Vol. 15 ISSUE 3 JULY 1998
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Vol. 15 ISSUE 3 JULY 1998
By Jim Thorp
Pioneer Staff Writer
BIG RAPIDS - Call it a broadening of cultural horizons.
Representatives from Ferris State University and the city of Big Rapids met with the Nepalese Ambassador to the United Nations His Excellency Narendra Bickram Shah and approximately 200 Nepalese visitors from across the eastern half of the US. Sunday as part of the 17th annual Convention of the Association of Nepalese in Midwest America.
Slight cultural differences were apparent from the start.
"Every year we hold this convention on Memorial Day weekend, but only this year did I realize we do it on Sunday morning," said Khagendra Thapa, the FSU professor who brought the convention to the Holiday Inn in Big Rapids. "It is very unusual for our American friends to do something like this on Sunday morning."
Thapa, who has lived in the area for several years, welcomed Nepalese visitors from as far east as New York and Washington, D.C., to Wisconsin and Minnesota.
"We hope you will renew friendships and make new friends," he said. "You will certainly see new things - western Michigan is a very beautiful place."
A N M A President Maheswor Baidya spoke briefly on the purpose of the association, which started 18 years ago and is one of the oldest associations of Nepalese people in the U.S. According to Baidya, the ANMA works to maintain and foster Nepalese culture and heritage in the US., organizes annual conventions to meet and discuss problems in the Nepalese community, publishes the Nepalese viewpoint in the ANMA newsletter, and raises money for the needy in Nepal, especially in times of natural disaster.
FSU President William Sederburg related the ANMA's mission to wwhat he described as "growing down" in an effort to understand our roots and history. He then gave the audience a brief lesson in the history of the Big Rapids area, from the hey-day of the lumber and furniture industry, to the formation of the Big Rapids Institute in 1884 by Woodbridge Ferris, to the current city and uni-.... See NEPALESE page 6A
Association of Nepalese in Midwest America