

The Shabdrung also established the distinctive dual system of government by which control of the country was shared between a spiritual leader (the Je Khempo ) and an administrative leader (the Desi Druk ), a policy which exists in modified form to this day.

The Shabdrung ruled the country from the dzong at Punakha until his death sometime in the middle of the 17th century. To avoid political chaos in the wake of his death, his closest advisors hid the news of his death for 80 years. During this time he was said to be ruling the country while in seclusion, a not- unreasonable explanation given the extended silent retreats he was known to take during his life, although the length of the retreat must have seemed more and more incredible as the decades wore on.

The Shabdrung's body was preserved in a sacred inner chamber in Punakha Dzong and has been under perpetual watch since his death in the 17th century, the task of watching over him being one of the most sacred duties in the kingdom.