{"id":815529,"date":"2026-07-22T01:25:28","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T01:25:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/815529\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T01:25:28","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T01:25:28","slug":"family-of-homeless-man-who-died-outside-sydney-train-station-prepare-for-final-farewell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/815529\/","title":{"rendered":"Family of homeless man who died outside Sydney train station prepare for final farewell"},"content":{"rendered":"

The mother of a homeless man whose death outside a Sydney train station went unnoticed for days is pleading for her son’s remains to be returned to Nepal.<\/p>\n

Bikram Lama’s body was found outside St James Station last December.<\/p>\n

His body went undiscovered for six days.<\/p>\n

The 33-year-old was remembered by his cousin, Sanjeeb Syangtan Lama, as a quiet and helpful person who kept to himself.<\/p>\n

“He was a very good person,” he said.\"Commuters<\/p>\n

His body was found outside St James Station.\u00a0 (ABC News: Shaun Kingma)<\/p>\n

Sanjeeb said he received a call in January from the Nepalese embassy saying they had found a body near Hyde Park.<\/p>\n

Due to the state of decomposition, the body’s identity could not be immediately confirmed.<\/p>\n

Interpol arranged for DNA samples from Bikram’s mother, Seti Maya Lama, to determine whether there was a match.<\/p>\n

\"Bikram<\/p>\n

Bikram has been remembered as a “very good person”.\u00a0 (Supplied: Sanjeeb Lama)<\/p>\n

The waiting game was traumatising, and Sanjeeb said Seti would call him every day from their hometown in Simpani in tears, seeking answers.<\/p>\n

“She says, ‘I just want to see him. Everyone says he’s dead but I don’t know what’s going on over here [jn Australia]. Is he still alive or is he dead, I don’t know,'” he said of their conversations at the time.<\/p>\n

After seven stressful months, Bikram’s body has finally been released.<\/p>\n

“Just a [few] days ago, the coroner called me and they said that his body has been verified,” Sanjeeb said.<\/p>\n

He said Seti wanted to see her only son one last time to say goodbye.<\/p>\n

Now, his loved ones have started the emotional and costly process of getting Bikram home to Nepal.<\/p>\n

Father’s ‘last wish’ was to speak to Bikram<\/p>\n

On his Facebook profile, Bikram described himself as a “walking novel”.<\/p>\n

He came to Australia as an international student in 2013, dreaming of a better future.<\/p>\n

His family sold land in their remote village south of Kathmandu<\/a> to help fund his education.<\/p>\n

The Guardian has reported Bikram struggled financially in the years after arriving, and his family only found out he had been living on the streets after his death.<\/p>\n

\"Blue<\/p>\n

Bikram was from Simpani, a Nepalese village. (Supplied: Sanjeeb Lama)<\/p>\n

Sanjeeb said the pair spoke regularly on the phone in 2015.<\/p>\n

He said his cousin later lost contact with his parents.<\/p>\n

“The main thing is they love him, I don’t know what happened to Bikram but maybe he had some issues so he doesn’t want to talk to them,” he said.<\/p>\n

Bikram’s father, Kul Bahadur Lama, died from cancer about five years ago, and Sanjeeb said it had been his father’s “last wish” to see him again.<\/p>\n

\"Sanjeeb<\/p>\n

Sanjeeb Lama says he got the call Birkam’s body had been verified.\u00a0 (Supplied)<\/p>\n

He said Kul had told him: “Before I die, I just want to listen to the voice of my son \u2026 [so] I can die peacefully.”<\/p>\n

However, when they tried to call Bikram, he did not pick up.<\/p>\n

The last time Sanjeeb visited Nepal, Seti visited him daily and begged him to call her son so she could hear his voice.<\/p>\n

“She said, ‘He can do whatever he wants. He can go wherever he wants. Just once, talk to me \u2026 but he doesn’t want to talk to me.'”<\/p>\n

‘I don’t want this kind of thing to happen again’<\/p>\n

Usha Kiran Bariya is the NSW coordinator for the Non-Resident Nepali Association (NRNA).<\/p>\n

She helped liaise between authorities in Nepal and Sydney investigators after Bikram’s death.<\/p>\n

“The whole family is devastated because it’s something really sad, the sibling was not contacted for so long,” Ms Bariya said.<\/p>\n

She said the Sydney Nepalese community did not know Bikram was “homeless for so long” and were devastated by the news.<\/p>\n

According to the federal Department of Education, there were more than 60,000 international students from Nepal in Australia as of May.<\/p>\n

\"Usha<\/p>\n

Usha Kiran Bariya helped liaise between Australian and Nepalese authorities. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

Ms Bariya said a lot of Nepalese students coming to Australia were “going through a really bad phase”.<\/p>\n

“Over here, the international student fees are not cheap \u2026 and we can only work for 20 hours,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Despite of that, they come a very young age. The expectation is too high over here, and introverted people like Bikram Lama who doesn’t like to share their problems, that’s the main issue.”<\/p>\n

Ms Bariya said she wanted anyone struggling to “look after yourself” and lean on the community.<\/p>\n

“We need to raise a voice to make the international students [a] more easy way to get help,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I don’t want this kind of thing to happen again.”<\/p>\n

The ABC has reached out to the Embassy of Nepal for comment.<\/p>\n

Community contributing towards repatriation<\/p>\n

In Nepal, traditional farewell rituals vary depending on religion and caste.<\/p>\n

Bikram was Buddhist, which Sanjeeb said meant his family preferred cremation.<\/p>\n

“There’s a specific area in my village and there is this temple \u2026 so they will take him there and burn him,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Bikram was an international student. (Supplied: Arun Karki\/The Guardian)<\/p>\n

Getting Bikram home will cost thousands of dollars to cover mortuary care, documentation, and air and ambulance transportation.<\/p>\n

Part of the costs are being crowdfunded, with the NRNA also contributing through its social welfare fund.<\/p>\n

“I can see that a lot of Nepalese have been contributing \u2026 to send him back home,” Ms Bariya said.<\/p>\n

Sydney homelessness situation in crisis <\/a><\/p>\n

People with lived experience of homelessness say the issue is deepening as housing stock remains out of reach and community providers are left struggling to cope with demand.<\/p>\n

She said once Bikram returned home, more money would be needed for funeral arrangements.<\/p>\n

“Bikram Lama’s family \u2026 their financial condition is also not good in Nepal, that’s why we’re trying to do people fund.”<\/p>\n

If the money is not raised, Sanjeeb says Bikram may have to be cremated in Sydney without his mother present.<\/p>\n

“I don’t think she can travel because she’s 73 years old, and compared to Australia she’s still young, but in my country that [age] is too old,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s going to be a very, very long journey, and she can’t handle, I think.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The mother of a homeless man whose death outside a Sydney train station went unnoticed for days is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":815530,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,390865,390870,390868,390869,1293,30297,55690,47654,44,390873,339170,390867,390866,390871,670,390872],"class_list":["post-815529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bikram-lama","tag-bikram-lama-body-sydney-train-station","tag-bikram-lama-death","tag-bikram-lama-homelessness","tag-body","tag-funeral","tag-homeless","tag-nepal","tag-news","tag-nsw-homelessness","tag-repatriation","tag-simpani","tag-st-james","tag-st-james-train-station","tag-sydney","tag-sydney-homelessness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=815529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/815530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=815529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=815529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=815529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}