Kathmandu, November 22:

A week-long Tamu Cultural Festival-2062 is being organised from December 16 to 21 at Beshisahar, district headquarters of Lamjung, with a view of promoting both domestic and international tourism. The festival is aimed at preserving the cultural heritage, traditional customs, language and religion of Lamjung district and its surroundings, especially of Gurung community. Organised by Tamu Chhonj Dhi, Lamjung in support of District Development Committee (DDC) and promoted by Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), the first of its kind cultural festival plans to attract as much as of 100,000 visitors, especially the Gurungs from all over the world. The organisers also envisage that the event will be pertinent tool for promoting cultural and natural heritages of the district as means for tourism.

“The festival aims to promote cultural and adventure tourism by preserving age-old culture, traditional customs and other related heritages, which are abundant in Lamjung,” said Prem Ghale, coordinator of the festival organising main committee, at a press meet in the capital today. “Lamjung is widely known as a place of origin of the Gurung community and it also holds a historical importance of being the origin of Shah dynasty in Nepal,” he said, adding that the Gurungs’ culture is pioneer for the promotion of cultural tourism in Nepal. Some of the famous Gurung cultural tourist destinations such as Ghalegaon, Pasgaon, Bhujung, Khasur and Gilung are in Lamjung. “Besides cultural heritage, Lamjung is a very important place in the modern Nepali history as the unification of modern Nepal hag begun from the district,” said Garja Gurung, convenor Lamjung-Kathmandu liaison committee. The festival will be featuring mainly the Gurung cultural heritages like Ghatu, Ghyabri, Sorathi, Chudka, Serka, Pachyu Lama dance and other endangered customs. Food festival, exhibition of local products, cultural shows, dohori song, indigenous games and entertainment will be the major attractions in the event.

“The event will be a part of cultural renaissance and is expected to play a greater role in generating awareness among young generation,” said Ghale. He also informed that revenue generated from the event will be utilised for building Gurung museum and cultural study centre at Beshisahar. The event will be crucial in bringing Gurungs together and developing Lamjung as a major cultural tourist destination.”