Neten Zangmo (born 23 September 1961) 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 mountainou ...

ese government official and politician. She headed Bhutan's Anti-Corruption Commission, and was bestowed with the title of Dasho in 2009. On 29 May 2017 she became leader of

Bhutan Kuen-Nyam Party The Bhutan Kuen-Nyam Party (BKP; dz, འབྲུག་ཀུན་མཉམ་ཚོགས་པ, ) was a social democratic political party in Bhutan. Its President from May 2017 to July 2020 was Dasho Neten Zangmo, who took over from Sonam ...

. She resigned the position on September 16, 2018, the day after the party failed to make the first round of voting to compete in the general election, but it took nearly two years for the BKP to accept her resignation. The party founder, Sonam Tobgay, told Bhutan Broadcasting Service that it would be difficult to replace Zangmo, who he considered the party's biggest asset. "Within the BKP family, we have high respect for her and also have expectations from her.” Born in Bumthang and educated at Sherubtse public school in

Trashigang Trashigang ( dz, བཀྲ་ཤིས་སྒང་།), or Tashigang, meaning "fortress of auspicious mount," is a town in eastern Bhutan and the district capital of the Trashigang Dzongkhag (district). The town lies to the east side of the ...

, she started working for the Bhutanese state in 1985 as National Service Trainee and later progressed through the ranks of the

Ministry of Education An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...

. Between 1986 and 1989 she served as the Vice-Principal of the

Royal Bhutan Polytechnic The Jigme Namgyel Engineering College (earlier known as Royal Bhutan Polytechnic, Royal Bhutan Institute of Technology and Jigme Namgyel Polytechnic) is a constituent colleges of the Royal University of Bhutan. It was established in 1972, coinc ...

; between 1990 and 1992 she served as the Principal. On 19 October 1990, she moved to the Royal Technical Institute, where she was the Principal until 1995. She became the Director of the Planning Commission in 1996 and occupied this post until 1999. Between 1999 and 2003 she served as Secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat; and between 2003 and 2006 as Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She was appointed by King Jigme Singye Wangchuck as the Chairperson of the Anti-Corruption Commission on 4 January 2006. As head of the Anti-Corruption Commission, she embarked on a fierce anti-corruption campaign, opening cases on many high-profile people. In a country where corruption did not carry a stigma, she worked to raise public awareness at the same time. She faced threats and insults in the process. However, the King of Bhutan,

Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck ( dz, འཇིགས་མེད་གེ་སར་རྣམ་རྒྱལ་དབང་ཕྱུག་, ; born 21 February 1980) is the Druk Gyalpo (Dzongkha: Dragon King) of the Kingdom of Bhutan. After his ...

, supported her and bestowed upon her the title of Dasho, making her the first woman to attain the title. She has been described as "the Iron Lady of Bhutan" in sources and as "legendary" and "the most important woman in the country" by

Bunty Avieson Carolyn "Bunty" Avieson is an Australian journalist, feature writer, novelist and academic. Career Avieson has a PhD and a Master of Philosophy from Macquarie University, as well as an Associate Diploma of Journalism from RMIT University. I ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zangmo, Neten Bhutanese politicians 1961 births Living people Bhutanese women