Beyond the dzong

Following on what some have characterised as an increasingly faltering campaign, recent months have seen a renewed push by the Thimphu government to strengthen the usage of Bhutan's national language, Dzongkha. In mid-May, the Bhutan InfoCom and Media Authority released a draft annex stipulating new rules for the country's film industry. Alongside warnings against depictions of drugs, alcohol use and 'disco scenes', prominent among the 11 points was an admonition to avoid intermixing English and Dzongkha – 'Dzonglish' – words 'as far as possible'. In accordance with official practice, the draft guidelines were released in both English and Dzongkha – seemingly an ongoing necessity, despite the fact that the latter is the country's only official language.

Despite widespread grumbling over the new language rules for 'Thollywood', two weeks later a far more significant piece of policy was mooted. Another piece of draft legislation, this was the Dzongkha Development and Promotion Strategy Framework; it included 48 recommendations put forth by the Dzongkha Development Commission, the body in charge of such things. Most notable among these is a plan to significantly strengthen the amount of Dzongkha-medium classes in the country's schools. While until recently the ratio of Dzongkha-to-English instruction has stood at around 6:2, the new guidelines would push for 'parity' between the two. Certain classes (environmental studies, social studies) would now be entirely in Dzongkha for certain grades, while classes on Dzongkha itself would become a required part of the core curriculum for the upper grades (10-12), as they currently are for lower grades.