Welcome

Introduction

The Dzongkha Development Commission is the leading institute in the country for the advancement of Dzongkha, the national language of Bhutan. It is an independent organisation established by the Fourth King of Bhutan, His Majesty the King Jigme Singye Wangchuk, in 1986.

To preserve and promote the use of Dzongkha, the office carries out planning for the implementation of Dzongkha through the education system and public service of the country as well as codification and elaboration of the language. Codification essentially takes the form of writing grammars, dictionaries, and orthographical rules, etc. in order to standardize the language. Elaboration or functional development includes terminological modernisation and the coining of new words as required.

The office is also continually dedicated to developing standards based support and increased functionality for Dzongkha on all popular computing platforms. The most widely used computing system for Dzongkha is the Unicode based system developed and delivered by this office, which works well on all recent versions of  the MS Windows,  Linux, & Apple OSX operating systems; on the Internet and in applications such as OpenOffice, Microsoft Office and Adobe’s  InDesign. In future we hope to develop support for Dzongkha on mobile computing and communications devices.

 

Improving Dzongkha literary resources, preservation and documentation of the other eighteen indigenous languages native to Bhutan, and recognition and encouragement of indigenous knowledge including Zorig Chusum, astrology, traditional medicine, and human values (or GNH) through Dzongkha education are being encouraged in the country. Many events such as essay competitions, book awards, debates, quizzes, spelling competitions, and media programmes in Dzongkha are also supported by the Commission to enhance and encourage the use of Dzongkha.