Dr Karma Phuntsho | Impressions of Happiness

(Dr) Lopen Karma Phuntsho is the Director for Shejun Agency for Bhutan’s Cultural Documentation and Research. He was a Research Associate at Department of Social Anthropology and Spalding Fellow for Comparative Religions at Clare Hall, Cambridge University and a researcher at CNRS, Paris. Dr Phuntsho finished full Tibetan Buddhist monastic training in Bhutan and India before he joined Balliol College, Oxford to read Sanskrit and Classical Indian Religions. He received a D.Phil. in Oriental Studies from the University of Oxford. He was also a visiting fellow at Harvard, a lecturer at Ngayur Nyingma Institute, Mysore and acting abbot of Shugbseb Nunnery, Dharamsala before he joined Oxford.

Dr Phuntsho’s earlier works were in Buddhist philosophy, epistemology, Tibetan language and religion. His current researches focus on Bhutanese historiography, socio-cultural changes in Bhutan and intervention through education, books and manuscripts in the Buddhist Himalaya and the exploration and preservation of Bhutan’s cultural heritage. He is a leading expert on Bhutan and the author of several books and numerous articles. He founded the Loden Foundation, a charity to promote education and entrepreneurship in Bhutan.

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