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Bhutan was founded and unified as a country by the Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal in the mid-1600s. After his death the country nominally followed his recommended "dual system of government" which split control between an administrative leader (the Druk Desi), and a religious leader, the (Je Khenpo). In practice, regional penlops, or governors, often administered their districts in defiance of the power of the Desi Druks, until the rise of the unified monarchy in the early 20th century.