Phuntsho Dema's Journey from Countryside to World Champion
From running an hour to school in rural Mongar to winning gold at the Universal Yoga Sports Federation World Cup 2025, Phuntsho Dema’s inspiring journey powers GaZum FITNESS and Bhutan’s growing yoga movement.
Every morning, a little girl in Mongar Chali laced up her shoes and ran. Not to a track, not to a gym but just to school, an hour away, and then an hour back home. She didn’t know it then, but those daily runs through the countryside were the laying foundation for something far greater than she could have imagined.
The now 27 year-old Phuntsho Dema is Bhutan’s gold at the Universal Yoga Sports Federation World Cup 2025 and the founder of GaZum FITNESS, a community she built from passion and a borrowed dream.
Growing up in rural Mongar, Phuntsho described herself as shy, someone who wasn’t exposed to many activities. Basketball, volleyball, and football came to her late, what came early was a love of running and a dream she held close to becoming a sports teacher.
“Looking back, I realise that dream eventually led me to where I am today,” said Phuntsho.
She discovered yoga at 21.
Building GaZum
Phuntsho noticed that many people didn’t show much interest in yoga, so she adapted. She became a Zumba instructor, and in doing so, discovered the sweet spot between discipline and joy. She named her studio GaZum FITNESS, “Ga” in Yoga and “Zum” in Zumba. But, the name carries more weight than syllables. In Dzongkha, “GaZum” means simple. “I hope to bring to every individual who joins, creating a positive, motivating, and joyful fitness community.”
Launched on June 29,2023, her clients became her “GaZum Champions,” a community she poured herself into, and one that would later break her heart to leave.
September 30, 2024 changed everything
After a morning BodyCombat session,Phuntsho stepped outside her studio where her right knee locked. She couldn’t bend it. She dragged herself home. The diagnosis; a grade-3 meniscus tear. Complete rest for three months.
“The knee pain was bad,” she recalled, “but the heartbreak was worse.” Walking into her own studio, the space she built, only to stand and watch others lead was almost more than she could bear.
She tried every treatment available in Bhutan. She rested. She waited. And every time she believed she was healing and tried to move, the pain came back, keeping her awake at night.
“My heart ached leaving behind my GaZum champions but after a lot of thought, I realised this could be a good break for my knee and for everything that has been weighing me down.”
She recalled the day she accepted the job offer in the Maldives. She reflected it as not a retreat, but as reset. A retreat on an island. A chance to recover, grow, and return stronger.
An island and a competition
Life in Maldives was relentless. Phuntsho’s days began with setting up activities and games, leading aqua exercises, hosting team games, guiding yoga and stretching sessions for resort guests, only after all of it did she carve out time for her own practice. Evenings brought quizzes and parties, the kind of endless hospitality energy that leaves the body craving rest.
After long shifts in the heat, her muscles felt heavy, her energy depleted. Some evenings, she said, she felt like giving up when everyone else had left to rest.
Then came news of the Universal Yoga Sports Federation World Cup 2025. She booked a flight to India.
But months of conducting only beginner sessions had taken a toll. When she finally returned to serious training, her body felt foreign, stiff, aching, as though her muscle memory had quietly packed up and left. She had no coach. No one to correct her alignment or shape her flow. Just her, the poses, and the silence of uncertainty.
One day, close to abandoning the competition entirely, she pressed play on a song, Tsho Zhi and before it began, she heard His Majesty's speech:
"…there is only one way forward — give your full effort, face challenges, finish what you start, and work with determination…"
She played the song on repeat. She practiced until the doubt gave way to something steadier.
“Those words remind me why I began,” she said. “They gave me strength to keep going where I felt like stopping.”
Gold for Bhutan
December 27, 2025, in Delhi, India, standing on the international stage of Universal Yoga Sports Federation World Cup 2025 alongside athletes from across the world, Phuntsho Dema did not just compete, she represented every morning run, every sleepless night of knee pain, every evening she trained alone while others rested.
She won gold.
It was not her first international podium. Back in 2020, during COVID, she had entered the My Life My Yoga global video contest organised by ICCR and India's Ministry of AYUSH, a competition drawing participants from around 130 countries and finished second in the Female Adult category globally. But this was different. This was a stage she had nearly talked herself out of reaching.
“Winning the gold medal made all the hard work, discipline, and sacrifices worthwhile," she said. "It felt deeply rewarding to represent my journey and efforts on an international platform."
The travel and entry costs had been significant for someone funding herself. But her answer to the question of whether it was worth it is immediate and absolute: knowing that her effort could inspire others, promote yoga in Bhutan, and inch her closer to her larger dream that was enough.
What Comes Next
Phuntsho Dema is not finished. She wants to deepen her training across various fields of yoga and meditation. She talked about Gelephu Mindfulness City, His Majesty's bold vision for a new kind of Bhutanese city, and her hope to contribute to its wellness and mindfulness programming.
Above all, she wants to teach. To inspire more Bhutanese to step onto the mat, find their breath, and discover what they are capable of.
The GaZum smile, it turns out, looks good on a world stage.
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