Drukyul’s Literature Festival is an annual celebration of literature and arts in the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan, under the Royal Patronage of Her Majesty the Queen Mother Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck. The festival is an independently organized not-for-profit event that is free and open to all.
Drukyul’s Literary Festival is a life-changing experience in the world’s ONLY carbon-negative country with a gallery of esteemed authors, thought-leaders, and change-makers from around the world. For over a decade, Drukyul’s Literature Festival has been an open and inclusive space for diverse ideas.
VISION
Drukyul’s Literature Festival: Bhutan Echoes’ vision is to cultivate the creation of an enlightened society through books, storytelling, and ideas in pursuit of collective progress and happiness.
MISSION
Drukyul’s Literature Festival: Bhutan Echoes is an annual celebration of works of literature by Bhutanese, Indian, and International writers, thinkers, and influencers. Drukyul’s Literature Festival aims to enlighten, educate, and stimulate by propagating Bhutanese literature, culture, and arts to the world, while also bringing the world’s best and brightest minds to Bhutan.
HISTORY
In 2010, Her Majesty the Queen Mother Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck, co-founded Bhutan’s first literature festival; called Mountain Echoes, as a Bhutan-India initiative. Over the last decade, the festival has welcomed the likes of international literary figures such as Pico Iyer, Ruskin Bond, and Vikram Seth as well as contemporary Bhutanese authors like Aum Kunzang Choden and Her Majesty the Queen Mother, who is herself a celebrated author.
In 2020, the festival began a new chapter. His Majesty the King of Bhutan renamed the festival as “Drukyul’s Literature Festival” with a view to promoting more local engagement. When the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the world, the 2020 festival was not feasible due to restrictions on international travel and large public gatherings. Thus, the DRUKYUL’S LITERATURE FESTIVAL launched Bhutan Echoes, a year-round initiative to nurture a literary culture in Bhutan through social media, online events, and editorial publications.