Dashara-Diwali Updates from Bhutanese Communities in Texas
Global Post Reporters; November 18, 2015.
Dashain-Tihar Celebrations in Fort Worth
Global Post Reporter,
Like the former years, this year also the Bhutanese-Nepali community people in Fort Worth celebrated their biggest two festivals – Dashain (Dashara) and Tihar (Diwali; Deepawali) on Oct. 13-22, and Nov 09-13 respectively on series in different many ways in families and collectively in community.
On 17th October 2015, the Bhutanese Legacy Youth Club (BLYC) had organized Dashain Special Wishing Program in coordination with Global Bhutanese Literary Organization (GBLO) Texas Chapter at Bhutanese Community Center – ShobCo. According to Kamal Karki, a volunteer and a Treasurer at the center, “The ShobCo – a community center is a cooperative program of BLYC empowering the community through self-contributions and leaderships”. The event was hosted in order to provide platform for the adult students of ESL and Civic classes at the Bhutanese Community Center. It was a socio-cultural, literary and interactive Festival’s wishing program, in which adult students expressed their best wishes of Dashara festival in English, and the guests entertained all participants with poems, songs and dances with light snacks provided by the host.
The Dashain Special Wishing Program was chaired by Madhav Ghimire, the coordinator of the Community Center, and Chief Guest was Basu Sharma, the President of International Nepali Literature Society Dallas Chapter. Netra Pandey, the president of Indreni Cultural Society Texas was the special guest of the event.
The event was introduced by A. K. Rana Sampang, and Netra Acharya, Yadunath Adhikari, Yadhu Khatri, Santa Rai, and Netra Pandey present their literary articles and expressed best wishes of the great Hindu festival Dashara. Adult Students of the Bhutanese Community Center, Damadar Chapagain, Amar Wagley, Lok B. Magar, Devi Chapagain, and Sita Adhikari were awarded in the occasion for presenting excellent best wishes of festival.
Families in the community observed the festival Dashara mainly on 22nd October, Bijaya Dashami day in Hindu calendar though the festival started on 13th October with Ghatasthapana. In this ten days festival, the devotees of goddess Durga worshiped her forming her images at home, and in nearest temples for nine days from the day of Ghatasthapana, and on the tenth day the juniors, kids, and younger ones received blessings and goddess Durga’s parsads through the hands of seniors/elders, priests and community leaders. The community leader, Madhav Ghimire said, “Bhutanese refugees resettled in the United States are happy here because we are free to follow our religion of origin, practice our culture and literature, and we are able to observe them here in our own ways in the community.”
Two weeks after the Dashara celebration, the Bhutanese-Nepali families celebrated Tihar by decorating their homes with flowers – marigolds and carnations, festive lights and candles. Family members stayed off from their works and schools, and wore traditional Nepali attires; men donned on Nepali dress – Daura Suruwal, and hats called, Dhaka topi, whereas women and girls dressed on Sari, Salwar Kurta and other colorful ethnic dresses as per their ethnicity – Kirat Rai and Limboo, Tamang, Gurung, Khas Chhetri and Bahuns, and others. 
This year Tihar started on 9th Nov with Crow’s visit, and the actual Deepawali celebration was observed on 11th Nov, the goddess Laxmi worshiping day till 13th Nov, the day of Brother/sisterhood. That evening and the following evening, community people played Deusi-Bhailo by singing and dancing on traditional songs which was capped with the emergence of the Deusi-daan, a tray filled with money, sweets, flowers and incense. The money is given to the Deusi-Bhailo team as a sign of gratitude. After celebrating in one home, the Deusi-Bhailo team used to move to other fellow Nepalis’ homes. Including Bhutanese Legacy’s ShobCo team and Beginners Community Support Group’s team, many Deusi-Bhailo teams were observed playing Deusi-Bhailo in the DFW metroplex during the festival.
On 14th November, the Bhutanese Legacy Youth Club (BLYC) organized a collective mass Deusi-Bhailo program, ‘Community Deusi-Bhailo Event 2015’ at community center for the Bhutanese communities resettled in Fort Worth Texas to celebrate Diwali together. The community people danced and enjoyed together with some Nepali Tihar Deusi-Bhailo songs. Some Bhutanese-Nepali women sang and danced ‘Sangini’, a traditional Nepali folk song. Community volunteer L. B. Dudhraj and Lok Biswakarma performed Deusi-Bhailo songs in the collective Tihar program. The people of Fort Worth said good bye to Diwali of 2015 with this community Deusi-Bhailo event.
Mega Cultural Event 2015 in Abilene
Global Post Reporter, Abilene; November 10, 2015.
The local Bhutanese community in Abilene celebrated its music, food and fashion on Saturday at the Radford Auditorium on the McMurry University campus, the Abilene Reporters News writes, on November 7, 2015. Beautiful young Bhutanese ladies and gentlemen performed traditional dances wearing Nepali dress, presented Nepali songs and many Nepali cultural presentations during the Bhutanese Community of Abilene’s celebration of Tihar, a Mega Culutal Event 2015. According to the community leader, Naren Rai – the president of the Bhutanese Community of Abilene, the Mega Cultural Event 2015 was organized in order ‘to preserve the culture’, which was observed by over five hundreds Bhutanese community participants with some local community guests.
The Mega Cultural event was chaired by Naren Rai, the president of the Bhutanese Community of Abilene (BCA), and was honored with the company of Chief Guest, Dr. Sandy Hazelip. Some invited guests from Southern Hill Church and other organizations in the city and nearby cities also honored the importance of the event. Shiva Rai, a guest singer from Austin with his team, and A. K. Rana Sampang, the founding VP of Bhutanese Legacy Youth Club and General Secretary of Bhutanese American Sports Council (BASC) also attended the event.
The opening session of the program was inaugurated by lighting candle by Dr. Sandy Hazelip, the Chief Guest of the event. Free meal was provided to all attendants where they got opportunity enjoy Sel roti with other typical Nepali food items.
The welcome speech was given by Yam Rai, the Vice President of the community, and a brief introduction of Tihar, a Nepali festival was presented by Krishna Bastola, the Secretary from the host organization. The event was anchored with the excellent hosting of Deepak Mizar and Nilam Jangam.
A Grand Musical Night in San Antonio, TX
Susan Kushar; San Antonio. 
On Sunday; 15th November 2015, the Dream Production in association with the Thirsty Soul recently has successfully organized their greatest event of the year – ‘The Grand Musical Nite 2k15’ which was held very successfully at 3511 Colony Dr. San Antonio, TX 78230.
The program was inaugurated by welcoming and honoring the special guests and guest artists with ‘Khada’ from the members of Dream production. The special guests of the event were Mr. David Rodriguez , Mr. Bhim Mishra from Catholic Charities and Mr. Birja Rai and the special guest artists were Bhutanese-Nepali singers Dhan Baraily from Houston, Tek Dudhraj from Fort Worth and Lokesh Gurung from St. Louis, MO recently in Dallas, TX.
In the program the various cultural dances were presented by home artists. The audiences were welcomed with a dance in a cultural song ‘ Aaja Tiharko Ramailo’ and subsequently there were varieties of dances including hip pop, cultural and attractive dances by lovely kids. The dancers were Sita, Juna, laxmi, Sujata, Dolma, Manisha, Salina, Redima, Mela, Ismerika, Sarada, Bishnu, Januka, Smerika, Hari, Keshavi, Nabin, Buddha, and Bishal.
A huge mass of community people enjoyed the performance of local artist and guest artists with equal zeal and love till the end of the function. The performances of local artists Hem Sagar, Smarika Bhandari, and Suraj Gaitam including Mela Bhujel, Ganesh Gajmer and members from Thirsty Soul, moved the audiences with cheers. Other guest artist were Binod Rasaily from Houston, Roshan Sinchury from Fort Worth. 
The real jolly has begun when the top three singers has started to perform. Singer Dhan Baraily performed songs from his own music albums and some all-time favorite Hindi songs. Tek Dudhraj performed his unreleased songs with some Nepali and Hindi dancing numbers and Lokesh Gurung has performed his most popular song ‘ Purnimako chandramalai …’ and all-times dancing Nepali and Hindi songs. Almost all the audiences were dancing around him and on the floor while he was performing. There were some other guest artists from nearby cities who aldo entertained the audiences. The grand musical night was ended with DJ entertainment.
The program was hosted by ‘ Diyaalo ‘ Susan, Mela bhujel and Hem Sagar. One of the reasons for organizing this event is to refresh the mind of community peoples in this stressful and busy life of USA. The organizers reported that the main motto of bringing this event is to love, support and promote our own artists preserving our arts and respecting our good culture and tradition.
Dashara & Diwali Celebration in Houston
Global Post Reporter; November 17, 2015.
In a Press Release to the Global Post the President of Bhutanese American Association of Houston (BAAH), Mr. DB Rai states, “Bhutanese American Association of Houston (BAAH) organized its annual cultural Dashara celebration event successfully in association with Organization of Bhutanese Communities in America (OBCA) and Rising Bhutanese Star (RBS) on October 17, 2015 with the motive of preserving and promoting our culture and arts, and more importantly encouraging and endorsing our emerging Bhutanese artists by providing platform to perform their talents and skills”.
According to the source, the Bhutanese-Nepali community people in Houston were entertained with entertaining cultural presentation in the Dashara Celebration function. They were entertained with the cultural dances performed on Nepali and Hindi song by Bhutanese artists. A number of Solo songs were performed by the Bhutanese and Nepalese artists from around the city of Houston. The release of ‘The Journey’, a Solo Nepali music album of Bhutanese-Nepali singer Dhan Baraily remained as the historic part of the grand celebration.
The President, Mr. DB Rai honored Bhutanese Artists in America with certificates of appreciation. The invited special guests and artists were also honored in the grand event. The function was introduced and welcomed by Mr. DB Rai, the Chairman of OBCA and BAAH. Three hundred participants were served with lunch/refreshment during the occasion.
The Bhutanese-Nepali community in Houston also celebrated Deepawali festival – the festival of lights. The community reporter in Houston reported that the Bhutanese community people’s houses in Houston were festive in the week of Diwali with twinkling lights, music and prayers to the Hindu goddess Lakshmi. The worshipers hope to usher in a new year of prosperity by singing a Deusi-Bhailo songs.
