Dorji Penjore

Dorji Penjore is a Bhutanese anthropologist, folklorist, and researcher whose work has contributed significantly to the documentation and study of Bhutan's cultural heritage. He is best known in scholarly circles for his paper "Digging the Past: The State of Archaeological Study of Bhutan," which drew attention to the near-total absence of systematic archaeological research in the country and called for urgent action to preserve Bhutan's material heritage. A prolific author and public intellectual, Penjore has published extensively on topics ranging from Bhutanese folklore and village ethnography to Gross National Happiness (GNH) and the history of controversial political figures.^[1]

Penjore served for nearly two decades as a researcher at the Centre for Bhutan & GNH Studies, one of the kingdom's leading think tanks, before moving to the Royal Institute of Management (RIM), where he currently heads the Department of Research and Consultancy.^[2]

Education and Career

Dorji Penjore holds a doctorate and has built a career at the intersection of anthropology, folklore studies, and cultural research. He joined the Centre for Bhutan & GNH Studies in 2002, eventually rising to the position of Chief Researcher — the institution's most senior research role. During his tenure, he contributed to numerous issues of the Journal of Bhutan Studies, the country's premier academic periodical, and helped shape the intellectual agenda of Bhutanese social science research. In August 2021, he transitioned to the Royal Institute of Management, where he leads research and consultancy activities.^[2][3]

His research specialisms include Bhutanese economic anthropology, oral literature and folklore, village ethnography, social surveys, and qualitative research methodology. He has also served as a faculty member at the Royal Institute for Governance and Strategic Studies (RIGSS), contributing to executive education programmes for Bhutanese civil servants and leaders.^[3]

"Digging the Past" and the Case for Archaeology

Penjore's most widely cited contribution to heritage discourse in Bhutan is "Digging the Past: The State of Archaeological Study of Bhutan," published in the Journal of Bhutan Studies (Volume 36, 2017). Originally prepared as a presentation for an international conference on "The Prehistoric Archaeology of the Tibetan Plateau" held in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China, in August 2011, the paper provides a systematic overview of the near-complete absence of archaeological research in Bhutan and argues that this lacuna represents a significant gap in the understanding of Bhutanese history.^[4]

The paper observes that while Bhutan possesses a rich and varied material heritage — including ancient lithic sites, megalithic structures, petroglyphs, and historic ruins — virtually none of these have been subjected to systematic archaeological excavation or scientific dating. Penjore attributes this to a combination of factors: the country's late entry into the modern world, limited institutional capacity, the dominance of textual and oral traditions in Bhutanese historical methodology, and a cultural reticence toward disturbing the earth, which is considered spiritually sensitive in Bhutanese Buddhist cosmology.^[1]

"Digging the Past" has been influential in drawing both domestic and international attention to the need for archaeological capacity-building in Bhutan and has been cited by scholars working on Himalayan prehistory and heritage preservation.

Other Major Publications

Beyond archaeology, Penjore has published on a wide range of subjects. His monograph Zhidar Matters: The Rise and Fall of a Controversial 17th Century Bhutanese Ruler (2021) examines a little-studied figure in Bhutanese political history. His ethnographic study Love, Courtship and Marriage in Rural Bhutan: A Preliminary Ethnography of Wamling Village in Zhemgang (2009) offers a detailed portrait of social life in a remote eastern Bhutanese community. He has also written on Bhutanese folktales, proverbs, and oral traditions, contributing to the documentation of intangible cultural heritage that might otherwise be lost to modernisation.^[5]

"A Bowl of Suja" Blog

Penjore maintains a personal blog titled "A Bowl of Suja" (a reference to Bhutanese butter tea), which serves as an accessible platform for sharing his research, commentary, and reflections on Bhutanese society. The blog hosts many of his academic papers, book reviews, and essays on cultural topics, making scholarly work on Bhutan available to a wider audience beyond the confines of academic journals. The blog also features the Bhutan Theses Portal, a bibliographic resource that catalogues postgraduate theses and dissertations related to Bhutan.^[6][7]

Significance

Dorji Penjore occupies an important place in Bhutanese intellectual life as a scholar who has consistently advocated for the rigorous study and preservation of the country's diverse heritage — both tangible and intangible. His work on archaeology, in particular, has highlighted a critical gap that, if addressed, could transform understanding of Bhutan's deep past and its connections to the wider Himalayan and South Asian world.

References

1. "Digging the Past: The State of Archaeological Study of Bhutan." A Bowl of Suja (blog), 2021.
2. "Dorji Penjore, PhD." Royal Institute of Management.
3. "Dorji Penjore." Royal Institute for Governance and Strategic Studies.
4. Dorji Penjore. "Digging the Past: The State of Archaeological Study of Bhutan." Journal of Bhutan Studies, Vol. 36, 2017.
5. "My Publications." A Bowl of Suja (blog).
6. "A Bowl of Suja." Blog by Dorji Penjore.
7. "Bhutan Theses Portal." A Bowl of Suja (blog).