This name uses Bhutanese naming customs. Bhutanese people have two given names, neither of which is a surname or family name unless they are descended from royal or noble lineages.
Ashi Pema Dechen was born in 1918 at Wangducholing Palace to Chumed Zhalgno, Dasho Jamyang (of the Tamzhing Choji family – also known as the Myo family -) and Ashi Decho, daughter of Ashi Yeshay Choden (who was the sister of Druk GyalpoGongsarUgyen Wangchuck).[3]
She had two full-brothers and two full-sisters, and another half-siblings by the second marriages of her parents:
From an early age, Ashi Pema Dechen received a traditional education.
Marriage and family
She married Bhutan's second king, a cross cousin, Jigme Wangchuck, in 1932, when she was 14 years old.[4] They were second cousins and she was his second wife. Ashi Pema Dechen was the half-sister of the maternal grandfather of the current Queen of Bhutan, Jetsun Pema, and she was the great grandmother of the Fifth Druk Gyalpo, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck.
Her elder sister, AshiPhuntsho Choden (1911–2003), was the first wife of her husband since 1923 when she was 12 years old, at Thinley Rabten Palace, Phodrang.[5]
