University of Idaho students, faculty and the wider Moscow community can all come together to celebrate and experience the rich culture and cuisine of Nepal this Sunday Feb. 12 with the Taste of Nepal event.
From 5-7 p.m. in the Pitman Center International Ballroom, attendees will be treated to an hour of performances followed by a traditional Nepali meal and live music. The cost is $15 for students, $20 for general attendance and tickets can be purchased on the ISUB second floor from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. until Friday Feb. 10.
After being put on pause for several years due to COVID-19, this annual event is back, and the Nepali Student Association at the University of Idaho is excited to showcase the culture of Nepal to the Moscow community once again. The theme of this year’s event is “Unity in Diversity” and performance coordinator, Yangden Lama, explained that they hope to express the uniqueness of Nepali culture and their pride at calling Nepal home.
“With the performances, we will be showing off all these different cultures that make up Nepal, with different costumes, wearing traditional clothes and just coming together for a celebration,” Lama said. “This is to show that we might be diverse with our traditional cultures, but we are all Nepali, we all celebrate this together and we are really proud to be Nepali.”
Although Nepal is a small country, there are many different cultures throughout the different regions and the Taste of Nepal event hopes to showcase them all.
“Nepali people living in different regions have their own rituals, religion and they follow their own…lifestyle,” Lama said. “So, we are trying our best to show the whole (of) Nepal in this two-hour event.”
This event gives the Nepali students and community members of the Palouse a chance to come together and share their cultures and experiences with each other.
“We are away from our family homes, the place where we were born and raised, but here we have a small community,” Lama said. “It is an opportunity to celebrate each other and celebrate our shared identity with each other.”
Taste of Nepal also allows the Nepali community here in Moscow to show their unique culture and traditions to others.
“We want to represent Nepal. What it is, how we live there and the many different cultures of Nepal,” Lama said. “We are proud to present ourselves as Nepali and we want people to know more about our country.”
In addition to the cultural performances and homemade traditional meal, the event will also include a tribute to recently deceased Nepali student, Rojit Raut. His passing affected the Nepali student community deeply and his life will be honored with a moment of silence during the program.
“We are planning on have a minute’s silence and small tribute for the Nepali member of our family who recently passed away, because he was such an important part of our family here,” Lama said.
The Nepali Student Association hopes that attendees of this event will leave with a greater knowledge and appreciation for the culture of Nepal, as well as a deeper sense of the diversity within the campus.
“Many people might be missing home cooked food and we will have tasty food being served so students should definitely come,” Lama said. “They can come and enjoy food, live music and celebrate the unity and diversity of Nepal with us, as well as the diversity of the whole University.”
Grace Giger can be reached at [email protected]
Robert McMiller
Not fair? I was an immigrant for about six years (1996-2002) before my debut in 2003? They offered benefits to me 8 years earlier in 1988, and I refused them to work for $4.70 at the University dorms. Until my coach/disrupter got me fired in 1992. After which I got another job. I was constantly busy in those years after my move in 1998 ... "earning" this historical $43K house I inhabit. Prior to that, I had repeatedly helped my dad with his properties while I was all but homeless myself in The Pit. And then I became the most successful independent journalist in history, founder of Facebook, Wikipedia (and a dozen other companies), medical researcher, model, philosopher, and owner of the world's largest franchise. We all know about internet traffic logs. My sole ISP in 2002-03 was in Moscow.