Much of the Nepalese people here in US calls me Nepalese.I tell them several times iam a Bhutanese guy of Nepali origin.Again the next time they call me Nepalese.Let me tell you all guys we are Nepali.And to be a Nepali i dont have to be born in Nepal.If you call us Nepalese then what should we call you.In Refugee camp Nepalese around us used to call "Bloody beggar Bhutanese'.Now you call us Nepalese.....whats this.Iam not saying to all of you.Its always head high when somebody says me Gorkhali but i dont like to be called as nepalese.""I love to be Nepali but not Nepalese.Long live Gorkhalis

Albino:

Chill. Relax. Drink a beer. Go to a bar. Watch or play some sport. It doesn't matter what they call you. Jaat, paat, ethnicity, nationaility pretty much divides us. Be an individual, cultivate some good friends. I guess you are new to the States.

When you want to experience your culture, have fun, taste Nepali food etc, you will end up in a party or an event organized by Nepalis in America. So, take it easy. Don't antagonize people.

No matter what your experience in Nepal or in the camps, one thing to remember (and never forget) is that Nepal gave you refuge. India did not. Your own country kicked you out. That means something. So, some tolerance of your Nepali acquaintances not understanding your convoluted identity is in order.

Just so you know, I am a Bhutanese too. Just being practical and rational.

Wait Albino,

they still gotta call you Mexican, Philipino, Indain (Eastern), Hawain and many more to come. They would be like, "Where is Bhutan? Is that the state of India or China?"

Albino,

Just Chill Bro. Why are you after jaat and paat? Take it easy and do like MazeMyan  said.

chill out Albino dahling. One day Bhutan will become part of Nepal.

Albino Broda............Your Origin is Nepali first, Than whatever. Gorkhali is the Origin from Gorkha.....You know the History of Gorkha and King Prithivi Narayan Shah's unification. SO Gorkhali is another Nepalese origin. You are from Bhutan so you are Bhutanese Nepali, and unified we re all Gorkhali around the world. BUT First you are Nepalese Origin. BHUTAN doesnt care about you and kicked you out even after generations of living in Bhutan. India who was behind this mess (RAW) didnt welcome you. Who sheltered you was the country of your ORIGIN NEPAL.............. DID you see how Nepalese of all origin around the world supported Prashant Tamang to win Indian Idol???? He proudly said he was an Indian of Nepalese origin and even wore the Nepali Traditional Topi when he won. And came to Nepal to thank us. BRO as Nepalese we are all from one ORIGIN NEPALI....................since you look like one, talk like one and share many qualities of a Nepali, People will call you nepali...Like it or not.....NOW if that makes you mad just tell them that you are Bhutanese of nepalese origin......I have many Tibetan friends from Nepal and they dont get so worked up because the look Nepalese(Sherpa) though they call them selves Tibetan even if they are 4 generation nepalese citizen. I can Understand your pride in your country but, Time to decide bro............YOUR country will never take you back sayng you are not Bhutanese......so now you have one thing....NEPALESE ORIGIN..........or the word you prefer Gorkhali. UNITED WE STAND STRONG BRO.

I am sorry for what other people have called you, I had seen you guy's come in trucks and buses sponsored by india and dropped you off across the mechi river. Your first camp was made in MaiKhola.

Forget about what other people say. If you believe you are a Nepali, nobody can take that away from you. You speak nepali, you follow nepali culture and tradition and you are a Gorkhali at heart, just like me.
 
Some ignorant dumb people will call you names, they will call names to their own family.
You can't bite a dog if a dog bites you.

Chill brother, they are bringing bhutanese refugees and keeping them in cities where there is a pretty good population of Nepali's already living there. And the Nepali organization's there are trying to help you guy's too. So join those organization's and be a proud Nepali.
We are not in nepal we are in america, so we all are the same, only thing that holds us together is our NepaliPan.
we are one nepali, no matter from nepal, india, bhutan, shikkim, burma or thailand. Our language and culture unites us.
Just stay away from ethnicly charged groups in america, you will still get discriminated, focus on the groups that has nepal.. not any jaat paat group.

just my 2 cents

Reason to call you Nepalese:
1. You are in Sajha.
2. You Speak Nepali Language.
3. You've Spent more than 90% (I guess) of your life in Nepal
4. You follow Nepali culture.
5. At least Nepali government protect you guys as Refugee.

Now give me some reasons, how you call yourself as Bhutanese(Never go with these fu***ng jaat-paat, bhes-bhusaa, ethnicity, nationaility thigs..)???

Very good points rastrapati......

Questions to all Bhutanese in America:

America is the land of freedom, ya' all know about that by now. America fights for the democracy and supports all democratic fights around the world. I see your pride being Bhutani. That’s very positive (I guess). Are ya' all going to fight for the democracy in Bhutan and kick Jigme Sigme Wanchuck's regime out of Bhutan? Some of ya’ are pretty lucky that ya’ got chance to resettlement in developed country like USA. What about those Nepali origin people and poor Bhutanis in Bhutan? Do you guys have guts to fight for your own freedom?

 

MadDoGG,

Well said.

Rastrapati: All those reasons are the reasons to call ourselves Nepali, not Nepalese. In the current literature treating the subject of people of Nepali origin, Nepalese means the citizens of Nepal (your Maithilis, Taraibasis, Biharis all are Nepalese). Nepali, when applied to a people, means people of Nepali origin(language, culture, heritage) but not citizens of Nepal. Sajha's tagline is "Bringing Together Nepali Communities," not only Nepalese communities, that is why we hang out in Sajha sometimes.

"Now give me some reasons, how you call yourself as Bhutanese"

"Bhutanese" is not an ethnic or racial term. Like "American" it is a term that denotes nationality/citizenship. By being born in Bhutan, by being citizens of Bhutan, the people under discussion here are Bhutanese. There are Ngalong Bhutanese, there are Sarchhops Bhutanese and there are Nepali Bhutanese.

The refugee status these folks have in the US and elsewhere flows directly from their being Bhuatanese rather than their being of Nepali origin. Note that there are Bhutanese refugees of other ethnicity currently resident in the United States. If we have some aspects of common herigate with the Nepalis around the world, we also have some aspects of common identity with Bhutanese of other ethnicity. Thus the urge to preserve that link. That should not have to come at the cost of our Nepali-ness. But Nepalese (citizens of Nepal) we are not. We are Nepalis, of the Nepali diaspora, just like those of Darjeeling are.

When we become American citizens, we may prefer to call ourselves Bhutanese Americans, rather than Nepalese Americans, because the latter, we are not. We have established our organizations (of Bhutanese Americans) in the United States. While loving you all from Nepal, and being grateful for all your help in our intial integration into the American life, we maintain our separate identity too. However, my point to Albino is we should not get all riled up and angry when someone mistakes us for Nepalese. It is normal.

If we "Never go with these fu***ng jaat-paat, bhes-bhusaa, ethnicity, nationaility thigs..," then we would neither be Bhutanese, nor Nepalis or Nepalese. Of these, jat-paat is something that needs its ass kicked (reform, and ideally, abolition, required, and where the Nepalis of Bhutan have made significant progress). Bhes Bhusa, language, heritage, traditions, festivals need to remain, be conserved and be celebrated.

Now to answer Phatte's question: the idea was never to kick Jigme's regime out of the country. Jigme et al are Bhutanese too and have as much right to be in Bhutan as anyone else. Perhaps we need to look around at the Nepali population that have been evicted from various places: from Burma, from north-east India, and how they disappeared into Nepal. There is a Burmese Tole in Kakarvitta to this day! The Nepalis from Bhutan at least had the perseverance and endurance to forge a struggle, persist, despite suffering, and raise the issue and force the international community, the Nepali govt, the Indian govt and the Bhutanese govt to take notice. So, comparatively, as opposed to many who wax eloquent about the need to fight for their freedom, I guess the Nepalis from Bhutan have done and continue to do their part. YES, we will continue to fight, and we are fighting even now, if you have failed to notice.  It would be a lot easier if those opposed to us could not point consistently towards Nepal's democracy and say: that is what Nepali folks do with democracy and freedom. The internal situation in Nepal makes our fight that much harder. But that is another story.

Do we have guts? Yes, but not guts enough to go ahead and slaughter thousands of our own fellow countrymen for the sake of an outdated, archaic, abstract idea. We have the guts to persistently fight a peaceful fight, and we will win eventually, and it will be a win for all kinds of Bhutanese (Nepali and others) as well as for the regime we have been victims of. This peaceful fight is a little tougher than mobilizing illiterate farmers and going on a kllling spree after brainwashing them. So, thank you very much for the exortation, but no thanks.

Chor: I agree with you. Many Nepalese organizations and individuals have been great friends of the Bhutanese refugees and never let us forget that we are BHUTANESE. We also have our own organizations now, that are set up to assist the newcomers, of course in collaboration with other community organizations including those of Nepalese.

All in all, it is fine for Nepalese to think the Bhutanese are fellow Nepalese like them. It is fine for Bhutanese to make sure their Nepalese friends understand where we stand about our social, community and political identity. Get riled up when they laugh at you when you make that point. Until then, explain, as long as you need to, and accept that their version has some amount of social and cultural rationale, if not political legitimacy.

Looks like I kept my name - STUPIDA,  for this reason. Can someone tell me the difference between NEPLAI and NEPALESE.

Stupida
I think our friend Mazemyan said it...

Nepali is anybody of nepali origion
Nepalese is somebody with Nepali Citizenship

I agree and disagree with that statement... I think the english term of Nepali is Nepalese that is all I can say.. I don't know about that citizenship thing.. I think as long as you can prove your lineage in Nepal,, one is granted a citizenship.. I have relatives who went to assam, bhutan, shikkim a long time back.. actually I have a fupu in bhutan and she and her family have nepali citizenship..

I really dont' know how it works.. I have a many examples of people from assam, maghalaya and around having nepali citizenship as well as indian citizenship.. maybe there was money envolved but????? like I said I don't know how it really works.. maybe someone who has more knowledge in this subject matter can elobrate on this better..

One thing I know is Nepali = Nepalese or maybe I am wrong..
I always thought nepali = nepalese

MazeMyan..
            I am glad you consider yourself a nepali.. I have met a few dudes from Burma.. they call themselves Burmaese and not Nepali at all.. though they celebrate nepali holiday's and tradition and speak nepali.. they say they are not nepali... which kindda hurts but maybe not.. it is them and their identity whatever they want to call themselves.. I don't think they went to any other country when their ass was kicked out of Burma but they all came to nepal and like you said most of them live in nepal now..

different people different strokes..

I think Nepali refers to the language (and culture) and Nepalese are people (citizens) of Nepal....... anyways it is interesting to learn how people of Nepali origin (but citizens of other nation) think of their nationality and their origin........

Albino: don't feel sad when "Nepalese" call you one of them, it's about time they will slowly but surely recognize you being Bhutanese...

Also be prepared to be called by different names as Phatte said earlier: most Americans (of all color) will think you (Bhutanese of Nepali origin and Nepalese of course) are Mexicans (no hard feelings), African Americans will call you Latinos or Asians (by your eye size), few educated fellows will classify you into Chinese, Japanese, Malaysian or other South East Asians... Asian Americans will think you are Indians, Indians will think you are north-east Indians and few will say that you are from Nepal but think Hindi is your first language.....and goes on but the point is irrespective of what everyone calls you, you know you are a Bhutanese of Nepali origin and keep people reminding of your identity... our friend mazemyan will help you a lot.....

I agree you are bhutanese and we shouldnot call you Nepalese as  if we started saying you Nepali and incorporate you with us we will lose or position and we destroy bhutanese also ,so you are bhutanese ,stay firm as a bhutanese fight for your position where you born and to that land t which you bleong!!

सय थरी बाजा यौटै ताल सय थरी गोडा यौटै काल
जहा सुकै बसे पनि हाम्रो साझा प्यारो नेपाल

Mr. Mazeman,

Obviously has a very good point about distinctness of the word, NEPALI and NEPALESE. I had read an article (probably in Nepali Times, sorry forgot the writer's name) which mentioned about the confusion of these two words, which are sometimes used interchangeably in English. Many historians, prolific writers in the issue of NEPAL have either used Nepali or Nepalese to mean a group, origin or a particular citizenship.

However, i believe there hasn't yet been any distinction made in dictionaries that we give a distinct meaning to each of these words. But its good that Mr Mazeman brought this issue into light to delve upon.

Good discussion though.

I am a Nepali citizen. I am from Nepali origin. I am Nepali. We are Nepalis. But we are not Nepalese. Who in the world created the word-Nepalese?

I am from Nepal. That means that I am a Nepali. Nepalese can be people from Naples or maybe somewhere but not from Nepal. Isn't the word ugly? Please stop using the word and proudly announce that we are Nepalis, not Nepalese.

Sorry for taking the discussion to another path but I had to do it. I hate when people after knowing that I am Nepal call me Nepalese because I am not a Nepalese; I am a Nepali.

So even if you are Nepali by origin or you are only a Nepali citizen (or both), please call yourself a Nepali. If you are from Bhutan, then of-course you are a Bhutani; how can you be a Nepali when you are not! And yes, I prefer to call a person from Bhutan- a Bhutani, not a Bhutnese.

Shakespeare said "What's in a name?". But I say that name is the most valuable identity you have and calling yourself Nepalese is losing your identity.

I would love to hear from other people about what they think.