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{{Infobox ethnic group
| group            = Sharchop
| image            = 
| caption          = 
| pop              = 212,500{{citation needed|date=August 2022}}
| popplace         = Eastern [[Bhutan]] ([[Lhuntse District|Lhuntse]], [[Trashiyangtse District|Trashiyangtse]], [[Mongar District|Mongar]], [[Pemagatshel District|Pemagatshel]], [[Trashigang District|Trashigang]], [[Samdrup Jongkhar District|Samdrup Jongkhar]])<br>[[Southwest China]] ([[Tibet Autonomous Region]])<br/><br> [[Northeast India]] ([[Assam]] and [[Arunachal Pradesh]]  (Monpa tribes: Khalaktang, Dirang; Memba tribe: Tuting))
| langs            = [[Tshangla language|Tshangla]]{{·}}[[Monpa people#Languages|Monpa languages]]{{·}}[[Dzongkha]]{{·}}[[Tibetic languages|Tibetan Languages]]
| rels             = [[Tibetan Buddhism]]{{·}}[[Bon]]
| related-c        = [[Monpa people|Monpa]]{{·}}[[Ngalop people|Ngalop]]{{·}}[[Tibetan people]]
}}
The '''Sharchops''' ({{langx|dz| ཤར་ཕྱོགས་པ}}, {{bo|w=shar phyogs pa}}; "Easterner") are the populations of mixed [[Tibetan people|Tibetan]], [[Southeast Asia]]n and [[South Asia]]n descent that mostly live in the eastern districts of [[Bhutan]].<ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7uIjCQAAQBAJ&q=sharchop+South+Asian+mix&pg=PA79 | title=A Political and Economic Dictionary of South Asia| isbn=9781135355760| last1=Schottli| first1=Jivanta| last2=Mitra| first2=Subrata K.| last3=Wolf| first3=Siegried| date=2015-05-08}}</ref>

==Ethnicity==
The Sharchops are an Indo-Mongoloid{{Dubious|date=December 2023|reason=I'm pretty sure this is scientific racist nonsense.}} people who migrated from [[Assam]], [[Arunachal Pradesh]], or possibly [[Burma]],<ref>{{Cite book|title=Encyclopedia of the World's Minorities|publisher=Routledge|year=2005|isbn=1-57958-468-3|editor-last=Skutsch|editor-first=Carl|location=New York|pages=218}}</ref> c. 1200 – c. 800 BC.<ref>{{cite web|title=Culture of Bhutan|url=http://www.everyculture.com/A-Bo/Bhutan.html|work=Countries and Their Cultures|publisher=Advameg, Inc.|access-date=30 September 2013}}</ref>  [[George van Driem|Van Driem]] (1993) indicates that Sharchops are closely related to the [[Monpa people|Mönpa]] and that both are descendants of the indigenous Tibetic peoples (pre-[[Ngalop people|Ngalop]]) of Bhutan. Due to the societal prominence and political power of Dzongkha-speaking Bhutanese, however, Sharchops are marginalized in Bhutan.<ref>{{cite web|title=U.S. Committee for Refugees World Refugee Survey 1999 - Bhutan|url=http://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6a8c413.html|work=United States Committee for Refugees and Immigrants|access-date=29 September 2013|date=1 January 1999}}</ref>  The Sharchops are the largest ethnic group in Bhutan.<ref name=vanDriem93>{{cite web|url=http://repository.forcedmigration.org/pdf/?pid=fmo:3003 |format=PDF |last=van Driem |first=George L. |author-link=George van Driem |title=Language Policy in Bhutan |publisher=[[School of Oriental and African Studies|SOAS]] |location=[[London]] |year=1993 |access-date=2011-01-18}}</ref><ref name=vanDriem1>{{cite book|first=George |last=van Driem |year=2001 |title=Languages of the Himalayas: An Ethnolinguistic Handbook of the Greater Himalayan Region |publisher=Brill |page=915 ''et seq.''}}</ref>

==Population==
The Sharchops comprise most of the population of eastern Bhutan, a country whose total population in 2010 was approximately 708,500.<ref name=CIA/> Although they have long been the largest single ethnic group in Bhutan, the Sharchop have been largely assimilated into the culturally and politically dominant Tibetic Ngalop culture.<ref name=CS-EG>{{Country study|author=Robert L. Worden |country=Bhutan |abbr=bt |section=Ethnic Groups |editor=Andrea Matles Savada |date=September 1991 |pd=yes}}</ref>  Together, the Ngalop, Sharchop, and tribal groups constituted up to 72 percent of the population in the late 1980s, according to official Bhutanese statistics.<ref name=CS-EG/><ref name=CS-s>{{Country study|author=Robert L. Worden |country=Bhutan |abbr=bt |section=Society |editor=Andrea Matles Savada |date=September 1991 |pd=yes}}</ref> The 1981 census claimed that Sharchops represented 30% of the population, and Ngalops approximately 17%.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/bhutan/backgrounders/index.html |title=Bhutan Backgrounder |work=SATP online |publisher=South Asia Terrorism Portal |date=2002-09-20 |access-date=2011-07-10}}</ref> [[The World Factbook]], however, estimates that the "Bhote" Ngalop and Sharchop ethnic groups together comprise approximately 50% of Bhutan's population, at 354,200 people.<ref name=CIA>[https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/bhutan/ Bhutan]. ''[[The World Factbook]]''. [[Central Intelligence Agency]].</ref> Assuming Sharchops still outnumber Ngalops at a 3:2 ratio, the total population of Sharchops in Bhutan is approximately 212,500.

==Language==
Most Sharchops speak [[Tshangla language|Tshangla]], a [[Tibeto-Burman]] language; fewer speak the [[Olekha language]].<ref name=SIL1>{{cite web|url=http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=BT |title=Languages of Bhutan |work=[[Ethnologue]] Online |publisher=[[SIL International]] |location=[[Dallas]] |year=2006 |access-date=2011-01-18}}</ref> They also learn the national language, [[Dzongkha]]. Because of their proximity to Northeastern India, some speak [[Assamese language|Assamese]]. [[Boro language (India)|Bodo]] is also known to many of them because of socio cultural and trade relations.

Tshangla is also spoken by the [[Monpa people|Monpa (Menba)]] national minority across the border in [[China]], distributed in [[Mêdog County|Mêdog]], [[Nyingchi Prefecture|Nyingchi]] and [[Dirang]]. Tshangla is similar to the Kalaktang and Dirang languages spoken by the Monpa of [[Arunachal Pradesh]], India.<ref>[[Roger Blench|Blench, Roger]] (2014). Sorting out Monpa: The relationships of the Monpa languages of Arunachal Pradesh.</ref>

==Lifestyle==
Sharchop peoples practice [[slash-and-burn]] and ''tsheri'' agriculture, planting dry rice crops for three or four years until the soil is exhausted and then moving on,<ref name=CS-EG/> however the practice has been officially banned in Bhutan since 1969.<ref name=CS-F>{{Country study|author=Robert L. Worden |country=Bhutan |abbr=bt |section=Farming |editor=Andrea Matles Savada |date=September 1991 |pd=yes}}</ref><ref name=FAO>{{cite web|url=http://www.fao.org/docrep/006/v8380e/V8380E01.htm |title=Shifting Cultivation in Bhutan: A Gradual Approach to Modifying Land Use Patterns |publisher=[[FAO]] |work=Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations online |year=1987 |access-date=2011-03-13}}</ref>

Most of the Sharchops follow [[matrilineal]] lines in the inheritance of land and livestock.<ref>{{cite web |title=Fact Sheet Bhutan. Women in Agriculture, Environment and Rural Production |url=ftp://ftp.fao.org/Gender/BHU.PDF |publisher=[[FAO]] |work=Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations online |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170518092735/ftp://ftp.fao.org/Gender/BHU.PDF |archive-date=2017-05-18 |url-status=dead |access-date=8 Sep 2017 }}</ref>

==Religion==
Most Sharchops follow [[Tibetan Buddhism]] with some elements of [[Bön]], although those who live in the [[Duars]] follow [[Animism]].<ref name=CS-EG/>

==See also==
*[[Ethnic groups in Bhutan]]
**[[Monpa people]]
**[[Ngalop people]]
**[[Lhotshampa]]
**[[Toto people]]
*[[Demographics of Bhutan]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Bhutanese society}}

[[Category:Ethnic groups in Bhutan]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Tibet]]