Although Nepal and Korea are geographically far away, they have many similarities in culture, food and way of enjoying them. They enjoy spicy foods, music and other things. This was what one saw at the 2017 Korea Culture Day, the first biannual cultural program.

At the event, organized by the Embassy of the Republic of Korea at Army Officers’ Club, Bhadrakali, Kathmandu, the presence of young population was so huge that it showed the popularity of Korean culture and music in Nepal.

Inaugurated by speaker of Legislature Parliament Onshari Gharti, the Korean Culture programs included the Korean music, foods, games and other related activities. “Nepal shares so many things with Korea and this kind of cultural program helps to strengthen Nepal-Korea people to people relations. I was very impressed by the presence of large numbers of youth here,” said speaker Gharti.

Minister for Energy Janardan Sharma Prabhakar and Minister for Tourism Culture and Civil Aviation Jitenddra Dev also attended the food festival and culture programs attended by Nepalese people and Korean citizens living in Nepal.

Highlighting the program, ambassador of Republic of Korea to Nepal Park Young-sik said Korean music and culture is very popular in Nepal. Ambassador Park Young-sik said large numbers of Nepalese are working in Korea supporting Nepal’s economic development. The ambassador also said Korea and Nepal were linked by Lumbini, the birthplace of Shakyamuni Buddha.

Korea culture program included vivid aspects of Korean culture presented live. The completion of K-pop competition among Nepalese K-pop teams that had been selected from different parts of the country attracted large crowds. Likewise, a quiz contest “Quiz on Korea” also took place.

With music, play and quiz, visitors enjoyed many delicious Korean food items free of cost. Around three thousand visitors enthusiastically attended the cultural event last year. This year the crowed was much higher.

The craze of Nepali youths has noticeably increased this year in K-pop competition. The preliminary round was held on Saturday, May 20, 2017 in Kathmandu in which 67 teams with around 300 participants took part for over three hours. This fact substantiates that K-Pop is growing as a popular culture among Nepali youths. Twelve selected teams performed their talent in the competition.

Sanjay Gupta was the Master of Ceremony of the K-pop competition to be held in the Auditorium Hall on the cultural event, in which special performance was given by Mongolian Namja and Strukpop, the K-pop teams that stood first and second respectively during last year’s competition. Sabin Rai, the most popular young singer of Nepal, made a special performance during the event.

Seven Korean restaurants running in Kathmandu served many delicious Korean food items such as, Bulgogi, Kimchi, Dakgalbi, Kheranmari, Tokbokgi, Kimbaap, Haemuljon, Yaksik, Sungwa etc. all free of cost. Likewise, another attraction of the program was mixing of large bibimbaap. Visitors also took photographs wearing Hanbok, the national dress of Korea, and also enjoyed playing traditional game “Thuho” during the event.

The first team selected in the K-pop competition bagged a gift hamper worth eight hundred dollars from Samsung and the winner of Quiz on Korea will have a chance to take part in final competition in Korea with free round air ticket and accommodation in Korea. Special prizes were distributed to some of the excellent performers in the event.