A Story of Her Own

The first woman in Bhutan to be published in English, Kunzang Choden, in her memoir Telling Me My Stories, gives an account of belonging, loss, and displacement, against the backdrop of the rapid modernisation in the country in the middle decades of the twentieth century. Exploring superstitions and customs of Bhutanese culture, the book features a colourful cast of unusual characters—yetis, angry spirits, deities, kings and queens, nuns and lamas.

- By SHARMISTHA JHA

Choden, who was sent to a boarding school in Kalimpong, West Bengal, at the age of 9, writes about the social structures of mid-twentieth-century Bhutan that subjugated women. Her mother was married to her father by force.