Royal University of Bhutan

In 1999, Françoise Pommaret started the cooperation with Bhutan in an informal manner through missions funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in the domains of history and Himalayan anthropology. She was then appointed as Technical advisor ( 2005-2011) to the Royal University of Bhutan (RUB).

The CNRS/ RUB cooperation was formalised in 2012 by a MoU and Françoise Pommaret has been since then Associate professor at the College for Language and Culture studies, Royal University of Bhutan.

There are currently three main projects.

1. Bhutan Cultural Atlas
   The project aims at documenting the tangible and intangible heritage of Bhutanese districts with funding coming from different NGOs and UNESCO. Three districts have been completed districts ont été couverts: Bumthang, Trongsa, Zhemgang. Haa is being documented. The data ( audio, visual and texts) are online and available to all.
2. A manual for teaching Dzongkha for is being prepared as a collaboration between Françoise Robin ( Professor of Tibetan at l’ INALCO and associate member of the CRCAO), and the College for Language and Culture studies, Royal University of Bhutan.
3. Since 2017 Françoise Pommaret is also involved in the establishment of the first PhD in anthropology in Bhutan. It is a coopération between the College for Language and Culture studies, Royal University of Bhutan, UCLA ( USA) et le CNRS CRCAO with funding from the Wenner-Gren (USA) Fondation.