Honouring talents is respecting their conscience: President

Kathmandu / Sept. 12: President Bidya Devi Bhandari has said honouring the literary talents is to honour their conscience.

Addressing a programme to present the Pragya Award and the National Poetry Festival Award organized by Nepal Academy here today, she said the head of the nation is raised when the good people are honoured.

“Nepal is a land of knowledge. Still much remains to be done to introduce Nepal through the publicity of its knowledge philosophy and medicine philosophy. The Academy should play a leading responsibility for providing this knowledge to the world by means of study, research and academic discourse,” the Head-of-State said.

Noting that the Poetry Festival the Academy organises has encouraged the inter-generational group, she urged the Academy to give continue producing creations like the Pragya Nepali Brihat Kosh (the Pragya Comprehensive Dictionary of Nepali) with a collection of over 28 thousand entries and the English version of the book ‘Nepal in Pictures.

The President launched both these publications today. She also praised the Academy for preparing to publish the ‘Sanatana Sanskriti Kosh’, ‘Nepal Darpan’ and others.

Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation and Academy’s patron, Jeevan Ram Shrestha informed the programme that the construction of the Mahakavi Laxmi Prasad Devkota Museum has been completed.

“The Academy is preparing to publish a ‘Profile Book of Writers and Litterateurs’ and the government is with the Academy in fully implementing its plans. The mobile app of the ‘Pragya Brihat Nepali Sabdakosh’ would also be launched, like the apps of dictionaries published before have been launched,” he said.

Stating that the Academy has done a remarkable job in the academic sector, Minister Shrestha expressed the commitment to re-publish the books published by the Academy before this but which are not available in the market at present. The Ministry would lend the necessary support for this, he added.

Chancellor of the Academy, Ganga Prasad Uprety said 10 awards which are representative of the country’s pluralism have been instituted and the talents making a significant contributions to the academic field are honoured with these awards.

“The literary personalities who contribute towards highlighting Nepal’s academic identity in the world whether from within the country or abroad are honoured with these established awards,” Chancellor Uprety said.

“The Pragya Nepali Brihat Sabdakosh (dictionary) prepared by the Academy in 12 years has been launched and it incorporates Nepali words being used by people from different mother tongues in Nepal,” Chancellor Upreti said. Acknowledging the government’s contribution to the elevation of the country’s academic field, he was hopeful that an academic council to be formed anew would continue constructive activities.

Academy’s vice-chancellor Dr Jagaman Gurung, member secretary Dr Jagat Prasad Upadhyay, Chief of Department of Literature (Poetry ) Prof Dr Hemnath Poudel, Academic member Shashi Lumumbu expressed happiness over the institution of awards in culture, philosophy and social science and their distributions.

On the occasion, Prof Bidhanath Upadhyay Bhatta was honoured with the Nepal Academy Philosophy Award, Nara Bahadur Dahal with the Bhanu Academy Inter Country Nepali Literature Award, Ram Chandra Bhattarai with the Nepal Academy Nepali Literature Award, Dr Nayanath Poudel with the Nepal Academy Sociology Award, Pro Dr Govinda Raj Bhattarai with the Nepal Academy Translation Award, Khenpo Dwang Woser Lama with the Nepal Academy Mother Tongue (Sherpa Language) Literature Award and Sharmila Kumari Chaudhary with the Nepal Academy Mother Tongue (Tharu language) Award. The Award carries a purse of Rs 500 thousand each.

Similarly, the winners of the National Poetry Festival 2079 BS: Tika Aatreya (Sunsari) and Yatri Prakash Pandey (Dhading) bagged the first and second prizes respectively while Sita Tumkhewa (Bhaktapur), Kiran Siwa (Sunsari), and Kamal Raj KC (Achham) won the third prize. The award carries a purse of Rs 50 thousand, 40 thousand and 30 thousand respectively.

On the occasion, feted personality Dahal said Nepalis are bound by the language, literature and culture no matter where they are. The first winner of the poetry festival Aatreya recited her creation. (RSS)