Kunzang Choden (Dzongkha: ཨམ་ཀུན་བཟང་ཆོས་སྒྲོན་གྱི་སྐོར།; born 1952)[1] is a Bhutanese writer. She is the first Bhutanese woman to write a novel in English.
Choden was born in Bumthang District. Her parents were feudal landlords. At the age of nine, her father sent her to school in India, where she learned English.[2] She has a BA Honours in Psychology from Indraprastha College in Delhi and a BA in Sociology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She has worked for the United Nations Development Program in Bhutan. She and her Swiss husband currently live in Thimphu.[3]
The Circle of Karma, published by Zubaan Publishers Pvt. Ltd in 2005, is her first novel. It takes place in the 1950s, the initial period of imperially regulated modernization in Bhutan. The main character, a Bhutanese woman and road-builder by occupation, is forced to deal both with the traditional, restrictive gender roles of pre-modern Bhutan and the new kinds of sexism developing as men gain economic freedom.[4] Much of the novel is also set in North India.
In 2012, Choden and her family founded the publishing house, Riyang Books, in Thimphu.[5][6]
During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, Choden's film-maker daughter, Dechen Roder, made video recordings of her mother reading her stories and posted them to YouTube for children stuck at home during the lockdown.[7]
^Zubaan Books. Circle of Karma website Archived 2007-10-20 at the Wayback Machine.
^Avijit Ghosh. "Coming full circle." The Telegraph (Kolkata). 3 April 2005.
^Zubaan Books Archived 2007-10-20 at the Wayback Machine
^Mathai, Anna Sujatha (17 July 2005). "Rooted in the soil and earth". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 20 December 2015. Retrieved 14 January 2019.
^"Our own Penguin". The Bhutanese. Retrieved 11 May 2022.
^"About". Riyang Books. Retrieved 11 May 2022.
^"Tell Me A Story: Rediscovering The Lost Art Of Oral Narrations".
KunzangChoden (Dzongkha: ཨམ་ཀུན་བཟང་ཆོས་སྒྲོན་གྱི་སྐོར།; born 1952) is a Bhutanese writer. She is the first Bhutanese woman to write a novel in English...
national sport of Bhutan. The first non-archer to compete for Bhutan was KunzangChoden in the 2012 Olympics. She competed in the women's 10m air-rifle event...
archery. The Bhutanese delegation included archer Sherab Zam and shooter KunzangChoden. Zam was the flag bearer for both the opening and closing ceremonies...
2013. Her coach is KunzangChoden who competed for Bhutan at the 2012 Summer Olympics. She competes in AR-40 rifle events. Lenchu Kunzang was selected as...
Akhtar ul Iman, and the writers Vikram Seth, Anita Desai, Amitav Ghosh, KunzangChoden, Upamanyu Chatterjee, Ali Sardar Jafri, and the Padma Vibhushan recipient...
first woman Director General of Police Kavita Kaushik, television actor KunzangChoden, first Bhutanese woman to write a novel Kusha Kapila, fashion editor...
Ashi Phuntsho Choden (1911 – 24 August 2003) was the Queen consort of Bhutan, as the wife of King Jigme Wangchuck. Ashi Phuntsho Choden was born in 1911...
sisters-in-law to be banished from his palace, never to return. Author KunzangChoden published a Bhutanese tale titled Gyalpo Migkarla: an old couple live...
best known for his novel Train to Pakistan; Padma Vibhushan recipient KunzangChoden B. A. (Psychology) writer Mukul Kesavan St. Stephen's College historian...
Biodiversity Centre, Ministry of Agriculture and Forests. pp. iii. KunzangChoden (2008). Chilli and cheese : food and society in Bhutan. Walter Roder...
Karma's former school headmistress and acclaimed Bhutanese writer KunzangChoden who was living in central Bhutan, joined him to identify children in...
labor, then a bride and groom might elect to set up their own home. KunzangChoden, Bhutanese author who focuses on the experience of women Polygamy in...
lovely maiden who marries him, but the khan lusts after her. Author KunzangChoden published a Bhutanese tale titled The Shepherd: a poor shepherd grazes...
Princess (Druk Gyalsem) Pema Choden Wangchuck (by his second wife). Princess Choki Wangmo Wangchuck had two daughters, Ashi Deki Choden and Ashi Sonam Yulgyal...
Kunzang Thinley, 18th and 20th Dzongpon of Thimphu, and his wife, Sangay Drolma, a noble lady from Kurto Khoma.[citation needed] Her father, Kunzang Thinley...
re-consecrated by the 25th Je Khenpo Sherab Gyaltshen. In 1971, Kesang Choden Wangchuck, the queen of Jigme Dorji Wangchuck built a Guru Temple next to...
also known as the Myo family -) and Ashi Decho, daughter of Ashi Yeshay Choden (who was the sister of Druk Gyalpo Gongsar Ugyen Wangchuck). She had two...
Paro Penlop, Tshering Penjor (1902–1949). Wangchuck married Ashi Kesang Choden Wangchuck (born 1930), the daughter of Gongzim (Lord Chamberlain) Sonam...
Nepal, Bhutan and India. His first son, the former crown prince Tenzing Kunzang Jigme Namgyal, died in 1978 in a car accident. His second son from his...
Perfection, p. 12. Simon and Schuster. "Minyak Kunzang Sonam". The Treasury of Lives. Retrieved 2021-10-17. Kunzang Pelden (2010). The Nectar of Manjushri's...
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