Despite being physically challenged with low vision in his both eyes, Aash Man Rai of Khudunabari camp has been playing a number of musical instruments since two decades. Among others, he says he has developed an affair with flute and regards that he is more attached to playing flute than other instruments.
The whole camp residents call him ‘Bubu’, which according to him, means ‘brother’ in Rai language. A man of amazing quality, 37-year-old Bubu spends most of his time in the camp-based elderly care center daily, although the center is without any senior citizen. Vidhyapati Mishra of Bhutan News Service talked to him last Friday in Khudunabari camp in the premises of elderly care center. He claims that he has chosen this place to play his flute since his mother is against his attachment to music and musical instruments.
The Druk National Congress (DNC) held a condolence meeting in connection to untimely death of party’s Founding President Rongthong Kunley Dorji, Saturday.
Well-wishers of DNC and party leaders (Picture courtesy : DNC)
Several well wishers of the party expressed their condolences to late Dorji’s family at the program held at Nepal Bar Association in Kathmanduu, informed party General Secretary Karma Duptho today.
Prayers based on the Buddhism were also recited at the program followed by one-minute silence before the start of the condolence meeting, according to Duptho.
Expressing heartfelt condolences to Dorji’s family, Arjun Thapa, Head of Foreign Affairs from the Madeshi Janadhikar Forum said the Nepali government must stress for the repatriation of refugees.
“The lingering issues of Bhutanese question owe due to diplomatic failure of Nepalese government,” he said.
According to Sarba Raj Khadka, an NGO activist, Dorji’s contribution towards democracy and human rightsin Bhutan would be remembered by the history. (Condolences offered by other well wishers)
Dr DNS Dhakal and Balaram Poudyal, among other exiled leaders were also present at the program.
A Bhutanese woman lights butter lamp in California (Picture courtesy : Mohan Tamang)
Meanwhile, the Bhutanese community in California lit 108 butter lamps on November 4 in 2906 Octavia Street in Oakland praying for late Dorji’s eternal soul to rest in peace.
The Bhutanese diasporas in California also denounced the recent report ‘Rongthong Kunley dies at 73’ published in Kuenselonline, informed Mohan Tamang from California.
“Even the death of an enemy must be honored. The report is reiteration of Bhutan’s fabricated charges against him trying to malign further even his corpse,” said Tamang.
Bhutanese Community in The Netherlands (BCN) organized a Dashain-Tihar, get together cum new comers welcome program on 30th October 2011.
The event which started at 11am was organized at Oase Trefcentrum community hall located in the Dutch city of Utrecht.
Shashi Poudyal, President of Netherlands based Nepal Development Academy (NDA) and the honorary representative of Nepal Tourism Board to the Netherlands was the chief guest. Other invited guests included NRN Netherlands president Narayan Acharya, Dutch writer and film maker Alice Verheij.
Participant dancing at the show/photo-BCN
Welcoming everybody in the program BCN General Secretary T.B. Gurung highlighted the basic objectives of the BCN and its program.
He said that the sole objective of BCN is to work for the social and cultural promotion and the integration of the resettled Bhutanese living in The Netherlands to the Dutch community.
Speaking on the same occasion BCN former general secretary Ram Bahadur Karki Chhetri highlighted the challenges and difficulties he faced during his early days of arrival in The Netherlands and informed the masses on the importance of community organization like that of BCN. He welcomed all newly arrived Bhutanese in the Netherlands and wished them a bright future.
BCN new Central Committee officially gave a farewell to the former Central Committee members with token of appreciations for nurturing BCN.
Chief Guest Poudyal spoke on the challenges and opportunities that the new comers have to face in the Netherlands and said, “Integration to the Dutch society should be the top priority of the resettled Bhutanese in The Netherlands”.
Speaking on behalf of the Netherlands based Nepalese community Netherlands chapter NRN president Narayan Acharya suggested BCN to work pro actively for the establishment of Human Rights and Democracy in Bhutan assuring his help in all possible ways.
Dutch writer and film maker Alice Verheij summarised her experiences during four months shooting films and writing book on Bhutanese refugees staying in Damak. She read some pages of her book on Bhutanese refugees and explained her reason for making a documentary on Bhutanese refugees.
BCN welcoming the new arrivals.
Speaking on behalf of new arrivals, Devi Charan Basnet expressed his gratitude to BCN for welcoming them at the airport and organizing such a wonderful programme. Young Bhutanese artists also played Deushi and Bhailo on the stage while Manish Rizal surprised audience with his well versed and meaningful speech.
Incoming BCN president D.P Mainali and former president Dr. L.P Dhakal jointly concluded the programme while Chief Guest Poudyal presented prizes to all the participants of cultural programs as well as other activities.
President Mainali also presented a gift to all guests thanking them for their presence. Program chairman Dr Lakshmi Prasad Dhakal officially closed the program around 5pm by reiterating the importance of promoting BCN as an umbrella organization of all the Bhutanese based in The Netherlands.
Meanwhile, BCN also welcomed two groups of around 100 Bhutanese resettled from refugee camps in Nepal at the Schiphol airport. Each of the new comers was welcomed with a bunch of flower by BCN team. BCN president Mainali and representatives from various Dutch agencies working for the refugees were also present on the occasion.
Every year Netherlands has been resettling around 100 Bhutanese refugees since 2009. Including vulnerable resettled Bhutanese as yet around 350 Bhutanese refugees got resettled in The Netherlands.
(Reported by Ram Bahadur Karki Chhetri in The Hague for BNS)
The Literary Council of Bhutan (LCB), which was renamed from its previous name earlier in June, marked 103rd anniversary of Mahakabi Laxmi Prasad Devkota amidst various literary and cultural programs in Khudunabari, Tuesday.
Chief Guest Ganesh Rashik claps his hands during the event (Picture courtesy : Prakash Angdembe)
Vice-chairman of the Council, Shiva Dahal, said that it was also an opportunity for the Council to inform of its activities and restructuring to exiled mass.
“Since its restructuring and renaming in June, the Council was planning to bring a program in camp for formal announcement, and we did it this time,” said Dahal.
Popular Nepali singer Ganesh Rashik, who was present as the chief guest, rocked Khudunabari with his famous song “Rato Bhale Kwaha Kwala…”.
Several artists from both Nepali and Bhutanese community presented their literary items to mark the anniversary.
Audience gathered to watch LCB's program in Khudunabari camp (Picture courtesy : Dilan Samal)
Also, half a dozen songs and dances were also presented during the event that gathered a significant number of people from the camp and its vicinity.
Youth Friendly Center, Camp Management Committee and artists of the camp also played their crucial role in managing the event, informed Vice-chairman Dahal.
The Council has been very active in promoting literature of exiled Bhutanese through various activities. It has also been running a well-viewed portal www.bhutaneseliterature.com since three years.
At a time when Nepal that has failed to convince Bhutan to accept its citizens back home or internationalise the refugee imbroglio even after two decades, is trying to depopulate exiled Bhutanese from the UN-monitored camps, a few dedicated exiled Bhutanese including the camp secretaries and septuagenarian medical doctor Bhampa Rai are struggling to install a Bhutanese museum in Nepal.
Being planned to set up in either Sanischare or one of the Beldangi camps, the museum aims to preserve culture, identity and history of the Bhutanese citizens in exile.
Saradha Adhikari (Timsina)
“Our dream of keeping evidences in Nepal shall clear the allegation of the regime to keep overshadowing international community that we are not Bhutanese citizens,” explains Sarada Adhikari (Timsina).
Like Adhikari Dr Lakshmi Prasad Dhakal, Executive Director of the Punya Foundation,comments that museum, as a concept, is extraordinary. “If this idea would materialize, it will keep our eroding history alive. It will definitely give a space, a space to think and internalise our tragedy in days to come – to us, younger generation and to the world as whole.”
Adhikari, who has a Master’s degree in Finance from the Tribhuwan University, is chairperson of the Organization Protecting Indigenous Culture & Identity of Exiled Bhutanese (OPICEB). Other executives of the organization included camp secretaries, Dr Bhampa Rai as Museum Resource Analyst, and Multimedia and Animation Specialist Tika Ram Timsina.
Based on the permission of the local authority, the OPICEB has its camp-based office in Sanischare camp.
“The struggle to set up a working office in the camp was challenging,” says Adhikari recalling her initial days in the past, “However, we are lucky that aid agencies including the Lutheran World Federation and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees also supported the local authority’s decision to offer the office space in Sanischare.”
Meanwhile, the organization said it has been lobbying with the government authority to obtain legal status for establishing the museum in government land but with a proposed management team from within the Bhutanese community.
A delegation from the organization also met Chief District Officer of Jhapa on August 14. He has instructed all Camp Supervisors of the Refugee Coordination Unit to support OPICEB and its activities in camps. However, the struggle to obtain the organization’s legality is still on.
The Nepal Bar Association (NBA) Jhapa chapter has been providing all legal advises to the organization. “The Bar has formed a three-member body to lobby with the government regarding the land and registration,” says advocate Gyanendra Karki.
There are expectations that the protection of the Bhutanese identity and culture would be well addressed by preserving the copies of documents in the form of metal itched texts along with logbook register where every Bhutanese in future would be able to table their proof of origin of Bhutan.
R.P.Subba
For political analyst R.P.Subba based in Verginia this kind of museum will always stand (for the Bhutanese regime) as a reminder of the heinous crimes they unleashed on humanity – similar to the concentration camps in Germany, during the Nazi regime.
Analyst Subba further adds that it will be a testimony to Nepal’s failure in sending the refugees back to their legitimate homes; until the refugees have to make museums to preserve their past history.
At present, collection of various materials has been underway. However, the organization said not much has been done in that regard due to fund crisis.
“We expect to garner possible supports from the resettled community to operate and manage the museum,” adds Chairman Adhikari.
But, Dr Dhakal claims that resettled Bhutanese some five years before and now are financially emancipated. In his words, money should not be a problem to take initiative and give continuity to sustainability of any good programs. However, for Dr Dhakal, to have money does not equate to give money.
Dr Lakshmi Prasad Dhakal
Chairperson Adhikari hopes that they (the resettled people) would support the idea by providing the historic materials and belongings of the camps, and extending their helping hands.
The organization is also running bakery training in Sanischare camp to collect some funds for the basic expenses.
In coming days, it also aims to start a multimedia and animation training. “This will be the next fund raising scheme for the museum,” explains Adhikari, who aims to do a large donation drive from the resettled community in near future.
Taking some past examples, analyst Subba opines that the idea of museum will have no problem selling in the diaspora. “In large part, it is in the interest of every body to contribute to something that preserves their own history,” he elaborates.
But, he regards that a clear mission with perceptible objective is a must to motivate the resettled community towards the museum.
Dr Bhampa Rai
According to Dr Rai, the museum might benefit the Government of Nepal in tourism promotion by attracting thousands of resettled fellow-countrymen and foreigners in long run.
Materializing the concept of a Bhutanese museum in Nepal is not an easy task considering all the inviting costs. However, the museum team is fully committed in achieving the goal, but remains dependent on the resettled community in establishing and operating the museum independently.
“The Government of Nepal will certainly help us protect our cultural heritages and allow us to obtain legitimacy to our organisation for preserving the left over documents, cultural recipes, dress and etiquettes of the Bhutanese refugee community in the form of museum,” says Adhikari, as she presents her ultimate expectation from the host country – Nepal.
Exiled Hindus from Bhutan celebrated Bhai Tika, the last and last day of Tihar, the festival of lights, in all six camps, Friday.
Exiled youths playing Deusi in Beldangi camp to mark Tihar festival (Picture : Writer)
Marking Bhai Tika today, sisters put Tika on foreheads of brothers ensuring better health, prosperity and long life based on the cultural belief. And, in returns brothers honored sisters with Tika and also offered various presents including cloths.
Our reporters based in camps said, this year’s Tihar saw less celebrations as compared with those of previous years as the population in camp has been almost reduced by half due to the ongoing third country resettlement program.
Some relatives and family members from Bhutan even travelled to camps to receive Tika while some of exiled Bhutanese marked Tihar as the last festival before their relocation in various western countries.
A boy smiles as he faces camera after receiving Bhai Tika and a present from his sister (Picture : Hari Kumar Dahal)
Like in previous years, the Armed Police Force maintained tight security inside the camps after 7 p.m. to avoid any unforeseen situations.
The Nepali Calendar Determination Committee declared that the auspicious hour for offering the Bhai Tika in Tihar festival was at 11:55 am.
However, our reporters said they saw several exiled Bhutanese with Tika on their forehead since early morning today. They were also to travel to various places to catch up their sisters for receiving Tika.
Reports coming in from abroad say the resettled Bhutanese are celebrating the Bhai Tika on Oct 29.
Bhutanese Artists of Georgia (BAG) organized a Bhutanese Artists Live Concert 2011’ on the occasion of Dashain and Tihar at Clarkston Community Center on October 16, 2011.
Artist performing at the show
Performed by prominent Bhutanese and Nepali artists including Karna Das and Mahesh Thulung the concert entertained about five hundred audiences.
The chief guest for the event was McKenzie Wren, director of Clarkston Community Center. The guests and participants were welcome with the tone of Malshree and Duesi and Bhailo.The event began with a song ‘Sambodhan Timilai’ dedicated to known and unknown Bhutanese who lost their lives during freedom movement and Georgia van accident which had claimed the lives of three Bhutanese youths in March,2011.
Karna Das rocked the stage with a dozen of his famous songs intermittently throughout the programme. Mahesh Thulung, a popular singer from Bhutanese Community who has recently released his hit ‘Moment,’ sang his famous numbers ‘Akashaima ’ and ‘Priyasi’. Emerging Bhutanese singers Sagar Rai, Pratap Magar,Shiva Mapchan,Sudesh Thulung and a dozen others including Dhan Gurung of the then Euphoria band of refugee camp in Nepal some of the famous Nepali songs.
There were also a number of group dances ranging from ‘Dashain Dikpal’ by Sanita Thapa and her team to Kunti Moktan’s ‘Humla Jumla Gadi Maa’ by Shristhi Mapchhan and her team. Duet dances and opera dances were also performed by the Bhuta nese artists at the show. Rajan Rai made the audience laugh with his famous jokes in between the show.
Participants at the show
The organizers facilitated McKenzie, the director of the Clarkston Community Centre and Susan Pavlin, the Director of Refugee Organizing in Action Network. A dozen of Bhutanese were awarded as the ‘Best Artists of Year 2011’ in the show that included prominent music arranger Bikash Thulung, rhythm guitarist Kamal Rai, among others.
There were 18 songs played live on the concert. The sound and light was managed by AEE Sound and Light of Atlanta.
A newly wed couple in Thimphu were counting days for the Thimphu tsechu , not that they mean celeberation but sneaking out of Thimphu to Tshirang and then to Kalikhola. Not only for this couple but to all Hindu Lhotshampa studying or working in Thimphu, Dashain was important festival to celebrate at home. So many of them took advantage of the official holidays allowed in Thimphu in observance of the Tshechu. Otherwise they would have to be satisfied with one day holiday allowed for the great Hindu festival , and remain in the capital wearing gloomy faces.
An engineer and a government employee, also in Thimphu made his way down to his home village across the proposed dam site of hydro-project in Sunkosh river for Dashain, which he missed for a long time owing to his studies in India.
Another family in Damphu that this scribe could catch was returning from their parental home after observing “tika” and showered with blessings from the elders. They traveled all the way from Dagana to Gairigaon taking two day’s off from their job at road construction site. Thanks to the two days’ holiday authorized by the school in Dagana, their children could visit the grandparents.
Most schools throughout the country permitted only a day as official holiday for Dashain. Lhotshamp students of middle schools and higher secondary schools, living away from their parents could not celebrate the festival with the families. So a single mom working in a private company in Phuentsholing had to request leave from the school for her two children in order to visit her parents in Nichula.
Disaster and Dashain
For the south western district of Samtse disaster preceded the festivities. In villages like Bara , tendu, Chargharey some mud houses were demolished by the September 18 earthquake. Keeping themselves busy over the rubbles of demolished houses, people in Sipsu could barely prepare for dashain with religious fervor. However , king’s visit to Chargharey participating in the tika ceremony with the people of affected areas somehow placated them. Besides, Minister Thakur S Powdyel, a Lhotshampa who hails from Samtse district, was accompanying the king to sympathize his electorates.
Navaratra in Thimphu
A temporary Hindu temple in Thimphu has been the abode of navadurga bhawani with annual performance of Durga puja by nine pundits from southern districts. After the inception of Hindu Dharma Samudaya as an organ of the religious organization of Bhutan, performing nine day puja during dashain has finally taken root as an organized community activity. According to a pundit who engaged in nine-days recitation of Chandi in Thimphu, the final ritual was attended by all the cabinet ministers and high level officials of Lhotsampa origin. It is a welcoming gesture of accommodating the religious sentiments of southern Bhutanese, majority of who are Hindu.
Enjoying freedom of religion is not just the fruit of democracy in the country, but the collective representation of a major religion as Hinduism, practiced for over a century in the country to the mainstream of theocratic governance serves a milestone.
Dashain Economy
While most villagers engage in preparing beaten-rice and procuring the best produce of banana to be served during dashain, town dwellers and small-income job holders find the prices of essential commodities exorbitant. Meat, usually the delicacy of this featival, has become a prize worth three hundred ngultrum a kilo in the urban areas.
Thanks to the indefinite closure of local weekly markets in the Bhutan side of Indo-Bhutan boeder, people of interior villages are bound to take three to four hours to weekly Indian markets.
Purna Bahadur had to start a day before the market from his home in Deorali, so that he could make frugal purchase of new clothes to his family, kerosene oil, vegetable oil, salt and some non-perishable vegetables. It is haatkhola on every Sunday. Haatkhola, a Sunday market in upper fringes of Kumargram tea garden, usually become crowded with villagers of hinterland Kalikhola, Deorali, Katahare and Nichula before Dashain.
A corporate employee in Phuentsholing chose to make major purchase in Jaigaon on the way to his home village, Dorokha. By doing so, he said he could obviate the monopoly of traders in Banarhaat or Chamurchi and that the small shops in Samtse bazaar do not sell any of those kinds.
Need more compliance
A businessman in Paro, who served RBA for over sixteen years, had no parental home to go for the festival even he had the choice of doing so hitherto not availed. His parents lived in refugee camps and now got resettled in the far west of where he is vegetating. He said there existed a kind of stigma to be in northern Bhutan during dashain and put tika. ‘The northern people see our festival with contempt,’ he wrote in a offline massage.
A major festival in the south and central part of the country, Dashain and Tihar need to be well recognized and those who follow the faith must be understood in terms of their fundamental rights. Citizens should have no stigma over the practice of their faith or belief, just because it is the other way. However, king’s participation in the tika in a southern village is worth applauding and a gesture of overcoming such stigma by the Lhotshamps who live in north.
A memory of 1987 clicked in me: Nagphey a mate of mine from Paro, studied in Samtse primary school used to be one of our leaders in Samtse high school to sing Deusi during Tihar around the town. We enjoyed the harmony.
Participants of the function/ Photo: Jogen Gazmere
Bhutanese and Nepalese community in Adelaide, Australia celebrated the 102 birth anniversary of great Nepali poet Laxmi Prasad Devkota amidst a special function on Saturday.
At the beginning of the function, the participants observed silence for a minute in memory of Druk National Congress president Rongthong Kunley Dorji and prayed for the peace of departed soul. Dorji died recently in Sikkim due to liver ailments.
The function was jointly organised by International Nepali Literary Society (INLS) Australia chapter and Bhutanese Association in South Australia (BASA). The organisations had come together in Bhanu Jayanti to organise literary function earlier this year.
According to Bhuwan Sharma, INLS-Australia chapter president, the function has been organised in advance considering the tight working and studying schedules of the Nepali speaking community here.
Over a dozen personal poems were recited. They range from politics to satire and love to nature. Participants also recited Devkota’s poems including Pagal (Lunatic) and Muna Mada, the most popular creation of Devkota. They also sang Devkota’s poem Kun Mandirma Janchau Yatri. Participants were awarded certificate of their participation.
Nepalese businessman in Adelaide and INLS founding chairman Deepak Bista expressed satisfaction over joint initiatives of Bhutanese and Nepalese community in Adelaide to keep Nepali literature alive in Diaspora. BASA chairperson Jogen Gazmere expressed hope to organise more literary and culture functions in future with joint efforts of the two communities and thanked Sagarmatha Restaurant and Anil Ranabhat for sponsorship of the function.
Condolences pour in as Bhutanese mourn the death of R.K Dorji’s death. Rajan Giri sent a condolence letter on behalf of the Youth Organization of Bhutan (YOB) to late Dorji’s family and members of DNC.In the condolence letter Giri writes,” Continuous and tireless efforts for the repatriation of Bhutanese refugees and establishment of inclusive democracy had always been his primary struggle until this death despite having lived with chronic ailment and health related complications”.
Bhutanese community of Netherlands(BCN) and Organisation of Bhutanese of Community in America(OBCA) have aslo seperately expressed heartfelt condolence to the family members and cadres of DNC. “BCN joins the Bhutanese Community in other part of the world in grieving the loss of a man who has spent his life advocating for Human
Rights and Democracy in Bhutan”,BCN writes on the condolence message.
OBCA recalls late Dorji as stunt believer of democracy.OBCA writes on the condolence message,”The people of Bhutan, both inside and in exile, have seen how fearlessly and tirelessly that he fought for his people and community”.
Similarly Bhutan Media Society (BMS) has expressed its condolence to the family members of Late Dorji. BMS is planning a special publication on Late R.K Dorji for which it has requested Bhutanese community to contribute articles including memories, commentaries and any other form of write-ups dedicated to late Dorji by the end of October.
