Karma Phuntsho

Lopen Karma specialises in Buddhism, Tibetan & Himalayan Studies and Bhutan, and has published a number of works including eight books, translations, book reviews and articles on Buddhism, Bhutan and Tibetan Studies. His The History of Bhutan RandomHouse New Delhi (2013) and University of Chicago has been called "the first book to offer a comprehensive history of Bhutan in English" and received Choice Outstanding Academic Title Award in 2015.

In 1997, partly he says because young Bhutanese educated in English looked down on monks even though they were very learned, he joined Balliol College Oxford and read for an M.St. in Sanskrit and Classical Indian Religions under Richard Gombrich, Seyfort Ruegg and Michael Aris. In 2003, he received a D.Phil. in Buddhist Studies from Oxford University. He worked as a post-doctoral researcher in CNRS, Paris and as a Research Associate in the Department of Social Anthropology, Cambridge University. He was also the Spalding Fellow in Comparative Religions at Clare Hall and ran The Historical Study and Documentation of the Pad Gling Traditions in Bhutan project subsequently he spent years creating a digital archive of rare Bhutanese manuscripts. Dr Phuntsho is the first Bhutanese to receive a D.Phil. from Oxford and the first Bhutanese to become an Oxbridge Fellow. In Bhutan he has founded the Loden Foundation, a charity to promote education and entrepreneurship in Bhutan as well as the Shejun Agency for Bhutan's Cultural Documentation and Research.

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. Later, he went to south India to continue his studies spending a year at Sera Monastery then ten years at the Ngagyur Nyingma Institute Since 1994, he has taught Buddhism and related subjects and has served a lecturer at the Ngagyur Nyingma Institute in Bylakuppe and for two years as an abbot at the Shugseb Nunnery in Dharamshala.