Throughout history, as nebulous territories assumed ever more stable form and a deeper sense of self, the need for an intelligible medium of communication among the members of diverse communities became increasingly evident. With the evolution of nation-states over time, a distinct language to express the notion of nationhood became a necessity. The concept of the national language is, therefore, at the heart of state-identity and collective integrity. The idea of a national literature though crystallises through time.
For a country that has remained independent and sovereign throughout history, the Bhutan case needs little explanation. Following years of self-imposed isolation, as the country emerged to claim its place in the community of nations beyond its borders, the visionary Father of Modern Bhutan, Druk Gyalpo Jigme Dorji Wangchuck, proclaimed Dzongkha as the national language and directed our erudite scholars, principally Lopon Pemala and Lopon Nado, to develop the necessary teaching and learning materials to develop Dzongkha as a distinct language to be robust enough to bear the new-found impetus of national significance.
This royal decree, issued in the early 1970s, was one of the many priceless legacies of our peerless Monarch before our beloved Third Druk Gyalpo suddenly passed away at a young age of forty-four in distant Nairobi, Kenya. Concerted efforts have been made over time to promote the national language through the mainstream education system as well as civil society organisations, essentially the Non-formal Education programme initiated in the early 1990s.
Druk Gyal Zhipa Jigme Singye Wangchuck issued an important Royal Kasho, in 1993, directing the Royal Government to take all necessary steps to promote and popularise the use of the national language. His Majesty’s command to establish the Dzongkha Development Commission, in 1986, was an important milestone aimed at advancing the cause of our national language.
Over the years, much progress has been made in the institutionalisation, advancement and popular usage of Dzongkha across the social spectrum, even as multi-lingual Bhutan uses a variety of languages for regular communication. Dzongkha is a mandatory subject of study in our education system. The NFE programme has done a truly commendable job in taking our national language to the remotest corners of our country where Dzongkha may not always be the first language of communication. In my travels across our beautiful country, I have had the joy of meeting and interacting with village elders in far-away Merak-Sakten and in remote Dumtoe and distant Dagana hamlets where animated sexagenarian men and women were learning Dzongkha with joy and pride.
Computerisation of Dzongkha has done a tremendous job of making official as well as social communication, writing and recording, design and presentation so much easier and efficient. Now, with Google enabling Dzongkha searches, learning of our national language can advance ever more effortlessly. The advent of new technologies has come as a real boon to the fast-learning young Bhutanese, depending upon where they apply this exciting opportunity.
It is joy to witness on a regular basis common villagers on TV and Radio programmes as well as on Social Media channels speaking Dzongkha with commendable ease and facility displaying excellent command over pronunciation and intonation even though sounds in Dzongkha and other languages often vary significantly! They even compose Dzongkha songs with beautiful lyrics and sing them with ‘full-throated ease’ despite the fact that their mother tongue may often be different. Regular reality shows and singing competitions have been other effective platforms enabling promotion of Dzongkha.
Our national language has received unprecedented impetus as the language of our Parliamentary discussions and deliberations, as the medium of election campaigns and public debates, official communication and public meetings, as the language of court proceedings and petitions, and in many other formal spheres.
The Bhutanese film industry has literally and figuratively swept Bollywood clean off the cinematic stage and entertainment screen through the creative use of our national language with incredible facility and subtlety to express a range of human emotions and to communicate profound messages. The volume and variety of Dzongkha-medium cinema has been truly breath-taking, and going all the way to claim its rightful place in the Oscars.
So much for incredible journey of our national language that has recorded an impressive progress within a relatively short time considering the fact that languages take fairly long to distil and stabilise. If the primary purpose of a language is to serve and facilitate communication, Dzongkha has done a remarkable job over the decades by enlisting the various channels available to it. The standard of reading and writing befitting the status of national language, however, calls for significant efforts to be made.
Even as we derive legitimate satisfaction with the growth and development of our national language through the years, there have been equally valid concerns over the proliferation of other languages to the detriment of Dzongkha. The role of mass media, advent of ever-exciting technological allures, the seductive stimuli generated by commercial advertising, the soul-sucking alternatives available on the mobile phone, coupled with the mismatch between policy and implementation are among the major culprits in often relegating the learning and usage of our national language to a secondary position.
With AI and ChatGPT gaining ground across the system, the integrity of essential Dzongkha remains to be seen. Even as English stands accused of being the single most powerful influence affecting the integrity of our national language, the degenerating standard of English itself leaves much to be desired.
There was a time when our iconic Semtokha Rigney Lobdra used to train and graduate excellent Dzongkha Lopons who, despite having the reputation of being strict disciplinarians, were experts in the teaching and learning of Dzongkha. That generation is now all but gone. The current situation provides smart skills in many areas but the earlier rigour and discipline have been unravelling rapidly indeed. The temptation to make everything light and learner-friendly, while commendable, often robs learning of the necessary discipline required to achieve success.
Something as important as the national language cannot and must not be vetted against marketability criteria as important as the call sounds. Dzongkha, as the country’s national language, has a claim beyond the fluctuations of market-whims and commercial concerns. I am still trying to fathom the rationale for removing Dzongkha-based programmes from our government institutions and left to the goodwill of private colleges. I remember the conscious efforts we made at the Royal Thimphu College to retain the Dzongkha offerings despite calls to replace them with more materially-viable options and instituted research practices, seminar-series and publication of Dzongkha Journal, among other activities to support our national language.
It is important to create a robust Dzongkha teacher preparation programme and depute motivated educators in adequate numbers to all schools and institutions as well as provide regular professional development opportunities to all our Lopons to ensure that they stay on for extended periods after training. One important programme that we had initiated was a special study tour of two weeks to India exclusively for 100 Dzongkha Lopons some of whom had never been on a plane in their life.
Given the vital importance of Dzongkha as the country’s national language that deserves conscious and continuous refinement and development, it would be in the fitness of things to restore the status of the erstwhile Dzongkha Development Commission to its original position and equip it to conduct the many valuable activities and projects that it used to carry out for the promotion of Dzongkha.
Reviewing the strategic curriculum document titled The Silken Knot: Standards for Dzongkha for Schools in Bhutan built on The Silken Knot: Standards for English for Schools in Bhutan that the erstwhile Curriculum Division prepared and implemented to great effect across PP-XII would be a wise move too.
Dzongkha is endowed with an infinite repertoire of literary and linguistic devices including rich metaphors, amazing idiomatic expressions, incredible hyperbolic adventures, timeless allusions, endless humour, profound symbolism and intricate layers of meaning. Dzongkha may be the only language where each word is supposed to have at least three meanings – the outer, the inner, and the real meaning. It may also be the only language where a combination of a positive and a negative expression eventuates in a superlative meaning!
Discovering these linguistic and literary gifts would in itself be an incentive to learn Dzongkha beyond its status as the country’s national language.
Welcome signs are visible. We are witnessing the advent of significant players in the field with exciting alternatives that make the experience of teaching and learning Dzongkha demonstrably more meaningful, rewarding and fulfilling. Educare Skill, for instance, has opened up a whole new world by marshalling the infinite possibilities of animation and active engagement of all faculties and sensory windows. Many hitherto unexplored areas are inviting the curious.
The country will stand to gain and the children benefit from engaging such passionate providers, among others, of alternative pathways in the expanding frontiers of knowledge-discovery and meaning-making. National-building must be a collective effort; it ought to be productive of positive energy, goodwill and trust. The world will open up to us if we are a little more open, a little more positive, and a little more graceful.
Now, it is Dzongkha. In time, it could be something else! Stakes are high and sovereign claims are self-evident.
Contributed by
Thakur S Powdyel
Former Minister of Education
Author: As I Am, So Is My Nation