Gurkha Borneo veterans honoured at the Cenotaph as Remembrance Sunday falls on Laxmi Puja

British Nepali families face a rare double occasion today: Remembrance Sunday in the UK coincides with Laxmi Puja, the central night of Tihar, the festival of lights.

The Gurkha Brigade Association (GBA) has dedicated its 2026 programme to the 60th anniversary of the end of the Borneo Confrontation (1963–66), in which every Gurkha infantry regiment served alongside Gurkha engineers, signallers and logistics units. According to the association's published plan, Remembrance week has included a presence at the Royal British Legion Field of Remembrance at Westminster Abbey on 5 November and its annual service at the Gurkha Chautari at the National Memorial Arboretum on 7 November, culminating in the GBA column at today's Cenotaph parade in Whitehall. Earlier this year Borneo veterans attended a Royal Garden Party at Buckingham Palace, and the family of Captain Rambahadur Limbu VC, the only Victoria Cross recipient of the campaign, received replica medals at Sandhurst.

Local services are also taking place in Gurkha towns, including a parade to Gurkha Square in Fleet this afternoon.

In Nepal, Laxmi Puja is observed this evening, with the Nepal Electricity Authority expecting record power demand. For many British Nepali households, the day will therefore move from the two-minute silence to diyo lamps and Deusi-Bhailo by nightfall. Tihar concludes with Bhai Tika on Wednesday 11 November.