Search for the self in The Circle of Karma by Kunzang Choden

The paper focuses on growth of a woman protagonist from a traditional conservative to a modern woman through her voyage in search of identity in the novel The Circle of Karma written by Kunzang Choden, a Bhutanese woman writer of Disapora. The protagonist, living in a small town in Bhutan, spends her childhood under the restrictions of patriarchy. In the youth she is passionate. She travels from Thimpu to Siliguri, Kalimpong and Delhi to search for the self. During her travel to Kilimpong she meets Wangchen and becomes pregnant with his child. But the upheavals in her life disturb her. She wants to be a good wife and a caring sister of her siblings. But she has a miscarriage and baby dies. Later on she starts her pilgrimage in quest of spiritual truth of Karma to know the ultimate truth of life and paths of salvation. She escalates her from an illiterate woman suppressed by male dominated society to a woman who attempts to understand her circle of Karma and struggles to sustain life through the ideals of Buddhism.