Tag: Kathmandu

Nepal: 4 women arrested for ‘attempting to forcefully convert people to Christianity’

November 8, 2018 Nepal Anti-conversion law, Dalits, Kathmandu, Nepal, Proselytism

Nepal Entry, Meeting Sonam Tsering (guitarist, leads tours up to Annapurna, surprisingly a Christian Tibetan), Intro to everything, Pema Wangdi Lama recording studio, Boudhanath 1 (Flickr / Damien KR / CC)

Four Christian women were arrested earlier this week in Nepal on suspicion of attempting to convert people to Christianity by force, Asia News reports. The women – two of whom are Japanese – were accused by residents of proselytising door-to-door. They were followed and filmed, and the footage was passed . . . Read More

Nepal: Couple deported for ‘converting Hindus into Christians’

July 13, 2018 Nepal Kathmandu, Nepal, Proselytism, Religious freedom

Proselytism is a crime in majority-Hindu Nepal. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

A Christian couple have been deported from Nepal after they were accused of proselytism, a criminal offence in the country, reports national newspaper The Himalayan Times. De Vera Richard, from the Philippines, and his Indonesian wife Rita Gonga had been staying in Nepal on business visas and were running a . . . Read More

Nepal to further tighten laws on religious conversion

April 6, 2018 Nepal Anti-conversion law, Kathmandu, Nepal, Religious freedom

Nepal is set to draft new laws and amend existing legal provisions to prevent religious conversions, reports local news site myrepublica.com. Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa said that, “through Christianity”, attempts were being made to “push the country into conflict”. “A new strategy should be devised to consolidate national unity,” . . . Read More

Nepal: Christian worker shot at Easter says he’s still fearful

July 14, 2017 Nepal Catholics, Hindu Morcha Nepal, Hindu nationalism, Kathmandu, Nepal

Three months ago, on 16 April, Christian worker Santosh Khadka was shot in Kathmandu while he was returning home from an Easter service. Police have not been able to identify the attackers, but local Christians say Khadka was targeted because of his religious-freedom work, as some groups in this young democracy . . . Read More

Nepal’s Christians have to trek into mountains to bury their dead

March 23, 2017 Nepal Burial, Hindu nationalism, Kathmandu, Nepal

One way in which the freedom of religion or belief in a country can be measured is whether minorities are permitted to carry out their own rituals during key ‘rites of passage’ such as birth, marriage and death. One of the world’s fastest-growing Christian communities is that in Nepal. Between the censuses . . . Read More

UPDATE First religious freedom case under new Nepal constitution: all charges dropped

December 6, 2016 Nepal Charikot, Converts, Hindu Morcha Nepal, Hindu nationalism, Kathmandu

The eight arrested Christians after their release on bail, Dolakha, Nepal 2016Vishal Arora UPDATE: A court in Nepal has dropped a case against eight Christians, the first case about freedom of religion since the country’s new constitution was implemented in 2015. The seven men and one woman, all counsellors, . . . Read More

Nepal Christians attacked while trying to help

August 18, 2016 Nepal Constitution, Dalits, Hindu nationalism, Kathmandu

Eight Christians are still awaiting the outcome of their trial, after they became the first people to be charged under Nepal’s new rules on religious freedom. Their crime? Distributing pamphlets about Jesus during a trauma seminar in a Christian school, following last year’s devastating earthquake (see video below). But they . . . Read More

Three arrested after Nepal church bombings

September 29, 2015 Nepal Hindu Morcha Nepal, Jhapa, Kathmandu, Rastriya Prajatantra Party Nepal

Three people have been arrested in connection with the recent bombing of two churches in Nepal’s easternmost Jhapa district. The bombings took place on 14 September, hours after Nepal’s Constituent Assembly had rejected calls to revert the country to a Hindu state. Both churches suffered structural damage, but nobody was . . . Read More

Nepal on verge of curbing religious freedom

August 26, 2015 Nepal Converts, Hindu nationalism, Hindutva, Kathmandu, Maoists, Nepal, Rastriya Prajatantra Party Nepal, Religious freedom

The final draft of a new constitution was tabled in Nepal’s Constituent Assembly on 22 August amid protests by Hindu nationalists on the streets. They oppose the idea of secularism, which in the South Asian context simply means pluralism and equal treatment of all religions. It now needs approval by . . . Read More

Nepal’s long-delayed transition to democracy worries its Christians

April 27, 2015 Nepal Burial, Constitution, Kathmandu, Maoists, Sushil Koirala

As Nepal struggles to respond to the massive earthquake and aftershocks during the weekend that left thousands dead, the world has offered aid to a country which is still one of the poorest and most isolated in Asia, despite its attractive image for mountaineers and Western backpackers. It’s still overcoming . . . Read More

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