Queen Mother Tshering Yangdon (born June 21, 1959) is the third wife of the former
Bhutanese king,
Jigme Singye Wangchuck
Jigme Singye Wangchuck ( dz, འཇིགས་མེད་སེང་གེ་དབང་ཕྱུག་, ; born 11 November 1955) is a member of the House of Wangchuck who was the king of Bhutan (Druk Gyalpo) from 1972 until his abdicati ...
. She is the current Queen Mother (Gyalyum Kude, literally meaning "Queen Mother") of
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 ...
, as she is the mother of the current Bhutanese king
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 ...
. She is also the mother of King Jigme Khesar's two younger full siblings, Princess ''Ashi''
Dechen Yangzom (b. 1981) and Prince ''Gyaltshab''
Jigme Dorji
Dasho Jigme Palden Dorji (14 December 1919 – 6 April 1964) was a Bhutanese politician and member of the Dorji family. By marriage, he was also a member of the House of Wangchuck.
The brother-in-law of Jigme Dorji Wangchuck, Dorji was c ...
(b. 1986).
Biography
Her father, ''Yab Dasho'' Ugyen Dorji (1925–2019), was the Founder and Proprietor of
Ugyen Academy (03/04/2002). Her mother is ''Yum'' Thuiji Zam (b. 1932).
She was educated at
St. Joseph's Convent,
Kalimpong
Kalimpong (Hindi: कलिम्पोंग) is a town and the headquarters of an eponymous district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is located at an average elevation of . The town is the headquarters of the Kalimpong district. The re ...
, and
St. Helen's School,
Kurseong
Kurseong is a town and a municipality in Darjeeling district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the headquarters of the Kurseong subdivision.
Located at an altitude of , Kurseong is from Darjeeling and has a pleasant climate throughout ...
,
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
.
Humanitarian causes
The Queen founded Bhutan Nun's Foundation (BNF) in March 2009. The foundation's focus is to make nunneries a way to help and empower girls and women through education and economic self-sufficiency.
She was responsible for the building of the
Khamsum Yulley Namgyal Chörten in
Punakha
Punakha ( dz, སྤུ་ན་ཁ་) is the administrative centre of Punakha dzongkhag, one of the 20 districts of Bhutan. Punakha was the capital of Bhutan and the seat of government until 1955, when the capital was moved to Thimphu. It is abo ...
Valley in 2004.
Children
She had, with the former king, the following children:
Patronages
* Royal Patron of the Royal Society for the Protection and Care of Animals.
* Royal Patron of the Royal Bhutan Flower Exhibition.
References
Notes
Bhutanese monarchy
Living people
1959 births
Queen mothers
Wangchuck dynasty
{{Asia-royal-stub