My name is Yangchen Lhamo and I am 31 years old. In 2015, I graduated from Royal Thimphu College with a degree in Business Administration, specialized in Marketing. My passion in life is creating and improving the well-being of all sentient beings, animals and people. I love learning and exploring new things and meeting new people. My professional career spans almost 8 years, and I have experience in a wide variety of fields. From marketing to animal welfare to finance to sustainability to community engagement to yoga and meditation.
Yoga Aficionado
My interest in yoga developed gradually when I started to self-practice at home, using YouTube videos as instruction. Later on I got taught by a Bhutanese traditional medicine doctor who also was an internationally certified yoga teacher. This piqued my interest to take a step further in my yoga journey, and I decided in 2020 to travel to Rishikesh in India, popularly known as the birthplace of yoga. There I started out with a 200 hours, month-long, Yoga Teacher Training Course from one of the renowned yoga schools named Rishikul Yogshala. In 2022, I again went there for my 300 hours Yoga Teacher Training Course. Yoga now has become as essential to me as oxygen is to any living being. I thoroughly enjoy my daily practice, and even after the most exhausting day at work I won’t think of skipping a day. Practicing in Mother Nature inspires me. From in the woods to on the riverside, or while hiking one of Bhutan’s numerous mountain tracks.
Animal Lover
Following in the footsteps of my father, who is known for his love and care of all animals, I spend my time in the pursuit of improving animal welfare, both in my personal as well as professional life. My bond with animals keeps getting stronger every day. Whenever I can, and wherever I am, I find myself advocating animal rights. Creating awareness among my fellow Bhutanese on the importance of “adoption” over “importing & purchasing” of pets. I have a motherly love for all animals and try my best to be a voice for the voiceless. To protect them in any way I can. I believe a simple act of compassion towards other sentient beings will definitely make a difference in the world and will go a long way to your good karma. As I believe in practicing what you preach, I adopted an injured free roaming dog myself, and I daily feed and care for the free roaming dogs in my surroundings. In 2021, I also co-founded Doghouse Bhutan, a not-for-profit organization building doghouses for the many free roaming dogs in Bhutan.
Vegetarian
As a lifelong vegetarian, I strongly believe that it is morally, ethically and religiously wrong to eat other living beings. Animals are unique creatures with senses and behaviorism very much like those of humans. If you prick them, they bleed. If they lose a loved one, they grieve. They will do anything to protect their young from danger. They have a lot of love to give. Animals have equal rights to live on this planet earth as much as we humans do. They should not be considered our food, clothes, slaves, entertainment or guinea pig for experiments. Different people have different reasons for becoming a vegetarian. From health issues to religious beliefs, or out of concern for animal rights and environment. Whatever your reason, it’s imperative to know where your food comes from and what you are putting in your body. Research has proven, without a shadow of a doubt, that consumption of meat is one of the biggest environmental hazards facing the earth.