Karma Phuntsho

Lopen Karma Phuntsho
Born	Ura, Bumthang, Bhutan
Known for	Buddhist scholar, historian, social worker and founder of the Loden Foundation and Shejun

Lopen Karma Phuntsho (Dzongkha: སློབ་དཔོན་ཀརྨ་ཕུན་ཚོགས) teaches Buddhism and Bhutan’s history, culture and religion. He was born and brought up in Bumthang, Bhutan. He completed his full monastic training before going to Oxford to pursue a DPhil. He is the first Bhutanese to obtain a PhD at Oxford and fellowship at Cambridge. He has worked at Cambridge University, CNRS, Paris, University of Virginia and currently works for the Tsadra Foundation.

He is the author of numerous books and articles including The History of Bhutan, which received Choice Outstanding Academic Title Award. He has also managed numerous projects and directed ethnographic documentaries. He is also the founder of the Loden Foundation, a leading educational charity in Bhutan and the founder and spiritual director of Bodhitse centre for study and contemplation.

He was born in Ura, in the Bumthang district of central Bhutan. He was born as the third child of the Tothchukpo House to his mother who is a scion of Gaden Lam family which traces its origin to Phajo Drukgom Zhigpo, the priest who brought Drukpa Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism to western Bhutan. Karma learnt basic Chokey alphabets and prayers from his father, who is an incarnate priest and farmer from the Tsakaling Choje family, a religious nobility which claims descent from Bhutan's foremost spiritual saint Pema Lingpa and Tarshong Chukpo, house of Ura. He attended Ura Primary School until Class III. Because the school did not have Class IV and he was too small to travel, his parents begged the headmaster to keep him in Ura and repeat. The following year, he travelled to Jakar School with a few friends. The headmaster at the new school mistakenly put Karma again in Class III. Karma today humorously claims that he is perhaps the only person who studied in Class III for three years and received first prizes thrice. Karma spent most of his school winter breaks helping the family cow herder in the neighbouring district of Lhuntse. ^{[citation needed]}

In 1986, he came to Thimphu and had a short spell at Yangchenphug Higher Secondary School before leaving school to become a monk and study Buddhism at Chagri Monastery without even informing his parents. Most of his teachers were utterly disappointed that he quit pursuing a medical career. Later in life, Karma too regretted this, and vowed to support other students to become doctors and nurses.

Dissatisfied with the rigour of Buddhist education in Bhutan, he went to south India to continue his studies. “It was a foolhardy decision to run away with barely Nu.800 in my pocket at the age of seventeen but it turned out to be the best,” he would reminisce. He spent a year at Sera Monastery, where he learnt debate and logic. He then joined the Ngagyur Nyingma Institute but would continue his classes under his two teachers Geshe Pema Gyaltsen and Geshe Gendun Chophel at Sera during weekends. At Ngagyur Nyingma Institute, he studied under over a dozen teachers and successfully completed its nine-year programme doing double examination and receiving top student prizes. Khenpo Pema Sherab, Khenpo Namdrol Tshering, Khenpo Tshewang Gyatso, Khenpo Wangchuk Sonam, Khenpo Katyayana, and Khenpo Tshering Dorji were his main teachers at the institute. He also studied with Nyoshul Khenpo, Khenpo Jigme Phuntsho, Khenpo Pema Tshewang and others who were visiting lecturers at the institute. He was trained in Tibetan language, poetry, history and all aspects of Buddhist theory and practice. Since 1988, he received numerous teachings including Rinchen Terzo, Nyingthig Yabzhi, Longchen Nyingthig, Namcho instructions from His Holiness Penor Rinpoche, who he considers as his first root guru.

In 1997, partly because young Bhutanese educated in English looked down on monks even though the monks were very learned, he planned to continue his studies in a modern Western university. After what he describes as a gruelling process of doing the English language test and applying for admission and scholarships in pre-internet days from a remote monastery in south India, he was extremely thrilled to receive admission and a partial scholarship to Oxford to read for an M.St. in Sanskrit and Classical Indian Religions at Balliol College Oxford. One of his Master’s work on Dharmakīrti’s epistemology was distinguished as the best article a student could write by Ernst Steinkeller, a leading authority on Dharmakīrti’s and was published in the Journal of Indian Philosophy. He continued his study with a DPhil. in Oriental Studies under Richard Gombrich and Michael Aris, with additional external supervision by David Seyfort Ruegg, who became his main academic mentor. He completed his DPhil. in Buddhist Studies from Oxford University in 2003.

Lopen Karma Phuntsho considers himself a lifelong learner and during his time in the UK, he attended training in photography, audio-visual recording, web designing, cataloguing, and French and Chinese language. He also continued his religious study under His Holiness Penor Rinpoche, Alak Zengkar Rinpoche and Dorji Lopen Ngawang Tenzin.

Lopen Karma started teaching junior colleagues at Ngagyur Nyingma Institute in 1990. From 1992, he also regularly served as English interpreter for His Holiness Penor Rinpoche and also intermittently served as an assistant teacher for his Ngondro meditation instructions. When he was in the sixth year of his study at Ngagyur Nyingma Institute, he was sent to head the Ngagyur Shugseb Nunnery. This, he would later recollect, was a very sad but one of the most rewarding experiences in his spiritual development, particularly in understanding the opposite gender. After leading Shugseb for a year and half, he returned to Ngagyur Nyingma Institute where he was an active member of the Ngagyur Rigzod editorial committee, and wrote several short articles on Buddhist topics in Tibetan. In 1997, he finished his monastic studies and was appointed as a lecturer at Ngagyur Nyingma Institute, where he took up intensive teaching, often lecturing six to eight hours a day. During his time in south India, he also attended interfaith dialogues, frequented Maha Bodhi Society in Bengaluru for Theravada teachings and Zen retreat, and also worked with Dalit communities in Karnataka. In 1997, he published his debut book Steps to Reasoning: A Treatise on Logic and Epistemology, which has since been reprinted many times and used as a text book and reference in many Tibetan centres in India and Tibet.

On his way to Oxford in 1997, he went with his close colleague Khenpo Tshewang Sonam to Oslo as research informants for Professor Federick Barth, a renowned anthropologist. While at Oxford, he continued attending interfaith meetings and other gatherings, often led by Michael Aris, who represented his wife Aung San Suu Kyi at various meetings. From 1999, he taught courses on Buddhism for the Faculty of Theology and Religion and also performed religious services.

In 1999, with an intention to help children from economically deprived families to avail education, he founded The Loden Education Trust with some close friends as fellow trustees. He raised funds in the UK, including the initial donation of £50 from his friend Robert Miles, the head porter of Balliol College, to fund students such as Tenzin Pelmo, who is today a history teacher. While he raised the funds in the UK, his erstwhile teacher Kunzang Choden , who was based in Bhutan, used to distribute the funds to deserving beneficiaries. Dame Joanna Lumley inaugurated the first fundraising event and King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck of Bhutan, then the Crown Prince, graced the second event.

In 2003, he completed his studies and became a postdoc researcher at CNRS, Paris, during which he worked on turning his thesis into a book. His first book in English, Mipham’s Dialectics and the Debates on Emptiness, was published by Routledge in 2005. In 2004, he joined the Department of Social Anthropology, Cambridge University as a research associate to study Tibetan manuscripts in Cambridge University Library, Oxford’s Bodleian Library and the British Library. The work on Tibetan manuscripts in these libraries inspired him to study Bhutan’s archival collections and the nationwide digitisation programme, which he led since 2004. In 2005 while continuing as research associate, he was awarded the stipendiary Spalding Fellow in Comparative Religion at Clare Hall. Having received a grant to undertake the historical study and documentation of the Pema Lingpa tradition in Bhutan, he continued at Cambridge University until 2012 although much of this time, he would travel across Bhutan to digitise manuscripts and compile the works of Pema Lingpa. During this period, he also expanded the works of Loden in the UK with the help of mainly his friend Yeone Moser, and also established an office and hired first staff for the Loden Foundation in Bhutan. In 2008, together with Anne Tardy and Gerard Tardy, he initiated the Loden Entrepreneurship Programme to promote social entrepreneurship and also launched Loden’s preschool programme and scholarships for tertiary education.

After returning to live in Bhutan in 2013, he launched his book The History of Bhutan, which he wrote on the sidelines of his work at Cambridge and was published by Penguin-Random House. The book got listed as the 2015 Choice Outstanding Academic Title. He also established Shejun Agency for Bhutan Cultural Documentation and Research and initiated a nationwide documentation of oral and intangible cultures across Bhutan in collaboration with the University of Virginia with funding from Arcadia. From 2013-2018, in addition to supervising ethnographic documentation in all twenty districts of Bhutan amounting to some 3000 hours of recordings and 100,000 photos, he created a Bhutanese cultural inventory and typology, wrote over 250 essays on Bhutanese cultures, and produced many interviews, films and books on culture and contemporary Bhutan. The Shejun Agency was later merged with Loden according to the wishes of its employees.

Between 2016 and 2019, he was also engaged in writing the biography of Guru Rinpoche in partnership with three other Bhutanese authors resulting in the book entitled The Life and Deeds of Padmasambhava: A Bhutanese Chronicle. He also led the project to design the Dzongkha Standard Testing System for the Dzongkha Development Commission. In 2019 and 2020, he served as the deputy-chair of the task force team appointed by the Royal Government of Bhutan for developing the 21st Century Economic Roadmap for Bhutan. From mid-2020, at the height of Covid pandemic, he joined Tsadra Foundation as a writer-in-digital residence to work on the Buddha-Nature project. He currently writes and creates content for the Shantideva project of the Tsadra Foundation.

Since 2000, Lopen Karma Phuntsho has regularly returned to his village in Bumthang to help the villagers organise the Ura Yakchoe festival, document the festival procedures in the form of a written statutes, and produce films about Ura’s festivals. He served the Ura Solidarity Association as a Secretary General for over ten years. Since living in Thimphu, he has put in his resources to build the Bodhitse Centre for Study and Contemplation, where he has compiled a rich library of Buddhist books and regularly hosts spiritual and cultural events.

Writer-in-Digital Residence, Tsadra Foundation

Spiritual Director, Bodhitse Centre for Study and Contemplation

Founder and Trustee, The Loden Foundation

Trustee, Ogyen Choling Foundation

Board Member, International Association of Tibetan Studies

Chairperson, Drukrig Network of Bhutan Scholars

Editorial Committee Member, The Treasury of Lives

Editor, The Druk Journal

Member, Advisory Board of Mountain Hazelnut Ventures

Member, Ura Yakchoe Committee, Ura Solidarity Association

Lopen Karma Phuntsho is an ecumenical follower of contemplative traditions and a regular speaker on Buddhist meditation, and social engagement. He has spiritual training and interests in all Indo-Tibetan Buddhist traditions, Zen and Vipassana, and other spiritual and wisdom traditions. He also loves gardening and outdoor activities, music and art.

Lopen Karma Phuntsho’s mother tongue is Bumthangkha and he speaks Khengkha, Kurtoep, Chocha Ngacha and Tshang fluently. He has learnt to read Pali and Sanskrit, speak and read Nepali and Hindi, and also studied basic French and Chinese. However, he mostly writes and speaks in English, Dzongkha and Tibetan.

• Karma Phuntsho (2013). The History of Bhutan. Nodia: Random House India. ISBN 9788184003116.
• Karma Phuntsho (2005). Mipham's Dialectics and Debates on Emptiness: To Be, Not to Be or Neither. Routledge Critical Studies in Buddhism. London: RoutledgeCurzon. ISBN 0-415-35252-5.
• Karma Phuntsho (2015). Twilight Cultures. Thimphu: Shejun. ISBN 978-999-36-1104-2.
• Karma Phuntsho (2015). The Autobiography of Terton Pema Lingpa. Thimphu: Shejun. ISBN 978-999-36-5322-6.
• Karma Phuntsho (2015). The Biography of Thugse Dawa Gyaltshen. Thimphu: Shejun. ISBN 978-999-36-5323-3.
• Karma Phuntsho (2015). The Biography of Gyalse Pema Thinley. Thimphu: Shejun. ISBN 978-999-36-5324-0.
• Karma Phuntsho (1997). ཚད་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་རིགས་པའི་ཐེམ་སྐས། [Steps to Valid Reasoning: A Treatise on Logic and Epistemology (textbook)] (in Tibetan). Byallakuppe: Ngagyur Nyingma Institute.

• Karma Phuntsho (2007). "Ju Mi pham rNam rgyal rGya mtsho: His Position in the Tibetan Religious Hierarchy and a Synoptic Survey of His Contributions". In Prats, Ramon N. (ed.). The Pandita and the Siddha: Tibetan Studies in Honour of E. Gene Smith. New Delhi: Amnye Machen Institute. ISBN 978-81-86227-37-4.

• Karma Phuntsho (2007). "The Marriage of the Media and Religion: For Better or Worse". In Karma Ura (ed.). Media and Public Culture:Proceedings of the Second International Seminar on Bhutan Studies (PDF). Thimphu: Centre for Bhutan Studies. pp. 19–30. ISBN 978-99936-14-41-8.

• Karma Phuntsho (August 2005). "Shifting Boundaries: Pramāṇa and ontology in Dharmakīrti's epistemology" (PDF). Journal of Indian Philosophy. 33 (4). Springer: 401–419. doi:10.1007/s10781-004-3998-0. S2CID 169766566.

• Karma Phuntsho (2004). "Echoes of Ancient Ethos: Reflections on Some Popular Bhutanese Social Themes". In Karma Ura; Sonam Kinga (eds.). The Spider and the Piglet: Proceedings of the First International Seminar on Bhutan Studies (PDF). Thimphu: Centre for Bhutan Studies. pp. 564–580. ISBN 99936-14-22-X.

• Karma Phuntsho (2004). "H.H. Khenpo Jigme Phuntsho: A Tribute and a Translation" (PDF). Journal of Bhutan Studies. 11. Thimphu: Centre for Bhutan Studies: 129–136.

• Karma Phuntsho (2000). "On the Two Ways of Learning in Bhutan" (PDF). Journal of Bhutan Studies. 2 (2). Thimphu: Centre for Bhutan Studies: 96–126.

• Karma Phuntsho (1996). རྫོགས་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་བཅིང་གྲོལ་གྱི་གཞི། [The Ground for Bondage and Liberation in the rDzogs chen Tradition] (in Tibetan). Byallakuppe: Ngagyur Nyingma Institute.

• Karma Phuntsho (1996). དཔལ་ལྡན་ཟླ་བའི་རང་མཚན་གྱི་གྲུབ་པ་འགོག་པའི་སུན་འབྱིན་རྣམ་གསུམ། [The Three Apagogic Arguments of Candrakīrti against the Proponents of Individually Characterized Existence] (in Tibetan). Byallakuppe: Ngagyur Nyingma Institute.

• Karma Phuntsho (1995). [A Concise Presentation on the Tenets and Two Truths] (in Tibetan). Byallakuppe: Ngagyur Nyingma Institute.

• Karma Phuntsho (2010-05-14). "In response to Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse's article". Bhutan Observer. Retrieved 2014-11-18.

• Karma Phuntsho (2006-10-13). "Bhutanese Reform Nepalese Criticism" (PDF). Society Switzerland-Bhutan. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-11-29. Retrieved 2014-11-18.

See his Curriculum Vitae here.

• LopenKarma
• Loden Foundation
• Articles by Karma Phuntsho - at Open Democracy
• About Dr. Karma Phuntsho
• Interview in the Raven
• Shejun