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, (2024 Vol. 3. No.2) [Read the article here]
  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]

Short Essays

  1. Lhodrak Dharma Senge’s Commentary on The Ultimate Continuum, May 2022. Read here.
  2. Gyaltsap Je’s Interpretation and the Trichiliocosmic Painting, Jan 2022. Read here.
  3. The Theory of Spiritual Gene (gotra, rigs) in Tsongkhapa’s Golden Rosary, Dec, 2021. Read here.
  4. Two Sakya Lamas and Two Synopses, Dec, 2021. Read here.
  5. Paṇchen Sonam Drakpa’s Commentary on The Ultimate Continuum, Dec, 2021. Read here.
  6. Rendawa Zhönu Lodrö’s Kālacakra Exegesis, Dec, 2021. Read here.
  7. Kyotön Monlam Tsultrim’s Meaning of Luminous Essence, Nov, 2021. Read here.
  8. Getse Paṇḍita’s Presentation of Great Middle Way, Nov, 2021. Read here.
  9. Mipam’s Doxographical Classification of Maitreya’s Works, Nov, 2021. Read here.
  10. Maitrīpa’s True Reality, Nov, 2021. Read here.
  11. Chapa’s Commentary on Verse I.154–55 of the Ratnagotravibhāga, Oct, 2021. Read here.
  12. Kyotön Monlam Tsultrim’s Instructions on the Path to Reality, Oct, 2021. Read here.
  13. Jikten Sumgön’s Fivefold Path of Mahāmudrā, Oct, 2021. Read here.
  14. Tilopa’s Six Dharmas for Meditation, Oct, 2021. Read here.
  15. Mikyö Dorje on the Transmission of Middle Way Teachings, Sep, 2021. Read here.
  16. Tāranātha’s Three Commentaries on the Heart Sūtra, Sep, 2021. Read here.
  17. Pema Karpo’s Treasure Vault of Mahāmudrā, Sep, 2021. Read here.
  18. Śākya Chokden’s Polemical Trilogy on Mahāmudrā, The Wheel of Brahma, Sep, 2021. Read here.
  19. Choying Tobden Dorje’s Encyclopedic Work and Buddha-Nature, Aug, 2021. Read here.
  20. Buddha-Nature in Gö Lotsāwa’s Blue Annals, Aug, 2021. Read here.
  21. Sūtra Vehicle and Buddhahood in One Lifetime, Aug, 2021. Read here.
  22. Tāranātha and Yeshe Gyatso’s Presentation of the Middle Way, Aug, 2021. Read here.
  23. Longchen and Buddha-Nature, July, 2021. Read here.
  24. The Great Other-Emptiness, July, 2021. Read here.
  25. Buddha-Nature as Mother’s Milk, July, 2021. Read here.
  26. The Four Noble Truths and Right Eightfold Path in The Ultimate Continuum, July, 2021. Read here.
  27. Śākya Chokden’s History of the Middle Way School, June, 2021. Read here.
  28. Lodrö Tsungme or Longchenpa: Who Is the Author of a Commentary on The Ultimate Continuum? June, 2021. Read here.
  29. Forging a Common Ground between Rangtong and Zhentong, June, 2021. Read here.
  30. Rongtön and Buddha-Nature, June, 2021. Read here.
  31. Gö Lotsāwa’s Monumental Work on Buddha-Nature, May, 2021. Read here.
  32. Kālacakra, May, 2021. Read here.
  33. Gampopa’s Four Dharmas, May, 2021. Read here.
  34. The Precious Lamp, the First Bhutanese Commentary on The Ultimate Continuum, May, 2021. Read here.
  35. Bötrul Dongak Tenpai Nyima and His Elucidation of Mipam’s Thought, April, 2021. Read here.
  36. Kongtrul and His Encyclopedia, April, 2021. Read here.
  37. The Golden Age of Buddha-Nature Discourse in Tibet, April, 2021. Read here.
  38. Ngok’s Understanding of Buddha-Nature as a Seed, April, 2021. Read here.
  39. Taranātha’s Works on Buddha Nature, Mar, 2021. Read here.
  40. Tashi Özer’s Commentary on the Ratnagotravibhāga, Mar, 2021. Read here.
  41. Mipam Gyatso on Buddha-Nature, Mar, 2021. Read here.
  42. Rangjung Dorje on Buddha-Nature, Mar, 2021. Read here.
  43. Remembering Professor David Seyfort Ruegg, Feb, 2021. Read here.
  44. Gompopa and His Jewel Ornament of Liberation, Feb, 2021. Read here.
  45. Chomden Rikpai Raldri and Buddha-Nature, Feb, 2021. Read here.
  46. Candrakīrti and Two Works Attributed to Him, Feb, 2021. Read here.
  47. Sakya Paṇḍita and His Critique of Absolute Buddha-Nature, Jan, 2021. Read here.
  48. Kyotön Mönlam Tsultrim and His Works, Jan, 2021. Read here.
  49. The Four Noble Truths, Jan, 2021. Read here.
  50. Tathāgatagarbhasūtra, Jan, 2021. Read here.
  51. Buddha-nature and Luminosity, Dec, 2020. Read here.
  52. The Life of the Buddha, Dec, 2020. Read here.
  53. The Number Three, Dec, 2020. Read here.
  54. The Saṅgha, Dec, 2020. Read here.
  55. Buddha-Nature and Gender, Nov, 2020. Read here.
  56. The Four Misperceptions, Nov, 2020. Read here.
  57. What is dharma?, Nov, 2020. Read here.
  58. Who is a bodhisattva?, Nov, 2020. Read here.
  59. Buddha-Nature at Death, Oct, 2020. Read here.
  60. The Parable of the Lost Son, Oct, 2020. Read here.
  61. Explaining the term Three Jewels, Oct, 2020. Read here.
  62. Who or What is a Buddha?, Oct, 2020. Read here.

General Writings

  1. Balancing Tradition and Modernity: Preserving Culture for Human Progress, a paper submitted to Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation, 2024. [Read the article here]
  2. 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]
  3. ‘Introduction Bhutanese Buddhist Traditions’ in Bhután, a Mennydörgő Sárkány és az Össznemzeti Boldogság földje, Budapest: Cornivus Univesity, 2023. [Read the article here]
  4. ‘Zorig Chusum’, Window on Bhutan, xix, New Delhi: Royal Bhutanese Embassy, 2022. [Read the article here]
  5. Bhutan’s supreme spiritual leader becomes a trailblazer for Buddhist monasticism, Kuensel, 25 June, 2022 [Read the article here]
  6. The Shingkhar solar project is a great initiative but for a different location, Kuensel, 28 August, 2021 [Readt the article here]
  7. Time to Celebrate the Traditional Losar, Kuensel, 25 January, 2020 [Read the article here]
  8. ‘Safeguarding Culture for Happiness in Bhutan’, ICHCAP Courier, Joenju: ICHCAP, vol. 42, 2020. [Read the article here]
  9. Minding Our Gaps, Kuensel, 21 December, 2019 [Read the article here]
  10. Media Mindfulness: The Buddha’s Advice for our Social Media Frenzy, Kuensel, 11 August 2018 [View the article here] Also in Udumbara,
  11. ‘Trhuebab: The Descent of Sacred Water’, Kuensel, 23 September 2017 [Read the article here]
  12. ‘A Fresh Look at the Buddha’s Message on Drugpa Tshezhi’ Kuensel, 27 July, 2017. [Read the article here]
  13. ‘Review of Sikkim: Requiem to a Himalayan Kingdom’, Kuensel, 30 January, 2016. [Read the article here]
  14. Foreword, Zoltan Valcsicsak, Almomban Bhutanban ebredtem, Budapest: Oniva Kulturalis Beteti Tarsasag, 2015. [Read the article here]
  15. 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]
  16. ‘The Man Who Brought Bhutan to Western Readers’, Kuensel, 2015. [Read the article here]
  17. Foreword, Kunzang Choden, Guru Rinpoche is Coming, Thimphu: Riyang Books, 2015. [Read the article here]
  18. ‘Remembering A Renaissance Man: A Personal Tribute To Dasho Shingkhar Lam’, The Bhutanese, 17 October 2014 [Read the article here]
  19. The Blessings of Shingkhar, Bhutan Airline Inflight Magazine, 2014 [Read the article here]
  20.  Leveraging Bhutan’s Cultural Heritage, Bhutan Observer, 31 May, 2013. 
  21. Foreword, Kunzang Choden, Membar Tsho: The Burning Lake, Thimphu: Riyang Books, 2012. [Read the article here]
  22. Have we missed the chance to read Pagar’s books? Kuensel, 3 March, 2012. [Read the article here]
  23.  ‘Bhutan’s Rich Written Heritage’, Bhutan, Tourism Council of Bhutan, Thimphu, 2010 [Read the article here]
  24.  A Memorial to the Shrine of Three Jewels, http://blog.tbrc.org 27 February, 2010 [Read the article here]
  25.  ‘So close to nature: A Story of Bhutan’s Spiritual Ecology’, Bhutan, Tourism Council of Bhutan, Thimphu, 2009 [Read the article here]
  26.  ‘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]
  27.  ‘How the Raven headed the Crown’, Bhutan, Tourism Council of Bhutan, Thimphu, 2008 pp. 62-67 [Read the article here]
  28.  ‘Bhutan’s Unique Democracy: a first verdict’, April, 2008 [Read the article here]
  29.  ‘The Story of the Old Man of Gadan’, Bhutan, Tourism Council 
of Bhutan, Thimphu, 2007 [Read the article here]
  30.   ‘Grappling with Change’, Bhutan Now, November, 2006 [Read the article here]
  31.  ‘Bhutanese Reforms, Nepali Criticism, October, 2006 [Read the article here]
  32.  ‘The Perfection of Wisdom’, Bhutan, Thimphu: Tourism Council 
of Bhutan, 2006 [Read the article here]
  33.  ‘Bhutan’, Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices, Gale Group, 2005 [Read the article here]
  34.  ‘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]
  35.  ‘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]