Bhutanese diaspora communities have created radio programs and podcasts to preserve language, share stories, and address community issues. Notable platforms include Radio Pahichan in Australia, the Dragon Tales podcast, Bhutanese Talk, and the Untold Stories Podcast.
Bhutanese community radio and podcasts in the diaspora represent a growing media landscape created by and for resettled Bhutanese refugees and diaspora communities around the world. Since the large-scale resettlement of over 113,000 Bhutanese refugees beginning in 2007, community media platforms have emerged across multiple countries to preserve language, share cultural heritage, discuss community concerns, and document the experiences of a dispersed population. These range from weekly Nepali-language radio programs to English- and Nepali-language podcasts addressing topics from cultural identity to entrepreneurship.
Radio Pahichan
Radio Pahichan (Nepali: "Identity Radio") is a weekly Nepali-language radio program produced in Adelaide, South Australia, and broadcast through Radio Adelaide, a community radio station. It was founded by Indra Adhikari (also known as I. P. Adhikari), a Bhutanese journalist in exile who was forced to leave Bhutan with his family in 1992 and later resettled in Australia under the UNHCR resettlement program.[1]
The program originally launched under the name Yuba Sansar ("Youth World"), a weekly Nepali-language program run by young Bhutanese in Adelaide. In 2012, Yuba Sansar was awarded the Multicultural Youth Program of the Year by the South Australian Multicultural and Ethnic Affairs Commission — a recognition of its role in supporting refugee integration while maintaining cultural identity.
The program was subsequently renamed Radio Pahichan. It has served as a platform for the Bhutanese diaspora community in Australia to discuss heritage preservation, community news, integration challenges, and stories from the refugee experience. Academic researchers have used Radio Pahichan as a source for studying diaspora identity, with a 2024 study published in South Asian Diaspora conducting interviews through the platform to examine how Bhutanese refugees across generations maintain and shift their identities in distant diasporas.[2]
Indra Adhikari
Indra Adhikari's media career predates his resettlement. While living as a refugee in Nepal, he worked for several publications including The Rising Nepal, The Himalayan Times, Nation Weekly, and Nepalnews.com. He also founded the Bhutan News Service, an exile news outlet. His transition from print journalism in Nepal to community radio in Australia reflects a broader pattern in the Bhutanese diaspora: media professionals adapting their skills to new contexts to serve dispersed communities.
Dragon Tales
Dragon Tales, launched in December 2019 on Spotify by journalist Namgay Zam, is recognized as the first podcast to originate from Bhutan. While not strictly a diaspora production — Namgay Zam is based in Bhutan — the podcast reaches Bhutanese audiences worldwide and has covered topics relevant to both domestic and diaspora communities, including youth culture, environmental issues, and the Bhutanese experience broadly. The show produced approximately 21 episodes, with conversations described as capturing "a uniquely Bhutanese experience."[3]
Bhutanese Talk
Bhutanese Talk is a podcast produced in Grand Rapids, Michigan, that addresses issues within the local Bhutanese community. The show has been described as exploring "intentionally ignored issues" facing the Grand Rapids Bhutanese population, one of the significant Bhutanese-American communities in the Midwest. Episodes have featured Bhutan natives sharing firsthand accounts of growing up with the lifestyle and cultural practices of their home country, as well as discussions of integration challenges, generational differences, and community concerns in the American context.[4]
Untold Stories Podcast
Untold Stories Podcast, launched in January 2022, is co-hosted by Chabi Dhakal from Ontario, Canada, and Sagar Dangal from Michigan, United States. The podcast operates across North American borders, reflecting the transnational nature of the Bhutanese diaspora. Its stated goal is to create a platform for "casual and raw conversation" with personalities from fields including business, sports, community service, education, and entertainment. Episodes are distributed across YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and other platforms.[5]
Notable episodes have profiled successful Bhutanese-American entrepreneurs and community leaders, including individuals who have built businesses in the resettlement countries. The podcast highlights stories that might not receive coverage in mainstream media, serving as an informal archive of diaspora achievement and experience.
Role in Language and Cultural Preservation
Community radio and podcasts play a particular role in language maintenance for the Bhutanese diaspora. Programs like Radio Pahichan broadcast primarily in Nepali, providing one of the few regular media spaces where resettled Bhutanese can hear and engage with their heritage language in their daily lives. For second-generation Bhutanese growing up in English-dominant environments, these programs offer exposure to Nepali that may not be available at home or in mainstream schooling.
The media landscape also serves a documentary function. Oral histories, personal narratives of displacement and resettlement, and discussions of cultural practices constitute an informal record of the Bhutanese refugee experience that complements academic and institutional documentation.
Challenges
Bhutanese diaspora media faces several ongoing challenges. Audiences are small and widely scattered across multiple countries and time zones. Funding is typically volunteer-based or drawn from small grants. The shift from first-generation Nepali-speaking audiences to English-dominant second-generation listeners creates questions about language of broadcast. Additionally, the political sensitivities surrounding the refugee crisis mean that some topics — particularly those involving direct criticism of the Bhutanese government — may be approached cautiously by media producers who still have family connections to Bhutan.
References
See also
Community Organizations of Bhutanese Diaspora
Community organizations of the Bhutanese diaspora, commonly known as Bhutanese Community Organizations (BCOs), are local nonprofit associations established by resettled Bhutanese refugees in countries including the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Norway. These organizations provide social services, organize cultural events, facilitate civic integration, and serve as the primary institutional framework for diaspora community life.
diaspora·6 min readMental Health in the Bhutanese Refugee Community
The Bhutanese refugee community, both in camps and after resettlement, has experienced disproportionately high rates of mental illness, including depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and suicide. A landmark 2013 CDC study found a suicide rate of 21.5 per 100,000 among resettled Bhutanese refugees in the United States, nearly twice the national average, prompting targeted public health interventions and community-based mental health programmes.
diaspora·6 min readBhutanese Community in Wisconsin
A small Bhutanese-American community of Lhotshampa origin concentrated in Madison and Dane County, with smaller groups in Milwaukee and other cities. Resettled from 2009 onward, primarily through Lutheran Social Services and Jewish Social Services of Madison.
diaspora·9 min readRadio Pahichan
Radio Pahichan is a community media platform serving the Bhutanese refugee diaspora, broadcasting programming in Nepali and English to connect resettled Lhotshampa communities across the United States, Canada, and beyond. Launched as a grassroots initiative, the station provides news, cultural programming, music, oral history segments, and public service information, functioning as a unifying medium for a geographically dispersed population.
diaspora·6 min readBhutanese Diaspora Entrepreneurship: Restaurants
The emergence of Bhutanese and Nepali restaurants in resettlement cities across the United States, Canada, Australia, and beyond represents one of the most visible expressions of Bhutanese diaspora entrepreneurship. From momo shops and dal-bhat restaurants to catering businesses, Lhotshampa entrepreneurs have leveraged culinary traditions rooted in southern Bhutan and the refugee camps to build businesses that serve both their own communities and broader audiences, functioning as cultural ambassadors and economic anchors.
diaspora·8 min readBhutanese Community in South Carolina
A small Lhotshampa Nepali-speaking population resettled in the Upstate and Midlands of South Carolina from 2008 onward through Lutheran Services Carolinas in Columbia and World Relief in Spartanburg, in a state with a much smaller refugee footprint than neighbouring North Carolina and Georgia.
diaspora·9 min read
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