The Dzongkha Development Commission (རྫོང་ཁ་གོང་འཕེལ་ལྷན་ཚོགས), also called the DDC, is the pre-eminent body on matters pertaining to the

Dzongkha language Dzongkha (; ) is a Sino-Tibetan language that is the official and national language of Bhutan. It is written using the Tibetan script. The word means "the language of the fortress", from ' "fortress" and ' "language". , Dzongkha had 171,080 ...

. The DDC was officially established in 1986 by Jigme Singye Wangchuck, the fourth king of

Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainou ...

, to preserve and promote the use of Dzongkha as the national language of Bhutan. The DDC offices are now located in the Kawajangtsa area of

Thimphu Thimphu (; dz, ཐིམ་ཕུག ) is the capital and largest city of Bhutan. It is situated in the western central part of Bhutan, and the surrounding valley is one of Bhutan's ''dzongkhags'', the Thimphu District. The ancient capital city ...

, close to the National Library of Bhutan and the Ministry of Education. The Dzongkha Development Commission consists of two parts: the Commission itself having nine eminent members (or commissioners) chaired by the Prime Minister of Bhutan; and the DDC Secretariat which carries out the day-to-day work of the Commission. The body has the task of acting as an official authority on the language. It is charged with promoting the use of Dzongkha; researching and publishing official dictionaries and grammar of the language; developing new lexical terminology; and developing software and fonts to support the language.

External links

Dzongkha Development Commission

Bhutan National Policy and Strategy for Development and Promotion of Dzongkha
Dzongkha language Government commissions of Bhutan Language regulators {{ling-org-stub