Dr. Kikee Doma Bhutia

Born in Sikkim, Kikee Doma Bhutia is a FWO Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for Buddhist Studies at Ghent University, Belgium. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Namchi Government College in English Honors and a master’s degree in English Language and Literature from the North-Eastern Hill University in Shillong, Meghalaya (India). Before starting her PhD studies, Kikee worked for over two years as a Research Assistant in the Namgyal Institute of Tibetology, Gangtok (India). At the Institute, she was involved in various projects which included the collection of more than 200 proverbs and later transcription, translation, and interpretation of them. She also assisted in the production of an ethnographic documentary, such as Droko, the Yak-herders of the North Sikkim (2017) and Pang Lhabsol – Sikkim’s National Ritual of the land and its Guardian Deities (2015) and Garpo: The Mani Stone Carver of Tashiding (2022).

In 2022, she received her PhD on Mythic history, belief narratives, and vernacular Buddhism among the lhopos of Sikkim from the Department of Estonian and Comparative Folklore at the University of Tartu, Estonia 2022, under the supervision of Prof Ülo Valk. In her thesis, she explores belief narratives regarding yul lha gzhi bdag (Local protective deities) in Sikkim (India), and particularly seeks to draw out the relational principles that connect these deities with villagers in their everyday life. More broadly, her PhD concentrates on Folk belief, belief narratives, and is an exercise in the vernacular theorizing of Buddhist (folk/vernacular) lifeworld in Sikkim. Her research is an exploration of the beliefs, values, stories, and rituals she grew up with, and so she sees her research as both an academic endeavor and a quest for discovering and understanding ‘the self’. Her first article, “I Exist Therefore You Exist, We Exist Therefore They Exist”: Narratives of Mutuality between Deities (yul lha gzhi bdag) and lhopo (Bhutia)villagers in Sikkim” won the 2018 Student Prize for best paper in belief narratives in ISFNR. In addition to that, she has also been a recipient of the Khyentse Foundation PhD Scholarship 2022.

After her defense, she joined the Asia Centre, University of Tartu (2022-2025), as a Research Fellow and India Coordinator.  Within the project, China's and India's foreign policy and sustainable development in the new geopolitical context, she published Examining ‘Vernacular’ Symbols and Symbolic Power in Times of Crisis, which examines the significance and impact of vernacular symbols with national and ritualistic importance, focusing on their roles in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, as well as the Tibetan crisis. She also co-authored Mapping the Scope of China’s Soft Power in Estonia with her colleague from the Asia Centre. 

She has also contributed to policy papers such as: Russia’s Relation with China and India Since the Invasion of Ukraine: Implications for Estonia and the Baltics, Russia’s War in Ukraine: Perspective in China, India, and Singapore, and Political, Economic, and Cultural Role of Asia in Estonia. Additionally, she has contributed to Estonian political magazines Diplomaatia on The Confrontation between the World’s two Superpowers: India and China- in the Himalayan Region (2023) and India-Middle-East Europe Economic Corridor: how to use its potential for the growth of Estonia (2024).

Besides academics, she also acted as a lead actress in a movie called Dhokbu- The Keeper, which aimed to revive and preserve fading folklore, indigenous beliefs, landscape stories of Sikkim.

Her current project, Local Deities, Natural Disaster, and Ritual Waste in Vernacular Buddhist Practices in the Himalayas (2025-2028), supervised by Charles DiSimone, examines the intersection of local religious practices, environmental policies, and waste management in Sikkim, with a particular emphasis on the influence of Buddhist rituals and beliefs on the community's approach to sustainability.