Taste of Nepal celebrated it’s 12th year Saturday with around 350 people in attendance. The event provided attendees the opportunity to learn more about Nepal through music and dance performances, presentations and a Nepali dinner.
Amrah Canul | Argonaut
Goma Thapa performs a traditional Nepali dance, the Sunkoshi Laharima, Saturday in the Student Union Building ballroom for the annual event Taste of Nepal. Approximately 350 people attended the event, which included informational presentations, performances and food.
At Taste of Nepal, Dr. Dev Shrestha, the adviser of the Nepali Student Association, allocated the majority of his speech to bring attention to the large amount of planning the students put toward the event.
Giri Raj Aryal, president of the
association for the last two years, and Namrata Dangol, the association’s treasurer, began to plan and advertise a month before the event.
“We booked the event last term just so we could have enough time to prepare,” Dangol said. Both members said they felt confident about the response to the event.
“A lot of our guests are regulars and turnout increases every year. We are always at a full house,” Aryal said. “This year has been easier than previous ones. We needed a lot more people in the kitchen, so now we are doing a lot of the work ourselves.”
Tom Trail, former member of the Idaho House of Representatives, was an international exchange student for the 4-H program in Nepal in 1966, and his wife Jo Ann Trail, the coordinator for the International Friendship Association from 1993-2001, regularly attend the Taste of Nepal events. Both said they remember when there was not a Nepali night.
“Up until (2001) there weren’t enough Nepali students here for an event like this,” Trail said. “There were events like an Asia Night and Passport around the World. So it’s really great that now there is an event like this. With 20 or 30 Nepali students here at UI, that is a really great representation.”
Terri Schmidt, preschool teacher at Emmanuel Lutheran Preschool, said one of the many benefits of Taste of Nepal is how it affects the community.
“My aid in preschool, Sinora Shrestha, is Nepali,” Schmidt said. “I think that events like these, especially for people who can’t travel, gives us a way to experience other cultures and to develop essential community with the people who live in them.”
Derek Kowatsch can be reached at [email protected]