Nepal's King Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev has bestowed royal awards on a Jesuit missionary and a local lay Catholic for their work in education and social service

National Catholic Reporter, Nov 26, 2004

Nepal's King Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev has bestowed royal awards on a Jesuit missionary and a local lay Catholic for their work in education and social service. The king presented Jesuit Fr. James Donnelly with the Auspicious Right Hand of the Gorkha Dynasty Award and Puma Nepali with the Right Hand of the Gorkha Dynasty Award.

Donnelly, a U.S. citizen, has worked in Nepal for 43 years as an English teacher, school administrator and writer of textbooks. Nepali, the first lay Catholic to receive such an award, is choir director at Assumption Church in Katmandu.