Articles

Academic Articles

  1. Strengths and Weaknesses of the Four Traditions of Tibetan Buddhism: A Satirical Counsel by Mipham Namgyel Gyatso (1846-1912), Journal of Tibetan Literature (forthcoming)
  2. Why Buddha-Nature Matters, Buddhadharma, Fall 2023. [Read the article here]
  3. Sacred Art among Hidden Treasures’, Himalayan Art in 108 Objects, Rubin Museum, 2023. [Read the article here]
  4. (with Maki and Pakhoutova), ‘The Earliest Grand Buddhist Clay Sculpture in Bhutan and the Bhutanese Tradition of Clay Sculpting’, Himalayan Art in 108 Objects, Rubin Museum, 2023. [Read the article here]
  5. ‘Traditions: Lost in Change’, The Druk Journal, Autumn 2020, pp. 100-108. [Read the article here]
  6. ‘From Poti to Pixels: Digitising Manuscripts in Bhutan’ Reasons and Lives in Buddhist Traditions: Studies in Honor of Matthew Kapstein, Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2019, pp. 97-109. [Read the article here]
  7. ‘Old Solutions for New Problems: Loden’s Foundation’s Efforts to Leverage Culture for Sustainable Development’, Intangible Cultural Heritage NGOs’ Strategy in Achieving Sustainable Development, Joenju: Intangible Cultural Heritage Centre for Asia Pacific Region, 2018, pp. 56-83. [Read the article here]
  8. ‘Ura Yakchoe: The Grand Festival of Ura Village’, Splendours of Our Culture: Festivals of Bumthang Dzongkhag, Thimphu: National Library and Archives of Bhutan, 2018, pp. 208-221. [Read the article here]
  9. ‘Civil Society: Change, Challenge and Chance’, The Druk Journal, Winter 2017, pp. 15-22. [Read the article here]
  10. ‘The Promise of Broken Youth: A Positive Perspective’, The Druk Journal, Summer 2017, pp. 33-41. [Read the article here]
  11. (With Hetényi, Roux-Mallouf, Berthet, Cattin, Cauzzi and Grolimund), ‘Joint approach combining damage and paleoseismology observations constrains the 1714 A.D. Bhutan earthquake at magnitude 8 ± 0.5’, Geophysical Research Letters, 43, doi: 1002/2016GL071033, pp. 1-8. [Read the article here]
  12. ‘The Cultural Construction of Bhutan: An unfinished story’, The Druk Journal, Spring 2015, pp. 53-61. [Read the article here]
  13. ‘Religious History of the South: A very late review, The Druk Journal, Spring 2015, pp. 112-15. [Read the article here]
  14. ‘The Tibetan Collection in Cambridge University Library’, in Elliot, Diemberger and Clemente, Buddha’s Word: The Life of Books in Tibet and Beyond, Cambridge: Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 2014, pp. 135-6. [Read the article here]
  15. “Closing Address” in Matthew Schuelka, Proceedings from the International Conference on Leveraging Cultural Diversity, Thimphu: Royal Thimphu College, 2013, pp. 51-4. [Read the article here]
  16.  ‘The Provenance and Cataloguing of the Younghusband Collection’, Inner Asia, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 121-130. 
[Read the article here]
  17.  ‘Reflections on Multidisciplinary Approach in Himalayan Studies: The Case of the Book’, in Mckay and Denjongpa, Buddhist Himalaya: Studies in Religion, History and Culture, Gangtok: Namgyal Institute of Tibetology, 2012, vol. 1, pp. 17-28. [Read the article here]
  18.  ‘Tibetan-Mongolian Rare Books and Manuscripts Project’ with Diemberger and Quessel in Diemberger and Phuntsho, Ancient Treasures, New Discoveries: Proceedings of the XIth Seminar of International Association for Tibetan Studies, Andiast: International Institute for Tibetan and Buddhist Studies GmbhH, 2010, pp. 223-248. [Read the article here]
  19.  ‘Unravelling Bhutanese Treasures’ in Diemberger and Phuntsho, Ancient Treasures, New Discoveries: Proceedings of the XIth
Seminar of International Association for Tibetan Studies, Andiast: International Institute for Tibetan and Buddhist Studies GmbhH, 2010, pp. 195-222. [Read the article here]
  20.  Is the grass greener on the ‘Other’ side? (A review article of Meeting the “Other”: Living in the present, gender and sustainability in Bhutan by Rieki Crins), Newsletter 52, Leiden: IIAS, 2009. [Read the article here]
  21.  ‘Gangtey’s Untold Treasures’ in Ardussi and Tobgay (eds), 
Written Treasures of Bhutan: Mirror of the past and bridge of the future – Proceedings of the first international conference on the rich scriptural heritage of Bhutan, Thimphu: National Library, 2009 [Read the article here]
  22.  Ogyen Pema Lingpa, His Life and Legacy’, Dragon’s Gift, the Sacred Arts of Bhutan, Chicago: Serindia Publications, 2008 [Read the article here]
  23.  ‘The Marriage of the Media and Religion: For Better or Worse’,
Media and Public Culture – Proceedings of the Second International Seminar on Bhutan Studies, Centre for Bhutan Studies, Thimphu, 2007, pp. 19-30 [Read the article here]
  24.  ’Ju Mipham rNam rgyal rGya mtsho: His Position in the Tibetan Religious Hierarchy and a Synoptic Survey of his Contributions’, in Prats (ed) Volume in Honour of E. Gene Smith, New Delhi: Amnye Machen, 2007 [Read the article here]
  25.  ‘Shifting Boundaries: Pramāṇa and Ontology in Dharmakrti’s Epistemology’, Journal of Indian Philosophy, vol. 33, no. 4, August 2005, pp. 401-19 [Read the article here]
  26. ‘Nominal Persons and The Sound of Their Hands Clapping: a review article of The Sound of Two Hands Clapping: The Education of a Tibetan Buddhist Monk by George B. J. Dreyfus and Self, Reality and Reason in Tibetan Philosophy by Thubten Jinpa’, Buddhist Studies Review, London, 2004, pp. 225-40 
[Read the article here]
  27.  Review of John Pettit, Mipham’s Beacon of Certainty in Tibet Journal, Vol. XXIX, No.1, pp. 108-12 Dharamsala, 2004 [Read the article here]
  28.  ‘Echoes of Ancient Ethos: Some Reflections on Bhutanese Social Themes’, The Spider and the Piglet, Thimphu: Centre for Bhutan Studies, 2004, pp. 564-80. 
[Read the article here]
  29.  ‘Religion in Bhutan’ in Melton & Baumann (eds) Religions of the World: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Beliefs and Practices, Santa Barbara: ABC-Clio Reference-book House, 2002. [Read the article here]
  30.  ‘On the Two Ways of Learning in Bhutan’, Journal of Bhutan Studies, Vol. 2, No. 2, Centre for Bhutan Studies, Thimphu, 2000, pp. 104-35. 
[Read the article here]
  31. Review of Tom Tillemans, Scripture, Logic, Language: Essays on Dharmakīrti and His Tibetan Successors in Journal of Royal Asiatic Society, London, 2000. [Read the article here]

General Writings

  1. A weekly series on Bhutan’s culture, published initially on Kuensel, Bhutan’s national newspaper as a series called Why we do what we do. (200+ essays on Buddhism and Bhutanese culture elements published since 2014. [Read most of the essays here]
  2. ‘Introduction Bhutanese Buddhist Traditions’ in Bhután, a Mennydörgő Sárkány és az Össznemzeti Boldogság földje, Budapest: Cornivus Univesity, 2023. [Read the article here]
  3. ‘Zorig Chusum’, Window on Bhutan, xix, New Delhi: Royal Bhutanese Embassy, 2022. [Read the article here]
  4. Bhutan’s supreme spiritual leader becomes a trailblazer for Buddhist monasticism, Kuensel, 25 June, 2022 [Read the article here]
  5. The Shingkhar solar project is a great initiative but for a different location, Kuensel, 28 August, 2021 [Readt the article here]
  6. Time to Celebrate the Traditional Losar, Kuensel, 25 January, 2020 [Read the article here]
  7. ‘Safeguarding Culture for Happiness in Bhutan’, ICHCAP Courier, Joenju: ICHCAP, vol. 42, 2020. [Read the article here]
  8. Minding Our Gaps, Kuensel, 21 December, 2019 [Read the article here]
  9. Media Mindfulness: The Buddha’s Advice for our Social Media Frenzy, Kuensel, 11 August 2018 [View the article here] Also in Udumbara,
  10. ‘Trhuebab: The Descent of Sacred Water’, Kuensel, 23 September 2017 [Read the article here]
  11. ‘A Fresh Look at the Buddha’s Message on Drugpa Tshezhi’ Kuensel, 27 July, 2017. [Read the article here]
  12. ‘Review of Sikkim: Requiem to a Himalayan Kingdom’, Kuensel, 30 January, 2016. [Read the article here]
  13. Foreword, Zoltan Valcsicsak, Almomban Bhutanban ebredtem, Budapest: Oniva Kulturalis Beteti Tarsasag, 2015. [Read the article here]
  14. Introduction, Dorji Gyaltshen ed. རྒྱས་སྲས་གདུང་འཛིན་སྤྲུལ་སྐུའི་རྣམ་ཐར་ས་བོན་ཙམ་བཀོད་པ། Taktse: College for Language and Culture Studies, 2015. [Read the article here]
  15. ‘The Man Who Brought Bhutan to Western Readers’, Kuensel, 2015. [Read the article here]
  16. Foreword, Kunzang Choden, Guru Rinpoche is Coming, Thimphu: Riyang Books, 2015. [Read the article here]
  17. ‘Remembering A Renaissance Man: A Personal Tribute To Dasho Shingkhar Lam’, The Bhutanese, 17 October 2014 [Read the article here]
  18. The Blessings of Shingkhar, Bhutan Airline Inflight Magazine, 2014 [Read the article here]
  19.  Leveraging Bhutan’s Cultural Heritage, Bhutan Observer, 31 May, 2013. 
  20. Foreword, Kunzang Choden, Membar Tsho: The Burning Lake, Thimphu: Riyang Books, 2012. [Read the article here]
  21. Have we missed the chance to read Pagar’s books? Kuensel, 3 March, 2012. [Read the article here]
  22.  ‘Bhutan’s Rich Written Heritage’, Bhutan, Tourism Council of Bhutan, Thimphu, 2010 [Read the article here]
  23.  A Memorial to the Shrine of Three Jewels, http://blog.tbrc.org 27 February, 2010 [Read the article here]
  24.  ‘So close to nature: A Story of Bhutan’s Spiritual Ecology’, Bhutan, Tourism Council of Bhutan, Thimphu, 2009 [Read the article here]
  25.  ‘The Selfless Acts of a Buddha: A tribute to H.H. Drubwang Penor Rinpoche’, at http://blog.tbrc.org/ on 15 April, 2009 [Read the article here]
  26.  ‘How the Raven headed the Crown’, Bhutan, Tourism Council of Bhutan, Thimphu, 2008 pp. 62-67 [Read the article here]
  27.  ‘Bhutan’s Unique Democracy: a first verdict’, April, 2008 [Read the article here]
  28.  ‘The Story of the Old Man of Gadan’, Bhutan, Tourism Council 
of Bhutan, Thimphu, 2007 [Read the article here]
  29.   ‘Grappling with Change’, Bhutan Now, November, 2006 [Read the article here]
  30.  ‘Bhutanese Reforms, Nepali Criticism, October, 2006 [Read the article here]
  31.  ‘The Perfection of Wisdom’, Bhutan, Thimphu: Tourism Council 
of Bhutan, 2006 [Read the article here]
  32.  ‘Bhutan’, Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices, Gale Group, 2005 [Read the article here]
  33.  ‘H.H. Khenpo Jigme Phuntsho: A Tribute and a Translation’, 
Journal of Bhutan Studies, Thimphu, 2004, vol. 11, pp. 129-35 [Read the article here]
  34.  ‘Memorial to Michael Aris’, European Bulletin of Himalayan 
Research, 1999 [Read the article here]

Articles in Classical Tibetan

  1. གཏེར་སྟོན་པདྨ་གླིང་པའི་མཛད་རྣམ་དང་ཕྱག་ཤུལ། (Life and Legacies of Terton Pema Lingpa), Bumthang Monlam Chenmo Magazine, Thimphu: Zhung Dratshang, [Read the article here]
  2. ཆེད་བརྗོད། ཕོ་མོའི་སྤང་བླང་བསླབ་བྱ་སྦྲང་རྩིའི་ཆུ་རྒྱུན། Thimphu: KMT, 2014. [Read the article here]
  3. རྫོགས་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་བཅིང་གྲོལ་གྱི་གཞི། (The Ground for Bondage and Liberation in the rDzogs chen Tradition), Bylakuppe: Ngagyur Nyingma Institute, 1996 [Read the article here]
  4. གྲུབ་མཐའ་དང་བདེན་གཉིས་རྣམ་གཞག་མདོར་བསྡུས། (A Concise Presentation on the Tenets and Two Truths), Bylakuppe: Ngagyur Nyingma Institute, 1995. Translated into English by Phil Stanley. [Read the article here]
  5. དཔལ་ལྡན་ཟླ་བ་གྲགས་པའི་རང་མཚན་གྱིས་གྲུབ་པ་འགོག་པའི་སུན་འབྱིན་རྣམ་གསུམ། (The Three Apagogic Arguments of Candrakīrti against the Proponents of Individually Characterized Existence), Bylakuppe, Ngagyur Nyingma Institute, 1996 
[Read the article here]
  6. ‘དགེ་ཚུལ་གྱི་བསླབ་བྱ། (The Precepts of a Buddhist Novice)’, in Dam 
chos ’dul ba’i deb, Bylakuppe, Ngagyur Nyingma Institute, 1995. [Read the article here]