Basubha Rizal, in blue, helps her aunt Hemlata Pokhrel of Tukwila, Wash., adjust her veil at the altar during Pokhrel’s wedding ceremony at Pabla Punjabi Palace in SeaTac, Wash., Sunday, May 12, 2013. Members of the Nepali-speaking, Bhutanese community celebrated Pokhrel’s marriage to Sashi Dhakal, of Adelaide, Australia, in the Hindu faith and tradition. The couple met while attending school in the refugee camps in Nepal. Around 2,290 Bhutanese have been resettled in Washington state since 2008, with majority living in South King County, Everett and Spokane, said Birendra Khadka, an International Rescue Community caseworker. The bride and groom wore garlands of cedar. Back in Bhutan, couples wear garlands of cypress.
Bhutanese elders give blessings and gifts to the bride and groom during their wedding ceremony in SeaTac, Wash.
Hindu priest Som Khanal reads the marriage ceremony at Pabla Punjabi Palace in SeaTac, Wash., Sunday, May 12, 2013.
A wedding guest puts a “tika” or Hindu blessing on Sashi Dhakal, of Adelaide, Australia, during his wedding to Hemlata Pokhrel, of Tukwila, Wash., in SeaTac, Wash., Sunday, May 12, 2013. The blessing, made of rice and red dye, is stuck on the forehead.
An ornate wedding veil covers the face of bride Hemlata Pokhrel during one portion of the wedding ceremony.
A portrait of Hari Subedi, 78, is taken at Hemlata Pokhrel and Sashi Dhakal’s wedding in SeaTac, Wash., Sunday, May 12, 2013. Subedi, a Bhutanese elder, wears a woven hat called at “Nepali topi.”
Close relatives wash the bride and groom’s feet and put “tika,” a blessing made of rice and red dye, on their foreheads during their Hindu wedding ceremony.
A “tika,” a Hindu blessing of dye and rice, is placed on the forehead of Shristy Kafley, 5, at her home in Tukwila, Wash., Sunday, May 12, 2013.
At right, an altar at Dukura Kafley’s home is decorated with food, flowers and money. The Bhutanese family and a Hindu priest held a ceremony to give Kafley’s children greater rights in their religion.
At left, Bhutanese grandfather Tika Sangraula, 74, tends to an altar where his grandchildren are given the right to participate in more cultural and religious rituals in Tukwila, Wash., Sunday, May 12, 2013. Birendra Khadka, International Rescue Community caseworker, said the ritual gives the children the right to marry, right to a funeral and other rights in Hindu spirituality.
