No, that is not a typo, one hundred and ten!! This is a re-post from Doug Hall, Friends of Nepal member in New Hampshire…

The Bhutanese community here in New Hampshire, along with the small resident Nepali community, celebrated the 110th birthday of Kashi Ram Rai in Manchester NH in January.

He is New Hampshire’s oldest resident and, as far as anyone knows, the oldest Nepali in the world. We had a 4 hour celebration and culture show and Kashi Ram got up and danced!

A few months earlier the New York Times had published an article noting that the last veteran of World War I had died. When I was talking with Kashi Ram, he surprised me by telling me that he had been in a British/India Gurkha regiment sent to France and had fought there in the war, returning home to Nepal in 1920. He emigrated to Bhutan in 1928. So the NYT was wrong.

Here are two links to photos taken at the event
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7174771@N07/sets/72157622992904375/with/4235719132/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7174771@N07/4235814030/in/set-72157622992904375/

You will note in the photos that the culture show included some very traditional Nepali dances as well as some Nepali hip-hop and a Nepali Michael Jackson routine!

This event was videotaped as well. The cameramen were two refugees who had been given training by the local cable TV station. Eventually the tape will be integrated with other material that is being developed to create a professional movie about the history of the Bhutanese who are now being integrated into New Hampshire. The project planning is being funded by the NH Humanities Council. The organizers of the project are our local non-profit movie theater, the public library, and the cable station.