Samtse Distillery / Army Welfare Project

Rum labels

XXX Bhutan Rum - Samtse Distillery / Army Welfare Project (bt1)
XXX Bhutan Rum

XXX Bhutan Rum (bt1)

87 x 130 mm (3.4" x 5.1")
XXX Bhutan Rum - Samtse Distillery / Army Welfare Project (bt4)
XXX Bhutan Rum

XXX Bhutan Rum (bt4)

55 x 70 mm (2.2" x 2.8")
XXX Bhutan Rum - Samtse Distillery / Army Welfare Project (bt5)
XXX Bhutan Rum

XXX Bhutan Rum (bt5)

89 x 130 mm (3.5" x 5.1")
Deluxe Rum - Samtse Distillery / Army Welfare Project (bt2)
Deluxe Rum

Deluxe Rum (bt2)

89 x 110 mm (3.5" x 4.3")

History

Since the 1970s, one of the army's goals has been selfsufficiency. The Army Welfare Committee was established in 1978 to oversee the Army Welfare Project, which provided housing, food, and income for the Royal Bhutan Army and the Royal Body Guards. It was charged with taking care of individual army personnel problems and providing pensions to retirees. Although some labor for the Army Welfare Project was provided by army personnel, the project was administered by civil service employees and contractors. By 1979 a pilot project, the Lapchekha Agriculture Farm in Wangdiphodrang District, had been established to provide food for army units in western Bhutan. The farm comprised 525 hectares with a potential for an additional 113 hectares of arable land. Army personnel constructed a twenty-one-kilometer-long canal to irrigate the farm and worked there for three months each year. Revenues from the farm and other welfare projects helped provide benefits to retired and disabled personnel in the form of pensions and loans and, in the case of landless retirees, agricultural land grants. Army careerists could retire, depending on their rank, between the ages of thirty-seven and forty-five years of age. Preretirement training in farming was provided to army personnel. All retirees received pensions, and those disabled during service received both a pension and free medical care. In 1985 the Army Welfare Project generated Nu40 million in sales of farm services and products, which ranged from such practical civil activities as fence electrification to protect sugarcane farms from wild elephants in Geylegphug District to entrepreneurial endeavors, such as the manufacture and sale of rum to the Indian Army and Indian Air Force.

[Source: Bhutan - Armed Forces (relevant page), cited 2005]


Here are full texts from the labels

bt1: Produce of Bhutan; For defence services only; Canteen services; XXX Bhutan Rum; 750 ml; 25° UP; 42.8% v/v; 1990; Export Quality; For sale in union territory delhi for defence service personnel only; B.No. 93/152; Mfg. Dt. 8th Dec '93; Blended & Bottled by Army Welfare Project, Samtse, Bhutan; Consumption of liquors is ijurious to the health.

bt4: Produce of Bhutan; XXX Bhutan Rum; Export Quality; 180 ml; 25° UP; 42.8% v/v; 1990; Blended & Bottled by Army Welfare Project, Samdrup Jongkhar, Bhutan

bt5: Produce of Bhutan; XXX Bhutan Rum; Export Quality; 750 ml; 25° UP; 42.8% v/v; 1990; Blended & Bottled by Army Welfare Project, Samdrup Jongkhar, Bhutan

bt2: Buthan Deluxe Rum; Matured In Imported Oakwood Casks; Manufactured by: Samtse Distillery; 25° UP; 41.85 v/v; 750 ml; Kingdom of Bhutan

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