Forgot your password?
Freeing Souls Of Gurkha Soldiers Killed In Wars
By KTM Metro Reporter
November 22, 2012: Nepalis believe that if the sons and daughters in absence of sons and daughter relatives did not perform after death rites then the souls of dead would continue to hang around the residence. So, retired Gurkha soldiers wanted to free the souls of dead Gurkha soldiers from hanging around by performing the death rites to the dead soldiers following their tradition.
Many Gurkha soldiers have died since they joined the British army in 1815. After reaching a peace deal with Nepal, the East India Company suffering heavy casualties during an invasion of Nepal, signed an agreement on recruiting the Nepalis for the British Army, and formed a British Gurkha army.
According to the Gurkha Army Ex-servicemen's Organization (GAESO), about 60,000 Gurkha soldiers died in the two World Wars but such sacrifices of Gurkha soldiers had gone unnoticed. So, the GAESO is making the publicity of how many Gurkha soldiers have sacrificed their lives fighting for the British.
The GAESO has held after death rites following the tradition of all dead soldiers for three days. They hired priests belonging to the 18 ethnic groups of the Gurkha soldiers to perform death rites in Syangja, 135 km (84 miles) west of Kathmandu.
In a statement, the GAESO said that its members are performing the death rites to free the wandering souls of dead soldiers that their funerals and dead rites had not been performed, yet; so they are performing the death rites following their respective tradition starting on November 20, 2012 for three days.
The GAESO plans to build a stone pillar: monument to Gurkhas, on which the names of all dead Gurkha soldiers will be inscribed, and a Gurkha library at the total estimated cost of around Rs 100 millions.
