Books
With his first book published in 1997, Lopen Karma Phuntsho has authored and edited many books both in Classical Tibetan and English. His interests include Buddhist philosophy, logic, epistemology, history, culture, grammar, history, culture and social-cultural changes.
སྤྱི་ལོ་ ༡༩༩༧ ནས་བཟུང་མཁས་དབང་སློབ་དཔོན་ཀརྨ་ཚོགས་ནས་དཔེ་དེབ་གསར་རྩོམ་དང་རྩོམ་སྒྲིག་དུ་མ་གནང་ཡོད་ཅིང་། དེ་ཡང་བརྗོད་དོན་ ནང་ཆོས་ཀྱི་ལྟ་གྲུབ། ཚད་མ་དང་རིགས་ལམ། རྣམ་ཐར་དང་བྱུང་རབས། ལམ་སྲོལ་དང་བརྡ་ཡིག ལོ་རྒྱུས་དང་མི་སྡེའི་འགྱུར་བ་སོགས་ཀྱི་སྐོར་རྩོམ་སྒྲིག་བྱས་པ་ཡིན།
Authored Books
ཨུ་ར་གཡག་མཆོད་ཆེན་པོའི་དཀར་ཆག་བཅའ་ཡིག་ལུགས་བཟང་གསལ་བའི་མེ་ལོང་། The Statutes of Ura Yakcho: A Clear Mirror Showing a Sacred Tradition
Forthcoming | Ura Solidarity Association
Most Bhutanese in the past passed down their values, principles, knowledge, skills, practices and customs in oral forms. Yakcho, the grand annual festival of Ura, is one such tradition for which the procedures, programmes, roles and responsibilities are passed down orally. As Bhutan’s moves from an oral past to an audio-visual present, this is the first attempt to document the oral transmission as written codes of conduct for the grand festival, based on successive interviews with village elders and direct participation in the festival.
Draft to be published in 2025.
ཨོ་རྒྱན་གྱི་སློབ་དཔོན་ཆེན་པོ་པདྨ་འབྱུང་གནས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་ཐར་པདྨ་ཐང་ཡིག་འབྲུག་ཡུལ་མ། The Life and Deeds of Padmasambhava: A Bhutanese Chronicle
2020 | National Library and Archives of Bhutan, Thimphu
(Co-authored) Padmasambhava, who is affectionately known as Guru Rinpoche or Precious Teacher in Bhutan, plays a very significant role in the spiritual, religious, cultural, and political life of Bhutan. He can be considered as the patron saint of Bhutan and he is said to have a special connection with the land of Bhutan. Yet, not a single biography of Padmasambhava out of about two dozen full biographies from the past mention his life in Bhutan in detail. This book, written by four traditional scholars, synthesises in thirteen chapters the life and deeds of Padmasamabhava highlighting his time, activities, and legacies in Bhutan in a simple Choekey narrative.
Contact NLAB for this bookThe History of Bhutan
2013 | Penguin Random House, New Delhi
Bhutan continues to enchant the rest of the world with its policy of Gross National Happiness and has become a very popular destination for travel. But despite its growing popularity and the rising scholarly interest in the country, Bhutan remains one of the most poorly studied places on earth. This book is the first attempt by a Bhutanese to cover the entire history of Bhutan in English, combining both traditional perspectives and modern academic analysis. The book tells the story of Bhutan in a narrative style interspersed with some analytical and topical discussion and numerous citations and translations from earlier writings. It also includes substantive discussions of Bhutan’s geography, culture, and society to give the readers an insightful introduction to the country.
Find this bookMade in Bhutan
2016 | The Loden Foundation, Thimphu
(Co-authored). In 2008, Bhutan took the stage as the world’s youngest democracy. Through its policy of Gross National Happiness, Bhutan has inspired an international trend for new development paradigms. It has also become known as an environmental champion. Bhutan has seen another significant change in the same year. When the Loden Entrepreneurship Programme began in 2008, there was no local term for ‘entrepreneurship’. Today, the country is witnessing ‘a movement of entrepreneurship’ that is beginning to shape the economy and character of the nation. Made in Bhutan – Entrepreneurs Stories captures the spirit, fervour, disappointments and achievements of these ‘change makers’ who are building an intelligent and caring culture of business and Buddhist entrepreneurship in Bhutan.
Read the book hereMipham’s Dialectics and the Debates on Emptiness: To be, Not to be or Neither
2005 | London: RoutledgeCurzon
This book, taken from his DPhil. thesis, is a comprehensive introduction to the concept of Emptiness in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism. It examines the critique by the leading Nyingma philosopher Mipham (1846–1912), one of Tibet’s brightest and most versatile minds. It synthesizes numerous theories and arguments formulated by Mipham on Emptiness in his diverse writings. Main issues discussed in it include what is negated by the doctrine of Emptiness, the nature of ultimate reality and scholastic and meditation approaches to Emptiness. These issues continue to be the subject of lively debate among contemporary exponents of Tibetan Buddhist thought. It highlights Mipham’s qualms about the Gelukpa understanding of Emptiness in a mixture of narrative and analytic styles. For the first time, a major understanding of Emptiness, variant to the Gelukpa interpretation that has become dominant in both Tibet and the West, is revealed in English.
Find the book hereཚད་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་རིགས་པའི་ཐེམ་སྐས། Steps to Valid Reasoning: A Treatise on Logic and Epistemology
1997 | Ngagyur Nyingma Institute
This book is a gradual introduction to Tibetan Buddhist logic, dialectics, epistemology, psychology, and ontology presented in seventeen chapters. It was first published in Ngagyur Nyingma Institute in 1997 and has seen been printed many times in India and Tibet. The book is widely used as reference and also as a textbook in many monastic colleges. The author sides with the position of Ju Mipham Namgyal Gyatso, a leading Nyingma scholar in the nineteenth century, on various philosophical issues.
Read the book hereདུས་གསུམ་རབ་གསལ་འོད་སྣང་གསར་པ། New Radiance: Tibetan Tense Formation
1993 | Ngagyur Nyingma Institute, Mysore
(Co-authored) Based on the lessons by Goe Pema Gyaltsen, one of the most well known grammarians of Tibetan language in the twentieth century, this booklet contains the rules for Tibetan tense conjugations by Khenpo Tshewang Sonam and their application in different examples by Lopen Karma Phuntsho. First published in 1993 and widely used by students, the book also contains tables which summaries the tense formations and the physiological origins of sounds in Tibetan language.
View the book hereEdited Books
The Life and Works of Kyotön Monlam Tsultrim
2023 | The Loden Foundation, Thimphu
The book contains the thirty-two tracts mostly attributed to Kyotön Monlam Tsultrim, the abbot who led Narthang monastery at the peak of its history. A resolute monk, a meditation master, a learned scholar, author, and public figure, he epitomized the high ideals, practices, and approaches of the Kadam school and championed its traditions of scriptural exegesis and meditation instructions. An illustrious figure of his time in Central Tibet and a Kadam luminary, he also left behind religious writings which hold great significance for Tibetan Buddhist scholarship and practice today. The book is a rendering of old manuscripts in archaic script recently discovered from Drepung Library in an easily readable computer typeset sponsored by Tsadra Foundation.
Read this book hereTwilight Cultures
2015 | Shejun
Bhutan is going through a serious transition. The ethnographic accounts in this collection document the traditional cultures of four remote communities in Bhutan – Ngangla Trong, Lotokuchu, Lumbey and Kengkhar – and the challenges which confront them in the face of rapid modernisation and globalisation. The articles in this book, which came about as a result of the project Preserving and Leveraging Bhutan’s Unique Cultural Diversity undertaken by Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation, capture the nostalgia, excitement, dilemma, and misgivings of a society at a culture crossroads.
Read this book hereThe Autobiography of Terton Pema Lingpa
2015 | Shejun
Tertön Pema Lingpa is the most eminent Bhutanese figure in history and a source of Bhutan’s religion and cultural traditions. His rediscovered teachings, writings, religious and family lines and artistic traditions today influence the religious, cultural, social and political systems and practices in Bhutan. This new edition of his autobiography, prepared and distributed as part of the activities to celebrate 500 years since his demise, compares the various sources from remote archives in Bhutan and brings out for the first time the life and works of Bhutan’s great cultural hero in a scholarly fashion.
Read this book hereThe Biography of Thugse Dawa Gyaltshen
2015 | Shejun
(Co-edited) Thugse Dawa Gyaltshen not only carried on the family and religious lines of his father Pema Lingpa but was also a master in his own right. His religious activities and influence in the areas of Bhutan and Tibet, which he earned through his teachings in general and expertise to avert Mongol forces in particular, were comparable to those of Pema Lingpa. In this new publication of his biography written by Jatshon Mebar, we can find a historical writing of literary excellence laden with accounts of Dawa Gyaltshen’s life and the socio-political and religious situation of Bhutan in his time.
Read this book herePema Lingpa Day: Guru Practice and Prayers
2020 | Religious Commission of Bhutan
This booklet contains three texts composed by Pema Lingpa, which are supplications and guru yoga liturgies to be used to pray to Pema Lingpa himself. The two shorter ones are also translated into English. The booklet also contains a brief account of Pema Lingpa’s life and legacies in Dzongkha and English. It was published to observe the 500th year since Pema Lingpa’s demise and designed to be used during the Pema Lingpa Day annually.
Read this book hereThe Biography of Gyalse Pema Thinley
2015 | Shejun
(Co-edited) Gyalse Pema Thinley was a scion of the Pema Lingpa family line, an erudite monastic teacher and the leading patriarch of the Pema Lingpa tradition who carried benevolent works in Tibet and Bhutan. He established Gangteng Sa-ngag Chöling monastery, which became a vibrant centre for the preservation and promotion of the Buddhism in general and the Pema Lingpa tradition in particular. This biography by his student Tshultrim Dorje gives us a rare insight into his life and the situation of Bhutan and Tibet in his days.
Read this book hereAncient Treasures, New Discoveries: Proceedings of the XIth Seminar of International association for Tibetan Studies
2010 | Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers
(Co-edited) In recent times, an unprecedented number of cultural treasures have been brought to light with the resurgence of scholarly endeavours in Tibet and surrounding areas. Thanks to digital technology, these discoveries can be easily shared with the global community of scholars and practitioners. This volume is an outcome of a panel organised at the 10th conference of the International Association of Tibetan Studies in Bonn, Germany and contains ten articles on various endeavours and findings of literary research in the Himalayan Buddhist world.
Get the book hereསྔ་འགྱུར་འོད་གསལ། Ngagyur Clear Light
1992 | Ngagyur Nyingma Institute, Mysore
(Co-edited) This is the first issue of the annual journal of Ngagyur Nyingma Institute published by Ngagyur Rigzoed Editorial Committee. The issue contains scholarly articles by leading Khenpos and scholarly monks of Ngagyur Nyingma Institute in Namdrolling. Perhaps one of the earliest issue of a journal from a Tibetan monastic college, it has become a trailblazer in this area.