Bhutan: Dorji Yangki

Born in Dungkhar Village, Bhutan, Dorji Yangki is one of the first women architects in Bhutan, the first woman architect elected President of the Bhutan Institute of Architects (BIA), and the first woman elected as the chair of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation of Architects (SAARCH). Yangki holds a bachelor’s and a master’s of architecture from Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia (1996), and a master’s degree in the conservation of historic buildings from the University of York in York, England. She was a Loeb Fellow at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts (2008–2009). She has studied and trained abroad in Japan, Norway, the Netherlands, India, France, and the United Kingdom. Yangki was appointed the chief architect and head of the Division for Conservation of Heritage Sites at the Ministry of Home and Cultural Affairs, where she led restoration projects throughout Bhutan for over 15 years. She also worked in private practice, establishing an architectural firm in Bhutan where she served as principal architect. Recently, Yangki was appointment managing director of the Office of the Government of Gelephu Mindfulness City Authority (GMCA, 2025). Yangki contributed to the Bhutanese Architecture Guidelines published by the Ministry of Works and Human Settlement of the Royal Government of Bhutan (2014), and she contributed to the first Bhutan Green Building Guidelines, published by the Department of Engineering Services of the Ministry of Works and Human Settlement, Bhutan (2013).