The Bhutanese Welfare Association (BWA) honored Nepalese litterateur Dr. Tara Lal Shrestha amidst a felicitation program in Manchester, United Kingdom last week.
“It was a privilege for the community to receive novelist and researcher Dr. Shrestha and recognize his contributions towards highlighting plight of Bhutanese refugees and their struggles”, BWA chairperson, Durga Giri, said in a media circular.
(Picture courtesy: BWA)
He was impressed to witness integration of resettled Bhutanese refugees in the new society in UK after spending around two decades in the refugee camps in Nepal, the statement quoted Shrestha as speaking at the felicitation program.
“The Bhutanese refugees have tremendous potential, and a time would come for the Bhutanese regime to start regretting for evicting these innocent people,” told Shrestha, expressing his hopes of seeing more literary works, journals and publications from the Bhutanese Diaspora.
Shrestha reached London for attending an international conference titled ‘Refugee Voice’ organized by the Refugee Studies Center, University of Oxford, UK, where he presented three academic papers on the Bhutanese refugee imbroglio.
Shrestha, who has done his Ph.D. in Subaltern Studies, has authored ‘Sapanako Samadhi’, a novel based on the Bhutanese refugee issue, and ‘Shakti, Shrasta Ra Subaltern’, both in Nepali language.
He has also edited two books, ‘Albida Beldangi’ and ‘Sakshi’, written by Bhutanese writers Shivalal Dahal and YN Chaulagain respectively.
Currently, he is a lecturer at Central Department of English, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal.
