Countries
Nepal
Also Known As Nepali
Asia
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Nepal is the birthplace of the historical Buddha, born at Lumbini in the sixth century BCE, and the country's religious life blends Hinduism, practiced by the majority, with Buddhism in both its Theravada and Tibetan Vajrayana forms, particularly among Newar, Sherpa and other highland communities. Kathmandu Valley's temple architecture, including Pashupatinath, one of Hinduism's most significant Shiva temples, and the Buddhist stupas at Boudhanath and Swayambhunath, sit within a few kilometres of each other, reflecting centuries of coexistence rather than separation between the two traditions. Nepal was a Hindu kingdom by constitution until 2008, when it became a secular federal republic. The country's Himalayan monasteries also preserve Tibetan Buddhist textual and ritual traditions carried south as refugees and traders crossed the mountains over many centuries.
Facts
Law and State
Establishment StatusNepal was declared a secular federal republic under the 2015 constitution, following the 2008 abolition of the Hindu monarchy that had previously made Hinduism the state religion. State Funding MechanismNepal funds religious institutions unevenly by tradition. The government-run Guthi Corporation, established under the Guthi Corporation Act of 1976, manages land and income endowed to temples, shrines and festivals, and oversees roughly half of the country's more than 12,000 significant religious structures. Buddhist monasteries must register with the government before they can receive state funding for facility maintenance, monk training and study tours, and the government pays the salary of one teacher for each registered religious school, but Christian schools are not eligible to register as public or community schools and so cannot receive this funding. 4 Apostasy or Blasphemy LawA criminal law provision against religious conversion by inducement remains in force in Nepal and is criticised by rights groups as restricting Christian evangelism. 3 Registration or Recognition RegimeThe 2015 constitution declares Nepal a secular state, but Article 4 defines secular to include protecting the religion and culture handed down since ancient times, language the Supreme Court has read as protecting Hindu practice specifically. Article 26 bars converting another person from one religion to another, and section 158 of the 2017 Penal Code criminalizes it with up to five years' imprisonment; personal conversion and private worship are not themselves offenses. A religious body registers as an association under the Association Registration Act of 1977, the same statute covering clubs and cultural societies generally; the historic Newar guthi system separately endows and administers several thousand temples and other religious sites in the Kathmandu Valley, outside the 1977 act altogether. 3 Ban or Official WatchlistNepal's constitution and its 2017 Penal Code prohibit proselytizing and converting another person from one religion to another, punishable by up to five years' imprisonment and a fine of up to 50,000 rupees, while personal conversion and private worship remain protected. On October 6, 2023, the Supreme Court upheld a 2021 Jumla High Court decision imprisoning and fining Christian preacher Keshav Raj Acharya for proselytizing, a conviction religious minority groups say shows the law can reach ordinary religious practice rather than only forced conversion. 3 Concordat BasisNepal has no concordat and is constitutionally secular. Article 4 of the 2015 Constitution declares Nepal a secular state, defining secular for the purposes of that article as protection of religion and culture handed down since ancient times, that is sanatana, together with religious and cultural freedom, a step back from the 1962 and 1990 constitutions' declaration of Nepal as a Hindu Kingdom. 5 Geography
LatitudeApproximate reference point, rounded to one decimal place; a country's extent has no single center, so this coordinate is conventional, not a survey measurement. LongitudeApproximate reference point, rounded to one decimal place; a country's extent has no single center, so this coordinate is conventional, not a survey measurement. Status
Legal StatusDeclared a secular federal republic under the 2015 constitution after the 2008 abolition of the Hindu monarchy; a criminal law provision against religious conversion by inducement remains in force and is criticized by rights groups as restricting Christian evangelism. 3 Demographics
Religious CompositionAbout 81% Hindu, 9% Buddhist (concentrated among Newar, Tamang and Himalayan communities), with smaller Muslim, Kirati and Christian populations (Nepal national census; Pew Research Center, Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020). 1 Government
Government Typefederal parliamentary republic 2 Sovereignty StatusSovereign UN member state 2 Established Year1768 (unified by Prithvi Narayan SHAH) Location
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Religion and History in Nepal
Nepal is majority Hindu, around 81 percent per its national census and reflected in Pew Research's Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020, with a Buddhist minority near 9 percent concentrated among Newar, Tamang and Himalayan ethnic communities, alongside smaller Muslim, Kirati and Christian populations; Hindu and Buddhist practice in Nepal have long overlapped closely, sharing temples, festivals and deities in ways that make strict statistical separation somewhat artificial in daily practice.
Nepal is the birthplace of Siddhartha Gautama, the historical Buddha, born in Lumbini in the sixth century BCE according to tradition, a site now a major pilgrimage destination and UNESCO World Heritage listing. The Kathmandu Valley's Newar civilization developed a distinctive syncretic religious culture blending Hindu and Vajrayana Buddhist elements over more than a millennium, visible in shared temple complexes such as Pashupatinath, one of Hinduism's holiest Shiva shrines, and Swayambhunath and Boudhanath, major Buddhist stupas. Nepal was the world's only constitutionally Hindu state until 2006, when the monarchy's absolute power was overturned amid a decade-long Maoist insurgency, and the country was formally declared a secular republic under its 2015 constitution following the monarchy's abolition in 2008.
From Hindu Kingdom to Secular Republic
Nepal's transformation from the world's only Hindu monarchy to a secular federal republic unfolded across a turbulent decade: a Maoist insurgency beginning in 1996 sought to abolish the monarchy and traditional Hindu state structure, a 2001 royal massacre killed King Birendra and much of the royal family under still-disputed circumstances, and mass 2006 pro-democracy protests forced King Gyanendra to relinquish absolute power, leading to a peace accord with the Maoists and the monarchy's formal abolition in 2008.
The 2015 constitution declares Nepal a secular state while explicitly defining secularism as the protection of the ancient religious and cultural practices existing since time immemorial, a formulation that Hindu nationalist groups have criticized as insufficiently protective of Hinduism's former special status and that religious minorities, including Christians and some Muslims, have criticized from the opposite direction for retaining restrictions such as a criminal law provision against religious conversion by inducement or allurement, which rights groups argue is applied in practice to restrict Christian evangelism specifically. Calls to restore Nepal as a Hindu state have persisted among royalist and Hindu nationalist movements, occasionally producing street protests since the republic's founding.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
This source names Nepal directly: "Menstruation Among Adolescent Girls in Nepal: Prevalence and Policies for Eradication," PLOS ONE 16(9):e0256968, 2021."
This source names Nepal directly: "carved in the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal during the Licchavi period of the eighth or ninth century, shows the Buddha seated in the teaching gesture, his hand raised, flanked by the bodhisattvas..."
About 9% Buddhist, concentrated among Newar, Tamang and Himalayan communities; Nepal is the birthplace of the historical Buddha.
This source names Nepal directly: "with his Buddhist queens from Nepal and Tang China and with the building of the Jokhang and Ramoche temples in Lhasa."
This source names Nepal directly: "1844 study of manuscripts sent from Nepal."
About 81% Hindu, the majority tradition.
This source names Nepal directly: "Hindus of any nation outside India and Nepal."
This source names Nepal directly: "in Yaounde, Cameroon and Kathmandu, Nepal."
This source names Nepal directly: "itself: in the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal he is worshipped, under the name Machindranath, as a rain bringing deity central to Newar religious life, and is identified there, in a striking case of..."
This source names Nepal directly: "Sanskar USA, Sanskar UK and Sanskar Nepal."
This source names Nepal directly: "across northern India and southern Nepal connecting the four principal sites of the Buddha's life: Lumbini, his birthplace; Bodh Gaya, where he attained enlightenment beneath the Bodhi Tree..."
This source names Nepal directly: "The Cult of Kumari, Virgin Worship in Nepal, published by the Institute of Nepal and Asian Studies at Tribhuvan University in 1975, is an ethnographic study of the Nepalese practice of venerating a..."
This source names Nepal directly: "the Buddha's traditional birthplace in Nepal."
This source names Nepal directly: "the National Penal (Code) Act, 2017, Nepal's statutory criminal law enacted by the Parliament of Nepal, which includes the provision criminalizing the practice of chhaupadi, the custom of menstrual..."
Nepal holds large Tibetan communities and shares the Himalayan Buddhist world.
Contains
The identification of the ancient town is disputed between Tilaurakot in Nepal and Piprahwa in India.
Originated Here
Kept in the Kathmandu Valley, where the cows lead the year's dead.
The day of the Nepali Tihar festival on which dogs are garlanded and fed.
Sources
1. Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020
2. The World Factbook (Central Intelligence Agency)
3. International Religious Freedom Report
United States Department of State, Office of International Religious Freedom, US Department of State, 2023View the Source 4. US Department of State, 2023 Report on International Religious Freedom: Nepal
United States Department of State, Office of International Religious Freedom, US Department of State
5. Nepal 2015 (rev. 2016) Constitution (Constitute Project)
The Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd edition
Oxford University Press, Oxford University Pressdemonym / adjectival formView the Source Monk, Householder, and Tantric Priest: Newar Buddhism and Its Hierarchy of Ritual
David N. Gellner, Cambridge University Press, 1992Originated Here: Newar
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