Saturday, June 28, 2025
  • Webmail
  • Contact Us
  • About BBS
  • Privacy & Policy
ENG
DZO
BBSCL Logo
  • Home
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Sports
  • Education
  • More
    • Announcement
    • Audience Survey Report
    • Programme
    • Radio Dzo-Channel Schedule
    • Radio Mix-Channel Schedule
Radio Live
No Result
View All Result
BBSCL logo
  • Home
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Sports
  • Education
  • More
    • Announcement
    • Audience Survey Report
    • Programme
    • Radio Dzo-Channel Schedule
    • Radio Mix-Channel Schedule
No Result
View All Result
BBSCL logo
Radio LIVE

Monks boost Dzongkha Wikipedia with fresh content

July 23, 2024
in Culture, Education, Other Stories
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
0
SHARES
51
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

English Wikipedia is one of the most visited websites in Bhutan, offering a wealth of facts and information. However, a Bhutanese perspective is essential for topics on Bhutanese culture, history and religion. To address this, a group of monks in Paro participated in a three-day training to contribute to Dzongkha Wikipedia. With support from the Australian Research Council, they created and posted 15 new articles. Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit with contributions from volunteers worldwide.

15 monks with basic English skills from the Serlung Pekar Choling Goenpa attended the training facilitated by three Australian media professionals through the Wiki-Bhutan Project. The monks were introduced to Wikipedia and learned to contribute to Dzongkha Wikipedia by posting articles, audio, video and photographs. Each monk now has a Wikipedia account.

Tenzin Kezang, a 26-year-old blogger and a writing enthusiast previously posted his Dzongkha works on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram but could not garner much viewership. He believes this new platform will help him reach a wider audience and promote Dzongkha.

“This platform will help aspiring writers like me. When we contribute an article, it will be thoroughly checked and edited for sentence structure and grammar, allowing us to learn and improve. This will encourage people like us to write more. Additionally, readers will benefit from the content we provide.”

“We study history, and important figures from the past and as monks, we have valuable knowledge to share. So, this platform will also help us tell these stories and inform those seeking knowledge,” said Sonam Gyeltshen, a participant.

“Today we are allowing students to learn how to use Wikipedia. Once they master it, we will learn from them and we will contribute as well. Today, there are many articles on various platforms and we feel we can also make valuable contributions,” said Tshering Dorji, a teacher at Serlung Pekar Choling Goenpa.

The Dzongkha edition of Wikipedia was started in 2014 by the Wikimedia Foundation to provide content in diverse languages and preserve knowledge in lesser-spoken languages.

Today, there are only about 200 articles on Dzongkha Wikipedia.

“The monastic body holds the culture, the knowledge; they are experts of Dzongkha, they are scholars of dharma. All of these things can be what will make Dzongkha Wikipedia viable to Bhutan. English Wikipedia is one of the most visited websites from Bhutan and this is great because English Wikipedia has so much facts and information but when it comes to culture and Bhutanese history and dharma, then it should be Bhutanese perspective,” said Bunty Avieson (PhD), project leader of Wiki-Bhutan Project.

“We suggested that Zhung Dratshang, especially the Tshugla and Shedras, are relevant for this project because their curricula are in Choekey and Dzongkha. So, this allows monks to translate Chokey into Dzongkha. These translations and contributions will benefit our youths as the country strongly emphasises preserving and promoting Dzongkha,” said Karma Dhendup, administrator of Dzongkha Wikipedia.

“The idea was, for them to look for pages on English Wikipedia about Bhutan and Bhutan-related things and add information on what wasn’t already there, find information that they wanted to correct. And now what we are doing is we have moved across to Dzongkha Wikipedia which has a lot less information. And they will decide what they want to present on Dzongkha Wikipedia because there are not many editors out there who speak Dzongkha but many people could use it as a resource in the future,” said Kathryn Avieson, a trainer at Wiki-Bhutan Project.

So far, the project has trained nearly one hundred monks and nuns across the country. The project will end next year.

Namgay Wangchuk & Karma Samten Wangda

Edited by Sonam Pem

Previous Post

Over 90 per cent of people satisfied with healthcare, finds National Health Survey

Next Post

Revised Farm Road Guidelines to enhance construction standards and maintenance

Next Post
Revised Farm Road Guidelines to enhance construction standards and maintenance

Revised Farm Road Guidelines to enhance construction standards and maintenance

Preliminary Exam sees highest ever registrations, prompting increased demand for coaching classes

Preliminary Exam sees highest ever registrations, prompting increased demand for coaching classes

Bhutan to compete in Olympic marathon for first time

Bhutan to compete in Olympic marathon for first time

Please login to join discussion

RECOMMENDED NEWS

Forestry officials attempt to rescue bear

12 years ago
0
No more subsidized LPG cylinders in major thromdes

No more subsidized LPG cylinders in major thromdes

6 years ago
0

Free ear surgical camp in Paro treats 30

11 years ago
10
Honesty box; a stall unmanned in Dagana

Honesty box; a stall unmanned in Dagana

6 years ago
5

BROWSE BY CATEGORIES

  • Accidents (14)
  • Agriculture (439)
  • Announcement (179)
  • Audience Survey Report (1)
  • Business (759)
  • Crime/Legal (370)
  • Culture (48)
  • Development (57)
  • Disaster (57)
  • Economy (289)
  • Education (419)
  • Entertainment (16)
  • Environment (66)
  • Feature (65)
  • Featured (6)
  • Festival (81)
  • GMC (14)
  • Headlines (5)
  • Health (630)
  • Legal (53)
  • Literature (9)
  • Livestock (76)
  • Media (26)
  • Other Stories (5,687)
  • Politics (419)
  • RCSC (1)
  • Recent stories (6)
  • Religion (45)
  • Sci/Tech (712)
  • Social (548)
  • Sports (456)
  • Technology (191)
  • Tourism (22)
  • Uncategorized (13,868)
  • Video (141)
  • Video Story (257)
  • Wildlife (42)

BROWSE BY TOPICS

Tender Announcement Vacancy Announcement

POPULAR NEWS

  • BPC’s investigation rules out transformer short circuit as Damchhu forest fire cause

    Viral video of Bhutanese man assaulted by locals and police in Jaigaon sparks safety concerns

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Gelephu Mindfulness City opens recruitment drive for Bhutanese professionals

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • A centenarian’s recipe to longevity

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • 40 companies risk closure over failure to submit financial reports

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Post-mortem confirms foul play: Progress in investigation of 24-year-old woman’s death

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
BBSCL

Bhutan Broadcasting Service (BBS) is Bhutan’s primary national broadcaster, delivering diverse news and entertainment in multiple languages, fostering cultural understanding and public knowledge.

Follow us on social media:

Recent News

  • Lead exposure may be contributing to high anaemia levels among children in Bhutan
  • MoIT imposes moratorium on issuance of taxi driving licence
  • Book on temples and monasteries of Trongsa’s Drakteng wins Dzongkha Booker Prize
  • Shumar Cheden Tshephel Detshen becomes self-reliant with own milk processing unit
  • Fire risk from phones at fuel depot low but never non-existent

News Category

  • Accidents
  • Agriculture
  • Announcement
  • Audience Survey Report
  • Business
  • Crime/Legal
  • Culture
  • Development
  • Disaster
  • Economy
  • Education
  • Entertainment
  • Environment
  • Feature
  • Featured
  • Festival
  • GMC
  • Headlines
  • Health
  • Legal
  • Literature
  • Livestock
  • Media
  • Other Stories
  • Politics
  • RCSC
  • Recent stories
  • Religion
  • Sci/Tech
  • Social
  • Sports
  • Technology
  • Tourism
  • Uncategorized
  • Video
  • Video Story
  • Wildlife
  • Webmail
  • Contact Us
  • About BBS
  • Privacy & Policy

© 2024 BBSCL. All rights reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Add New Playlist

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Sports
  • Education
  • More
    • Announcement
    • Audience Survey Report
    • Programme
    • Radio Dzo-Channel Schedule
    • Radio Mix-Channel Schedule

© 2024 BBSCL. All rights reserved.