diff --git a/langchain/document_loaders/obsidian.py b/langchain/document_loaders/obsidian.py
index 1ad30db7..df5a5d7e 100644
--- a/langchain/document_loaders/obsidian.py
+++ b/langchain/document_loaders/obsidian.py
@@ -9,16 +9,17 @@ from langchain.document_loaders.base import BaseLoader
 class ObsidianLoader(BaseLoader):
     """Loader that loads Obsidian files from disk."""
 
-    def __init__(self, path: str):
+    def __init__(self, path: str, encoding: str = "UTF-8"):
         """Initialize with path."""
         self.file_path = path
+        self.encoding = encoding
 
     def load(self) -> List[Document]:
         """Load documents."""
         ps = list(Path(self.file_path).glob("**/*.md"))
         docs = []
         for p in ps:
-            with open(p) as f:
+            with open(p, encoding=self.encoding) as f:
                 text = f.read()
             metadata = {"source": str(p)}
             docs.append(Document(page_content=text, metadata=metadata))