In 1616, Ngawang Namgyal, became shabdrung — At Whose Feet One Submits — the leader of Bhutan.

"Considered the first great historical figure of Bhutan" today's "History of" country.

He promulgated a code of law and built a network of impregnable dzong, a system that helped bring local lords under centralized control and strengthened the country against Tibetan invasions....

Circa 1627, during the first war with Tibet, Portuguese Jesuits Estêvão Cacella and João Cabral were the first recorded Europeans to visit Bhutan on their way to Tibet. They met with Ngawang Namgyal, presented him with firearms, gunpowder and a telescope, and offered him their services in the war against Tibet, but the shabdrung declined the offer....

The legal code, called Tsa Yig, was based on "duties and virtues inherent in the Buddhist dharma" and "remained in force until the 1960s."