The glow of LED candle lights and phone torches have littered a city skyline as mourners joined together in memory of victims of a devastating flood in the Himalayas.
Hundreds of Nepali and Tibetan diaspora, along with members of the wider community, united at a candlelight vigil at Melbourne’s Federation Square on Monday evening, five days on from the catastrophic flooding which has claimed more than 900 lives.
Buddhist monks and Hindu priests chanted sacred mantras as community members young and old laid electric candles and said prayers at a mural at the foot of the stage.
“Behind every missing person is a family living through unbearable, uncertainty, hoping for a phone call, reunion, or a final answer,” Victoria United for Nepal’s Nirajan Gauli told the crowd.
More than 3000 people are still missing on either side of the border, including 43 Australians, after the disaster was triggered by a glacier collapse in the Himalayas near the Nepal-Tibet border on Wednesday morning.
Victorian Premier Ben Carroll announced a $100,000 pledge for the recovery effort on behalf of the state government, adding to an $8 million commitment by the federal government.
“All of Victoria stands behind you, and every candle in Federation Square tonight is lit up for you, Mr Carroll told the community.
Mr Carroll was joined by Multicultural Affairs Minister Paul Edbrooke, shadow minister for multicultural affairs Evan Mulholland and several other parliamentary colleagues in a bipartisan display of solidarity.
Nepali Australian Asmita Pokhrel travelled more than an hour with her five month old daughter to pay her respects.
“Everyone in Nepal is family, so it affects us all,” she told AAP.
“I want (my daughter) to learn we are all connected. A lot of people are here from all different communities so we are very grateful.”
The community mourned not only the loss of life, but the vulnerability of the Himalayan region, Mr Gauli said.
“Climate change is contributing to changing rainfall patterns, intense storms, melting snows and glaciers, and increasingly unstable landscapes,” he told the crowd.
“These conditions are making floods and landslides more dangerous.”
Despite contributing only 0.1 per cent of global carbon emissions, Nepal faces the brunt of climate change impacts, he said.
Rescue crews near the Tibetan Plateau are desperately battling the clock in the search for survivors among the rubble, as mass burials begin.
Many of the Australians missing were completely the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra- a spiritual journey significant across several religions including Hinduism and Buddhism.
Sydney IT worker Gopi Krishna Naidu Agastya, Royal Australian Air Force member Karan Bhardwaj, Sydney woman Sumi Adhikari and Sunshine Coast woman Renee Spry have also been confirmed among the Australian trekkers missing in the tragedy.
Mr Agastya, 45, had completed the pilgrimage with spiritual tour company the Isha Foundation alongside a large group including 10 other Australians.
The Parramatta man was clearing immigration at the Gyirong port on the Nepal-China border en route back to Kathmandu when the powerful flood hit, his friend Murthy Yeluru told AAP.
“It was a dream of his to visit this Mansarovar, it’s a very rare opportunity,” Mr Yeluru said.
Mr Agastya’s wife and two young daughters have flown from Sydney to his native Hyderabad in India to be with family as they await answers.
“Their hopes are slowly reducing,” Mr Yeluru said.
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