Lam Dorji

Lam Dorji (born on 23 October 1933 in Haa) was the Chief Operations Officer (COO) of the Royal Bhutan Army (RBA) from 1964 to 2005. He was succeeded by Batoo Tshering on 1 November 2005.

Lam Dorji graduated from the Indian Military Academy in Dehradun, India at the end of 1954, and completed a post-training attachment with a range of Indian Army units and instructional schools. In March 1959, he received his first assignment, to establish the RBA training center in Wangduephodrang. He also represented the Armed Forces at the National Assembly. In 1962, during the Indo-China war, he was posted in Lingmithang to over see the training of a military force drawn from Kurtoe, Bumthang, Mongar, and Shumar (now Pema Gatshel). He was promoted to the rank of Maktsi wogma [Lieutenant Colonel] on 7 August 1962, and served as the Commandant of the Training Center from 1963 to 1964. On 25 November 1964, he was appointed as the Chief Operations Officer at the army headquarters in Thimphu by the King Jigme Dorji Wangchuck, who promoted him to Maktsi (Full Colonel) in 1970, and promoted him to the rank of Goongloen Wogma (Major General) in June 1981. He was further promoted as Goongloen Gongma (Lt. General) on August 2, 1991. Goongloen Gongma Lam Dorji, like other members of his generation, helped pioneer the infrastructure development of Bhutan as the king took over the helm in the early 1970s.

As General Secretary of the National Sports Association of Bhutan, from 1974 to 1978, he worked directly under King Jigme Singye Wangchuck to develop the Changlimithang Stadium and the Royal Thimphu Golf Club. In 1979, under the command of King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, the RBA built the 21-kilometre Laptsakha irrigation channel in Punakha at a fraction of the estimated cost, enabling the resettlement of over 200 landless pensioners and bringing into cultivation over 1,200 acres of land. In 1981, he was appointed Chairman of the Government Welfare Project, now known as the Army Welfare Project (AWP), a project conceived and launched by the king to generate funds for the welfare of servicemen and to provide employment for retired personnel. Aimed at being a sustainable commercial venture that proved to be an example to other government ventures and corporations, AWP now earns more than Nu. 200 million a year.

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