संयुक्त राज्य अमेरिकाको पेन्सिलभानिया राज्यस्थित पिट्सबर्ग विश्वविद्धालयको ह्विलियम पीट यूनियन सभाकक्षमा आइतबार सफलतापूर्वक ऐतिहासिक सांगीतिक कार्यक्रम प्रस्तुत गरेर भूटानी कलाकारहरूले धुम मच्चाएका छन्।
दशैंको उत्सव मनाउने उद्देश्यमा आयोजित सो समारोहमा पेन्सिलभानियामा प्रतिस्थापित भूटानी समुदायलगायत नेपाली मित्रहरूले पनि सक्रिय सहभागिता जनाएका आयोजकपक्षको भनाइ छ।
अमेरिकाकै विभिन्न राज्य तथा पेन्सिलभानियाका विभिन्न नगरबाट आएका कलाकारका टोलीसँगै पश्चिमोत्तरको साउथ डाकोटा, दक्षिण जर्जियाको एटलान्टा र मध्य अमेरिकाको ओहियो राज्यबाट आएका भूटानी कलाकारहरूको विशेष टोलीले सो कार्यक्रममा भाग लिएका थिए ।
जर्जियाका कलाकारहरूको समूह (बीएजी)-का लगभग २७ सदस्यहरूले लामो यात्रापछि आइपुगेर विभिन्न राज्यबाट आएका तथा पिट्सबर्गका स्थानीय कलाकारहरूसितको संयोजनमा मनमोहक प्रस्तुती दिएका थिए ।
विभिन्न गीत तथा सांस्कृति कार्यक्रमका साथ नृत्य प्रस्तुत गर्दै यी कलाकारहरूले नेपाली, भूटानी, भारतीय, बर्मेली, भियतनामी र अमेरिकी गरी करिब ६ सय दर्शक तथा श्रोतालाई मनोरञ्जन दिलाएका थिए। भूटानी कलाकारमध्ये किशोर सिवाकोटी, हिरा रसाइली, सुदेश थुलुङ, महेन्द्र दाहाल, शिव माप्छान र प्रताप मगरले आ-आफ्नो स्वर गुञ्जायमान पारि कार्यक्रमको महत्त्व दर्शाएका थिए भने संगीतकार विकाश थुलुङ, बिर्ख गुरागाई, र्तन गुरुङ, भीम मगर र राम गुरुङले मधुर संगीतको कोसेली पस्केका थिए।
यसैबीच भूटानी कलाकारहरूले एउटा अनलाइन वेबसाइट शुरु भएको औपचारिक घोषणा पनि गरेका छन् । लगअन- www.bhutaneseartists.com -ले भूटानी कलाकार र कलाकारिताको संरक्षण तथा संवर्द्धन गर्ने बताइएको छ ।
(यो समाचार तयारीका निम्ति पेन्सिलभानियाबाट किशोर सिवाकोटी र बलराम गुरुङले योगदान गरेका छन्।)
सेप्टेम्बरको अन्त्यसम्ममा तेस्रो मुलुक पुनर्वाश कार्यक्रमअन्तर्गत नेपाल छोड्ने भूटानी शरणार्थीको संख्या ३६ हजार ६१८ पुगेको छ । नेपालको गृहमन्त्रालयले जनाए अनुसार भरखरै पनि ८२ जना भूटानी शरणार्थीले नेपाल छोडेका छन् जसलाई बेलायतले पुनर्वाश योजनाअन्तर्गत लैजाने भएको छ । सन् २००८ देखि शुरु भएको शरणार्थी पुनर्वाश कार्यक्रममा संयुक्त राष्ट्रसंघीय शरणार्थी आयोग ( यूएनएचसीआर), अन्तर्राष्ट्रिय बसाईं सराइ संगठन, (अइओएम) र पश्चिमा मुलुकहरूको एउटा समूहले सञ्चालन गरिरहेका छन् । पुनर्वाश योजनाअन्तर्गत भूटानीहरूलाई आ-आफ्नो देशमा लैजान गराउन स्वीकृति दिने पश्चिमा देशहरूमध्ये अष्ट्रेलिया, क्यानाडा, द नेदरल्याण्ड, डेनमार्क, नोरवे, न्यूजिल्याण्ड, बेलायत र मूलरूपमा अमेरिका रहेका छन्। अझै पनि नेपालका शिविरहरूमा ७५ हजारको हाराहारीमा भूटानीहरू शरणार्थी जीवन बिताइरहेका छन्।
Exiled Bhutanese artists have rocked Pennsylvania in the United States of America with a historical musical night at the William Pitt Union Hall here in University of Pittsburgh yesterday.
Artist Sudesh Rai performs a song. Photo courtesy/Bikash Rai
According to the organizer of the program, resettled Bhutanese along with folks from Nepali communities in Pennsylvania joined the Mega event, which is also reported to be organized to mark Dasain festival.
Artists who came all the way from South Dakota in the West, Georgia Atlanta in the South and Ohio in the Middle East of America, among others from different States and cities of Pennsylvania attended the program.
Around 27 members of the Bhutanese Artists of Georgia (BAG), who reached the musical hall after long drive, performed live show in coordination with the Pittsburgh local artists and artists from other states of the country. The program hosted over 600 Nepali, Bhutanese, Indian, Burmese, Vietnamese and American audiences.
It is reported that the local artists from Bhutanese community and Nepalese community rocked the floor with various dances and songs. Bhutanese artists Kishor Siwakoti, Hira Rasaily, Sudesh Thulung, Mahendra Dahal, Shiva Mapchan and Pratap Magar thrilled the audiences with their melodious voice.
FUN TIME: Bhutanese artists rock floor in PA, USA. Photo courtesy/Bikash Rai.
Meanwhile, musician Bikash Thulung, Birkha Guragai, Ratna Gurung, Bhim Magar and Ram Gurung were other attraction of the program.
“We are very fortunate to have come to Pittsburgh for the program. It was wonderfully organized and we would love to come here again. Audiences were really encouraging and I am thankful l to all the organizers. Local performances were excellent,” Ratna Gurung, President of BAG, told before leaving Georgia.
On the occasion, Bhutanese artists also officially launched an online portal www.bhutaneseartists.com, which is said to be a common online platform that portrays and document the arts of Bhutanese artists. Dr. James Joshi, Associate Professor at the University of Pittsburgh launched the website.
Kishor Siwakoti and Balaram Gurung contributed this news from Pennsylvania.
डेनमार्कका विभिन्न राज्यमा पुनर्वाश भएका नेपालीभाषी भूटानीहरूले अक्टोबर २३ का दिन एउटा सामाजिक संगठन ‘द एसोसिएशन अफ् नेपाली स्पिकिङ भूटानिज इन डेनमार्क’ (एएनएसबीडी) -को स्थापना गरेका छन् ।
नेपाली भाषा- संस्कृति, रीतिरिवाज र डेनमार्कमा पुनर्वाश हुने नयाँ भूटानीहरूको संरक्षण र सहायताका लागि नेपालीभाषी भूटानीले यो संगठन स्थापना गरेको एसोसिएशनका नामबाट प्रेषित विज्ञप्तिमा उल्लेख छ ।
डेनमार्कको मिडलफाटमा २८ जना भूटानी प्रतिनिधि र तीनजना डेनिश प्रतिनिधिबीच औपचारिक छलफल बसेपछि बैठकले पूर्णबहादुर दाहाल अध्यक्ष, कमल कोइराला उपाध्यक्ष, लालबाहादुर विष्ट कोषाध्यक्ष र थुग्तेन दोर्जी डुक्पा प्रमुख संयोजक रहने गरी १३ जनालाई केन्द्रिय सदस्यमा चयन गरेको बताइएको छ ।
यसैबीच चारजना भूटानी, कुलचन्द्र, टिकामाया तिवारी, लोकनाथ गुरुंगलगायत दलबाहादुर राईलाई क्षेत्रीय संयोजकका रूपमा छानिएको छ।
यस संगठनले प्रत्येक नेपालीभाषी भूटानीलाई भई-परिआएका संकट तथा जटिलतालाई निकास दिँदै नयाँ देशमा समाजलाई नयाँ बाटो देखाउने र भूटानी संस्कृति तथा नेपाली लीपिको जगेर्ना गर्ने, सामाजिक कार्यमा भूटानी पहिचान देखाउने उद्देश्य लिएको जनाउँदै शरणार्थी शिविरमा समाजसेवामा योगदान पुर्याएका पाँचजना अर्जुन घताने, चम्फा र्राई, विष्णु अधिकारी, भोला अधिकारी र बिर्खबहादुर भण्डारीलाई सल्लाहकार समितिमा राखेको संगठनका मूल संयोजक थुग्तेन दोर्जी डुक्पाले भूटान समाचार सेवालाई जनाएका छन् ।
डेनिश भूटानीहरूको यो प्रयासलाई अन्य देशमा रहेका अधिकांश भूटानीहरूले सराहना गर्दै उदाहरणीय कार्य गरेको बताएका छन् ।
The number of exiled Bhutanese who have departed Nepal under third country resettlement program has reached 36,618 as of September end.
According to Nepal’s Home Ministry, 82 exiled Bhutanese have recently left Nepal for Britain under the third country resettlement plan.
Resettlement of exiled Bhutanese, assisted by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and a group of western countries, began in early 2008.
Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, New Zealand and Britain have been among the countries receiving exiled Bhutanese under the program.
Around 75,000 exiled Bhutanese still live in camps in eastern Nepal.
Exiled Bhutanese resettled in Denmark have formally announced their community organization – Association of Nepali Speaking Bhutanese in Denmark (ANSBD) – on October 23.
In their attempt to form organization, the first meeting was held on July 10 this year in Silkiborg. The second gathering on Saturday in Middelfart, attended by 28 Bhutanese representing different kommunes and three Danish individuals, culminated with the formation of community organization ANSBD.
Purna Bahadur Dahal has been named president and Kamal Koirala as the vice president. Lal Bahadur Bista is treasurer while Thugten Dorjee Drukpa is the chief coordinator.
The gathering also named Kul Chandra, Tika Maya Tiwari, Lok Nath Gurung and Dal Bahadur Rai as four regional coordinators.
Similarly, Arjun Ghataney, Champa Rai, Bishnu Adhikari, Bhola Adhikari and Birkha Bahadur Bhandari have been elected as the member of advisory board of the organization.
ANSBD aims to support resettled Bhutanese to integrate into Danish society and to preserve the identity.
जेनरल कंग्रेस अफ नोर्वेजियन लेबर युथ (एयूएफ)- को अघिल्लो साता नोर्वेको ओस्लोमा सम्पन्न चारदिने सम्मेलनमा भूटान युवा संगठन (वाई.ओ.बी.)-ले अन्तर्राष्ट्रिय पर्यवेक्षकको रूपमा उपस्थिति जनाएको छ ।
संगठनका अध्यक्ष राजन गिरीले अन्तर्राष्ट्रिय विभागीय सचिव आकाश बुढाथोकीलाई उद्धृत गर्दै जनाएअनुसार बुढाथोकीले फिनल्याण्ड र बेल्जियमका युवा संगठन प्रतिनिधिहरूसँग परामर्श गरिसकेका छन् ।
अध्यक्ष गिरीका अनुसार डेनिस युवा संगठनका प्रतिनिधिहरूलाई पनि बुढाथोकीले भेट्ने कार्यक्रम छ ।
यसैबीच बुढाथोकीले नोर्वेको उत्तरी क्षेत्र फिनमार्क र वाद्सो-जहाँ भूटानीहरूलाई पुनर्वाश कार्यक्रमअन्तर्गत राखिएको छ-का जनप्रतिनिधिहरूलाई पनि भेट्ने भएका छन् । नोर्वेको उत्तरी क्षेत्रमा बसोबास गरिरहेका केही भूटानीहरूले यसअघि नै एयूएफमा सदस्यता लिइसकेका पनि बताइएको छ।
प्राप्त जानकारी अनुसार बुढाथोकीले ती अन्तर्राष्ट्रिय प्रतिनिधिहरूसँगको छलफल तथा परामर्शमा भूटान सरकारले विज्ञापन गरिरहेको ‘कुल राष्ट्रिय खुशियाली’ र त्यसको विपरित पाटोबारे वेश्लेषण गरेका छन् । बुढाथोकीले नोर्वेजियन लेबर पार्टीको कार्यालयमा आयोजित बैठकमा विश्वभरिबाट आएका मजदूर प्रतिनिधिहरूसँग पनि भूटानबारे विस्तृत कुराकारी गरेका संगठन अध्यक्ष राजन गिरीले बताए।
I am delighted to read your book Quest for Democracy – against all odds, the first book on Bhutan I read after migrating to Australia early last month. It helped me a lot to revive my passion for democracy and rather worked as a refresher in an alien land where I am feeling lonely.
To my understanding, this is another testimony of leaders fighting against a tyranny – a passionate and consistent fight against all odds. Bhutan has so far been in mission to bamboozle the world community to tag us terrorists and anti nationals. It’s in mission to tell the world that all those demanding democracy and human rights in Bhutan are working against national interest and that Bhutan has not committed any human rights violations or tortured any activists. To my knowledge, yours is the second book (first was by Tek Nath Rizal) to let the world know about hidden cruelty existing in Bhutan, where foreigners’ travel is controlled.
Thinley book's cover
I left my country at a tender age and all I learnt about Bhutanese’s tryst with democracy is from oral tales of village elders and leaders. All stories I heard and articles I read had hardly made me conscious about the torture perpetrated to eastern Bhutan and their yarn for democracy and human rights. Your book proved to be a fruitful source for me on efforts from the east for equality and justice. In many literatures, I realized now that I wrongly read the stories of royal cruelty in Bhutan to be an issue of ethnic cleansing. It’s not the issue of ethnic cleansing rather the individualistic effort from the monarch to promote himself as the supreme human being in Bhutan and make others follow his footpaths. Your struggle in government service, BCCI and while running independent business helped me realized that I was in wide of the mark to perceive torture and inhuman treatment in Bhutan were meant only for Nepali speaking population. However, had you been able to elaborate more on the democracy tryst from east, taste of reading this book would have been more realistic, interesting.
Your narration about exiled Shabdrung inculcated me more of the religious biasness against Nyingmapas, the royal fear of being uprooted from this incarnatory figure and Shabdrung’s sincere efforts towards resolving the refugee imbroglio. While you repeated the stories of driglam namzha and one nation one people policy, which bored me, I appreciate you on republishing twa-wa-sum which many Bhutanese in exile and abroad do not really know or had ever seen.
The story of struggle within the Bhutanese political coterie in exile seems to be confusing – and certainly a lesson learnt from instable politics in Nepal. While your narration presents repeated failure of the Bhutanese political leadership to get together to build a united voice, you have not given a solution of the impasse. As I read through the differences you mentioned among top leadership and their fiasco in Bhutanese democratic struggle, I made my mind to suggest you and all leaders must read ‘Making Ideas Happen’ by Scott Belsky and similar other books.
It seems you have common opinions on many issues including king’s abdication of throne, absence of human organizations in Bhutan and promulgation of constitution which I had expressed through several writings in the past.
Technically, there are few factual errors and typo errors, repetition of events and paragraphs that you might want to correct. In several instances, absence of natural flow of the story might distract the readers. While the initial chapters are written in good proficiency, you seemed to go bored in later ones as you divert in making them like a journalistic note.
Against all odds, your story is readable and a real testimony of a democracy and human rights fighters from a little known country where rulers fool citizens with the impractical philosophy of Gross National Happiness. Not all, but I wish you might want to translate chapter three into Tsangla and Dzongkha to let Bhutanese read whether king’s reluctant acceptance to introduce democracy was his personal will or the international pressures he endured and efforts from the exile. It is the people inside Bhutan who should really understand your story and our consistent efforts for equality and justice there. All the best!
General view of Beldangi-II, one of seven refugee camps in Nepal. Photo/BNS
Optimism runs high around the Bhutanese refugee camps in eastern Nepal these days. After 18 years of living in crowded bamboo huts, many refugees are packing their bags, preparing to move to western nations under a refugee resettlement program sponsored by the United Nations High Commission of Refugees (UNHCR). Those still waiting for their departure date in the camps pass the time by brushing up on their English and discussing which US state has the best job market, but there remains a small contingent of Bhutanese who are a step behind their peers.
A person must first be a registered Bhutanese refugee to be able to resettle, and there are a few, like Karna Bahadur Rai, who are still waiting for the UNHCR to recognize them as refugees.
Like the majority of the 105,000 Bhutanese citizens that fled to Nepal, Karna Rai left southern Bhutan with his family in 1992. Since then, he has spent the majority of his life living in Beldangi-I refugee camp with his wife and son, both of whom have official refugee identification cards administered by the UNHCR. Karna does not.
Karna Rai displays a laminated letter issued by the UNHCR office in Malaysia that reads 'Rai, a citizen from Bhutan, is an asylum seeker in Malaysia.' Photo/author.
The label of ‘refugee’ has been a contentious issue since the United Nations defined the term in 1951. Originally designed to classify the millions of people fleeing post-World War II Europe, the term was broadened in 1967 by a UN protocol aimed at incorporating new crises in Latin America and Africa. Today the UNHCR estimates there are roughly 16 million refugees world-wide, all of whom are guaranteed specific rights under the original 1951 agreement. There have been cases in which desperate people pose as refugees in an attempt to flee poor economic situations or gain the protections and services provided to legal refugees. To combat such cases, the UNHCR interviews potential refugees to verify whether they are able to return to their country of origin without fear of persecution.
The UNHCR first conducted interviews for the Bhutanese in 1992, when the vast majority of them arrived in Nepal. Karna Rai was 13 years old at the time.
“My whole family was interviewed, even the little ones,” he said. Each of them were administered a card displaying a portrait photo of themselves, their date of birth, and their identification number. The card permits a refugee to obtain food rations, open a bank account, access health facilities, and pursue an education in the camps.
Soon after the crisis began, the governments of Nepal and Bhutan initiated a series of bilateral dialogues in an attempt to find a durable solution. Through inconsistent statements and skillful maneuvering, Bhutan was able to prolong the discussion process. Eleven years passed in which 15 separate dialogues took place, each of them ending fruitlessly. Realizing that a solution would not surface in the near future, many Bhutanese began to temporarily leave the camps in search of work.
Karna Rai’s family was no different. Strapped for cash and tired of the stagnant opportunities available in the camps, Karna left in 2005 with plans of returning in a year.
He ended up in Gujarat, India, but after eight months of labor his boss offered to fly him to Delhi where he could make higher wages working at a factory.
“Obviously I accepted,” Karna said, “But after I landed and was transported to the factory, I found out I wasn’t anywhere close to Delhi.” He wasn’t even in India.
Karna had been trafficked to Malaysia, sent to work at a factory. The compound was all inclusive, complete with a bunkhouse, cafeteria, and store, but the workers weren’t permitted to leave. Karna struggled to adjust in this new environment, where people were speaking Malay, Tamil, Bengali, and a little Hindi, but no Nepali. After more than a year, Karna negotiated his way out with one of the bosses and immediately looked up the UNHCR office in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. They reviewed his documents and called their counterparts in Nepal. His story was confirmed and Karna was soon on a plane back to his family and his hut in Beldangi I.
Ram Chandra Mishra (left in row), a Bhutanese refugee in Beldangi-II, who was absent during the UNHCR's official census, who was working as labour in India, joins family in the last week of August. Like Karna, Mishra is yet to be registered as "refugee from Bhutan". Photo/Author.
Three years had passed since he left in 2005, and a lot had changed for the refugees still in the camps. The resettlement program had begun, and many of his neighbors were already gone. At the same time, the UNHCR had instated another census in 2006 in order to re-identify all of the refugees present in the camps. New ID cards were administered, and to Karna’s befuddlement, only those with one of the new cards now had refugee status.
He took his old ID card and a laminated letter from Malaysia to the UNHCR office and told them his story, but his case is still pending. It has been pending for a year and a half.
There are many more like Karna who, for various reasons, were not in the camps for the 2006 census. Many were working in India, Kathmandu, or other parts of Nepal, but all of them who didn’t make it back were denied refugee status after already obtaining it once.
TB Gurung, Camp Secretary of Beldangi I, estimated that there are over 3,000 refugees who missed the 2006 census. “Those who were once refugees are now asylum seekers,” TB explained. They have to go back to the UNHCR, present their papers, and go through the interview process again. “The UNHCR’s tentativeness is a result of fraudulent cases,” Gurung added.
Poor Nepalis from the local community began posing as refugees in an attempt to gain access to the weekly food rations provided by the World Food Program. It was under these circumstances that the UNHCR decided to institute the 2006 census.
Further construing the identification of refugees are cases of mix-marriage, in which a Bhutanese marries into the local community. The refugees share almost similar cultural and tradition with local Nepalese nationals, and it is difficult to determine who becomes a refugee when intermarriage takes place.
A demolised hut in Beldangi-I camp. Most huts belonging to those who leave camps for the West through settlement are demolised. Photo/Author.
Pratibedan Baidhya, External Relations Assistant at the UNHCR in Nepal, attributes these cases of mix-marriage to delaying the process for people like Karna. “Several certificates must be verified, which makes everything take longer,” he said. In some cases the Nepali wants to gain refugee status, while other times the Bhutanese wants to gain Nepali citizenship.
Unfortunately, Karna’s case may be far back on the UNHCR’s to do list. The agency is currently in the throes of resettlement, interviewing an endless queue of families and arranging travel to western nations every day. When there is time to devote to unregistered refugees, UNHCR staff must first wade through the cases of fraud and mismarriage before getting to straightforward cases like Karna’s.
Fortunately for Karna, he is able to survive in the camps without having official refugee status because his wife and son can both receive food rations, but they won’t be qualified for resettlement until his new ID card comes through. Karna is not too optimistic either.
“My beard will be grey by the time I get to resettle. I will be finished. My life will be finished here,” he said.
(Graham contributed this story for BNS from New York City. He is a multimedia journalist and his works are available at http://benjamingraham1.blogspot.com. Graham was in Nepal covering Bhutanese refugee issues from June – August this year)
विश्वभरिका नेपाली भाषी भूटानीहरूले विभिन्न कार्यक्रमाका साथ आफ्नो सांस्कृतिक चाड मनाएका छन्। विभिन्न सांस्कृतिक झाँकी र हर्षोल्लासका साथ यस पर्वमा उनीहरूले उत्सव मनाएका हाम्रा समाचारदाताहरूले जनाएका छन्।
अमेरिकाः
ईदाहोबाट दिपेश सुवेदीले जनाएअनुसार बोइज महानगरमा पुनर्स्थापित भूटानीहरूले एउटा अपार्टमेन्टको परिसरमा भेला भएर दुर्गापूजा गरी सामूहिक दशैं मनाएका छन्। यसरी नै मिनिसोताबाट अर्जुन प्रधान भन्छन्,‘यहाँ पनि एउटा स्थानीय विद्धालयको सभाकक्षमा आयोजित दुर्गा पूजा र सांस्कृतिक कार्यक्रमका साथ टीका वितरणपछि दशैं सम्पन्न भएको छ।’ पुनर्वाश परियोजनाअन्तर्गत सोही स्थानमा आएका उपिन्द्र प्याकुरेलले दूर्गा भवानीलाई आह्वान गर्ने मन्त्रोच्चारणका साथ सो कार्यक्रमको उद्घाटन भएको जनाइएको छ, जसमा स्थानीय लगभग ६ सय भूटानीहरू सहभागी बनेका हाम्रा समकक्षी प्रधानले बताए।
यता टेक्सासमा पनि शनिबार सामूहिक दुर्गापूजामार्फत टीका वितरण गरी आइतबार दशैं उत्सव मनाइएको खबर छ।
न्यूयोर्कको बफेल्लो महानगरमा पनि यसरी नै शनिबार सामूहिक दुर्गापूजा गरी आइतबार टीका थापेर दशैं मनाइएको भूटान समाचार सेवालाई बफेल्लोबाट भक्त घिमिरेले बताए। संगठीत हुने क्रममा रहेको बफेल्लो हिन्दू समाजद्वारा आयोजित सो कार्यक्रममा स्थानीय संघ-संगठन र शरणार्थी सरोकारवाला संस्थाका प्रतिनिधिबाहेक लगभग ४ सय ५० भूटानीहरूको उपस्थिति अनुमान गरिएको जनाइएको छ।
उता सिराकसमा भने नवरथाको प्रथम दिनदेखि नै शुरु भई नौदिने दुर्गापूजा सम्पन्न गरी भव्यताका साथ विसं २०६७ को दशैंपर्व मनाइएको हाम्रा समकक्षी काजी गौतमले जनाएका छन्। ‘हाम्रो परम्परा र संस्कृतिको जगेर्ना गरी नयाँ पुस्तालाई हस्तान्तरण गर्नु हाम्रो मुख्य जिम्मेवारी भएको छ’- सिराकसको पूजा आयोजक समितिका सदस्य शशी खरेलले भने। गौतमका अनुसार यसरी नै सिराकसमा दशैंकै अवसरमा अर्को छुट्टै सांस्कृतिक कार्यक्रमसमेत आयोजना गरिएको थियो, जसमा स्थानीय अमेरिकी र अन्य शरणार्थी समुदायका साथ भूटानीहरू गरी लगभग ५ सय हाराहारीको उपस्थिति थियो। ‘अत्यन्त नमूनायोग्य संस्कृति भएका मानिसहरूको समूह तपाईंहरू हुनुहुँदो रहेछ, यो संस्कृतिलाई संरक्षण गरिराख्न जरुरी छ’, सिराकसका मेयर स्टेफानी मिनरले थप्दै भने,‘नेपाली खाना एकदमै उत्कृष्ट छ।’
यही ढंगमा केलिफोर्निया, न्यू ह्याम्पशायर, एरिजोना, नर्थ क्यारोलिना र अलास्कामा पनि दशैं मनाइएको खबर छ। अलास्कामा अहिलेसम्ममा लगभग १०० भूटानीहरू पुनर्स्थापित भइसकेका छन्।
जर्जियाको एटलान्टामा भूटानीहरूले भाडामा लिइएको सामुदायिक भवनमै सार्वजनिक कार्यक्रम गरेका थिए जसमा शक्तिकी देवीको आह्वानमा ६ जना पण्डितले शप्तसति पाठ गरी टीका-जमारा वितरण गरिएको थियो।
यसै गरी रिचमण्ड, ओहियो, म्यासाचुसेट्स, केन्टुकीमा पनि सामूहिक तथा पारिवारिक हिसाबले धुमधामसँग दशैं मनाइएको समाचार छ भने, क्यानाडा, यूरोप महादेशका नोरवे, नेदरल्याण्ड, डेनमार्क, युके र पूर्वका न्यूजिल्याण्ड र अष्ट्रेलियामा पनि भूटानीहरूले यसरी नै आफ्नो वार्षिक पर्वको उत्सव मनाउँदै सांस्कृतिक संरक्षणको पाइला चालेका छन्।
यो प्रतिवेदन काजी गौतम, टीपी मिश्र, त्रिविक्रम अधिकारी, आरएन पोखरेल, खेम खँडका, इच्छा पौडेल र रमेश गौतमको योगदानमा बनेको हो।
