Final rites of Barbara Adams were performed as per Hindu tradition at the Pashupati Aryaghat on Monday.

Tahal Bahadur Karki “Johnny”, treasurer of Barbara Peace Foundation, lit the funeral pyre.

Adams passed away on Friday evening just a few days shy of her 85th birthday.

Earlier, her body was kept on the premises of Nepal Academy for two hours from 9am for paying final tribute. Minister for Information and Communication Technology Sher Dhan Rai and former deputy prime minister Prakash Man Singh among others had reached the Nepal Academy to pay final tribute to Adams. According to Karki, a prayer ceremony will be organised as per Buddhist tradition on the seventh day.

“She (Adams) wanted to be cremated as per Hindu tradition and expressed her wish to have prayers as per Buddhist tradition,” said Karki.   

Similarly, a memorial has been planned on the first week of May. Born an American citizen in New York on April 24, 1931, Adams first visited Nepal as a journalist to cover the Nepal visit of Queen Elizabeth II in 1960 and thereafter decided to stay here.

Nepal, for her, was a second home where she dedicated her life in social works, tourism promotion and environment conservation. For the last few years, Adams had been involved in a campaign to build hoses for landless and squatters in the Far-West.