The 94th birthday of Nepalese poet Laximi Prasad Devkota was commemorated Monday afternoon at the Nepalese Consulate General in Lhasa, capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region in southwest China.
Devkota, who was born in October 1909, is a well-respected figure in Nepalese literature. His works have been translated into more than 30 languages.
Han Shuli, vice-chairman of the Federation of Literary and Art Circles of the Tibet Autonomous Region, said the poet was not only an influential literary figure in South Asia and even the whole world, but also an "envoy of friendship" between the Chinese and Nepalese people.
Devkota, who died at the early age of 50, could speak seven languages, and wrote most of his poems in English. A collection of his poems is now being translated into Chinese and Tibetan.
(Xinhua News Agency November 4, 2002)
