Kunzang Choden (; born 1952) is a

Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainous ...

ese 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. She has a BA Honours in

Psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...

from

Indraprastha College Indraprastha College for Women, also known as Indraprastha College or IP College ( hi, इंद्रप्रस्थ महिला महाविद्यालय), is the oldest women's college in Delhi. Established in 1924, it is a con ...

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

and a BA in

Sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...

from the

University of Nebraska-Lincoln A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

. She has worked for the

United Nations Development Program The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)french: Programme des Nations unies pour le développement, PNUD is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human dev ...

in Bhutan. She and her Swiss husband currently live in

Thimphu Thimphu (; dz, ཐིམ་ཕུག ) is the capital city, capital and largest city of Bhutan. It is situated in the western central part of Bhutan, and the surrounding valley is one of Bhutan's ''dzongkhags'', the Thimphu District. The ancient ...

. ''The Circle of Karma'', published by Penguin Books (India) in 2005, is her first novel. It takes place in the 1950s, the initial period of imperially regulated

modernization Modernization theory is used to explain the process of modernization within societies. The "classical" theories of modernization of the 1950s and 1960s drew on sociological analyses of Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim and a partial reading of Max Weber, ...

in Bhutan. The main character, a Bhutanese woman and road-builder by occupation, is forced to deal both with the traditional, restrictive

gender role A gender role, also known as a sex role, is a social role encompassing a range of behaviors and attitudes that are generally considered acceptable, appropriate, or desirable for a person based on that person's sex. Gender roles are usually cent ...

s of pre-modern Bhutan and the new kinds of

sexism Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on one's sex or gender. Sexism can affect anyone, but it primarily affects women and girls.There is a clear and broad consensus among academic scholars in multiple fields that sexism refers primari ...

developing as men gain economic freedom. Much of the novel is also set in North India. In 2012, Choden and her family founded the publishing house, Riyang Books, in Thimphu. During the 2020

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, Choden's film-maker daughter,

Dechen Roder Dechen Roder (born 1980, Jakar, Bumthang, Bhutan) is a filmmaker from Bhutan. She started as a music video maker and advertisement maker and then started making her own films. In 2011 she made her first film name ''Original Photocopy of Happiness'' ...

, made video recordings of her mother reading her stories and posted them to YouTube for children stuck at home during the lockdown.

Bibliography

* ''Folktales of Bhutan'' (1994) * ''Bhutanese Tales of the Yeti'' (1997) * ''Dawa: The Story of a Stray Dog in Bhutan'' (2004) * '' The Circle of Karma'' (2005) * '' Chilli and Cheese- Food and Society in Bhutan'' (2008) * '' Tales in Colour and other stories'' (2009) *''Membar Tsho - The Flaming Lake'' (2012)

References

* Chaubey, Ajay K, et al. Women Writers of the South Asian Diaspora. Jaipur: Rawat, 2020 {{DEFAULTSORT:Choden, Kunzang Bhutanese writers Bhutanese novelists 1952 births Living people Indraprastha College for Women alumni Delhi University alumni People from Bumthang District Bhutanese women writers 20th-century women writers 20th-century novelists 21st-century women writers 21st-century novelists Women novelists English-language writers from Bhutan