Speaker: Jetsun Deleplanque, Shinjo Ito Postdoctoral Fellow in Buddhist Studies, UC Berkeley
Date & Time: Thursday, January 22, 2026, 5 pm Pacific
Venue: 370 Dwinelle Hall, UC Berkeley
Sponsor: Numata Center for Buddhist Studies, Glorisun Global Buddhist Network
Contact Info: Sanjyot Mehendale, (510) 643-5104, buddhiststudies@berkeley.edu
Access Coordinator: Sanjyot Mehendale, buddhiststudies@berkeley.edu, (510) 643-5104
Abstract: This talk examines the founding of the Drukpa state of Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal (1594-1651), known today as the Kingdom of Bhutan, and its articulation by the seventeenth-century polymath Tsang Khenchen Jamyang Palden Gyatso (1610-1684) in his celebrated biography of Bhutan’s founding figure. Entitled the Song of the Great Dharma Cloud (chos kyi sprin chen po’i dbyangs), Tsang Khenchen’s biography of Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal is much more than a work of biographical edification; it is a founding document that enunciates a distinct vision of the Bhutanese state. Drawing on a close analysis of Tsang Khenchen’s work, I argue that he constructs what I term a “theotopia”: an idealized political order wherein the polity is oriented toward a soteriological goal, the ruler embodies unmediated divine presence, and political belonging is conceived as karmic destiny. Rather than religion legitimating politics or politics instrumentalizing religion, this framework reveals a form of “aspirational sovereignty” that challenges standard Western paradigms. Close attention to how the Bhutanese state was conceived offers important resources for theorizing Buddhist sovereignty and rethinking some of the categories through which we understand religion and politics.
See the original event posting here.
