Christianity is, according to the 2021 census, the fifth most practiced religion in Nepal, with 512,313 adherents or 1.8%, up from 2011 when there were 375,699 adherents or 1.4% of the population.Nepal Central Bureau of Statistics (2011) ‘National Population and Housing Census 2011.’ p. 4. Archived from the original on 26 July 2018. Retrieved 27 January 2019. ManyRai, Hemlata (2001) "Janjatis want to stand up, and be counted ". Nepali Times, 11 May 2001. Archived from the original on 18 November 2018. Retrieved 27 January 2019. Hangen, Susan & Mahendra Lawoti (2013) "Introduction: Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict in Nepal". in Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict in Nepal: Identities and Mobilization after 1990, ed. Mahendra Lawoti & Susan Hangen. Abingdon: Routledge. p. 15. Gellner, David N. (2005). "Ethnic Rights and Politics in Nepal." Himalayan Journal of Sociology 2, p. 10. informed observers have estimated that there are at least 1 million Nepali Christians.‘FNCN: Christian population below actual size.’ Kathmandu Post, 6 December 2012. Archived from the original on 17 November 2018. Retrieved 27 January 2019. Shrestha, Ram Prasad (2012) 'A Historical Analytical Account of Mission Development of Churches of Nepal from 1990 to 2010.' Thesis submitted for MA Intercultural Studies in Asian Context, Redcliffe College. p. 3. Gibson, Ian (2017). Gibson, Ian (2015). p. 113. Janssen, Peter (2016) ‘Christianity's Rise Tests Nepal's New Secularism’. Nikkei Asian Review, 4 December 2016. Archived 28 January 2019. Retrieved 28 January 2019. ‘Census in Nepal Marks 2.3 million Christians as Hindus’ in Compilation of WEA Religious Liberty Commission Research and Analysis Reports 2010–13. pp. 128–9. Archived on 28 January 2019. Retrieved 28 January 2019. According to some Christian groups, there may be as many as 3 million Christians in Nepal, constituting up to 10% of the country's population. A report by Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary identified the Nepali church the fastest growing in the world.Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (2013) Christianity in its Global Context, 1970–2020: Society, Religion and Mission. South Hamilton, MA: Center for the Study of Global Christianity. p. 38. Archived on 22 September 2018. Retrieved 27 January 2019. The vast majority of Nepali Christians are evangelical Protestants (if evangelical is defined broadly to include charismatics and Pentecostals);DAWN Nepal (2007) National Church Survey of Nepal: August 2007. Kathmandu: Nepal Research and Resource Network. pp. 547–8. Mandryk, Jason ed. (2010) Operation World. Bletchley, Milton Keynes: Authentic Media. p. 619. Shrestha 2005, pp. 24–5. there is also a small Catholic population of roughly 10,000.Parajuli, Kalpit (2011) ‘Nepalese Catholics Grow: A Challenge to Anti-conversion laws.’ Asia News 20 October 2011. Archived 17 November 2018. Retrieved 27 January 2019.

The first Christian mission to Nepal was established in 1715 by Catholic Capuchin friars,Barclay, John (2009) ‘.’ International Bulletin of Missionary Research 33 (4):189–194. p. 189. who worked in the Kathmandu Valley.Alsop, Ian (1996) ‘Christians at the Malla Court: the Capuchin ‘piccolo libro’.’ In Change and continuity: studies in the Nepalese culture of the Kathmandu Valley, edited by Siegfried Lienhard. Alessandria: Edizioni dell’Orso. p. 123. The Capuchins were expelled following Nepal's unification in 1768–69,Landon, Perceval (1928) Nepal. London: Constable and Co. Vol. 2. p. 236. and Christian groups were officially banned from the country for the next two centuries.Barclay 2009, p. 189. After the revolution of 1951, foreign missionaries were permitted to enter Nepal to perform social service work, but proselytization and conversion were still legally prohibited.Barclay 2009, pp. 190–1. It was only after the introduction of multi-party democracy in 1990, and the relaxation of restrictions on conversion,Gaborieau, Marc (2002). ‘Christian Minorities in the Hindu Kingdom of Nepal.’ In Religious minorities in South Asia: selected essays on post-colonial situations, edited by Monirul Hussain and Lipi Ghosh. New Delhi: Manak Publications. p. 96. that the Nepali church began to grow rapidly,Barclay 2009, pp. 192–3. but attempts to convert others remain illegal .

The expansion of Christianity is a controversial subject in Nepal,‘Sermon on the Mountain’. Nepali Times 1 September 2017. Archived 21 November 2018. Retrieved 27 January 2019.

Rai, Om Asha (2017) ‘The Golden Age of the Gospel’. 25 August 2017. Archived on 21 November 2018. Retrieved 27 January 2019. Coburn, Brot (2017) ‘Preaching on High’. Archived 21 November 2018. Retrieved 29 January 2019. Mishra, Pramod (2017) ‘Of Faith and Indoctrination’. Kathmandu Post, 31 August 2017. Archived 20 November 2018. Retrieved 29 January 2019. and Nepali Christians have been subject to sporadic violenceU.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (2017) Annual Report 2017 – Nepal. Archived 21 November 2018. Retrieved 27 January 2019. Australian Government Refugee Review Tribunal. 2010. Country Advice Nepal – NPL37529. p. 3. Archived 21 November 2018. Retrieved 27 January 2019. Parajuli, Kalpit (2012) ‘Hindu terrorists threaten more attacks against Christians and Muslims.’ Asia News, 14 August 2012. Archived 20 November 2018. Retrieved 27 January 2019. Coday, Dennis (2003) ‘Maoists torch Catholic mission.’ National Catholic Reporter, 10 October 2003. Retrieved 15 September 2017. Archived on 21 November 2018. Retrieved 27 January 2019. and widespread social exclusion.Gibson 2017, ch. 7–10. Gibson 2015, ch. 7–10. Rai, Lagan (2013) ‘Conversion to Christianity and Social Inclusion: A Comparative Ethnographic Study of Chepang and Santal Communities.’ Final Report submitted to the Social Inclusion Research Fund (SIRF)/ SNV Nepal. Retrieved 15 September 2017. U.S. Department of State (2016) Nepal 2016 International Religious Freedom Report.. Archived on 20 November 2018. Retrieved 27 January 2019. Religion News Service (2020). 'Nepal's government actively targets religious minorities'. Retrieved 26 September 2020. It is frequently reported in Nepali media and political discourse that missionaries offer the poor material incentives to convert, like what's happening in India,U.S. Department of State 2016, p. 2. Dhungel, Bidushi (2015) ‘Commodifying to Survive’. Nepali Times, 7 August 2015. Archived 21 November 2018. Retrieved 27 January 2019. Baral, Biswas (2017) ‘Window into the Secular’. My Republica, 5 January 2017. Archived on 28 January 2019. Retrieved 28 January 2019. Pattison, Pete (2017) 'Nepal's Battle for Souls'. Kathmandu Post, 19 August 2017. Archived 20 November 2018. Retrieved 27 January 2019. Coburn 2017. Shah, Saubhagya (1993) ‘The Gospel comes to the Hindu kingdom.’ Himal 6 (5):35–40. but research has indicated that most Nepali Christians convert for reasons other than contact with missionaries.Gibson 2017, p. 87-101; ch. 7–10. Gibson 2015, pp. 103–22; ch. 7–10. Fricke, T. 2008. ‘Tamang conversions: culture, politics, and the Christian conversion narrative in Nepal.’ Contributions to Nepalese Studies 35 (1):35–62. Zharkevich, I. 2016. ‘‘When Gods Return to their Homeland in the Himalayas’: Maoism, Religion, and Change in the Model Village of Thabang, mid-Western Nepal’. In Religion, Secularism, and Ethnicity in Contemporary Nepal, eds. David N. Gellner, Sondra L. Hausner, and Chiara Letizia. Oxford: OUP. p. 106. Ripert, Blandine (2014). ‘Improbable Globalization: Individualization and Christianization among the Tamangs.’ In Facing Globalization in the Himalayas: Belonging and the Politics of the Self, eds. Gerard Toffin & J Pfaff-Czarnecka. New Delhi: SAGE. Hagen, Paul Kenneth. 1998. 'The Nepali Brahman Response to the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the Context of the Hindu Nepali Brahman Worldview.' Dissertation submitted for degree of Doctor of Missiology, Concordia Theological Seminary. pp. 415–89. Leve, Lauren (2014) ‘Cruel Optimism, Christianity, and the Post-conflict Optic.’ Hot Spots, Cultural Anthropology, 24 March 2014. Archived 13 December 2018. Retrieved 29 January 2019. Kirchheiner, Ole (2016) ‘Culture and Christianity negotiated in Hindu society: a case study of a church in Central and Western Nepal’. PhD thesis, Middlesex University. pp. 123–63. Rai 2013, ch. 5.

Nepal's constitution-writing process of 2006–2015, and the 2007 designation of the country as a secular state,The Interim Constitution of Nepal 2063 (2007): with English and Nepali Side-by-side and Introductory Material in Both Languages (2009). Kathmandu: UNDP Nepal. p. 56. Archived on 17 December 2018. Retrieved 27 January 2019. intensified controversies surrounding Christianity.Letizia, Chiara (2017) 'Secularism and statebuilding in Nepal'. Accord: An International Review of Peace Initiatives 26: 109–11. The constitution of 2015 re-affirmed secularism but also prohibited proselytism and "disturbing the religion of other people".Nepal's Constitution of 2015. Comparative Constitutions Project. p. 22. Archived on 23 June 2018. Retrieved 27 January 2019. In 2017, Nepal's parliament passed a bill which prohibited "hurting the religious sentiment of any caste, ethnic community or class by writing, through voice/talk or by a shape or symbol or in any other such manner".‘Nepal Bill Criminalizes Conversion’. Christian Solidarity Worldwide, 21 August 2017. 17 November 2018. Retrieved 27 January 2019.

‘Nepal to Ban Free Speech and Prosecute Religious Conversions ’. Alliance Defending Freedom News Release, 23 August 2017. Archived 18 November 2018. Retrieved 27 January 2019. 'Nepal Criminalizes Christian Conversion and Evangelism'. Christianity Today, 25 October 2017. 11 December 2018. Retrieved 27 January 2019. U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (2018). Limitations on Minorities' Religious Freedom in South Asia: USCIRF Special Report. Religion News Service (2020). 'Nepal's government actively targets religious minorities'. Religion news. Retrieved 26 September 2020.

History

The Capuchin mission

Catholic Capuchin missionaries were given permission to reside in the Kathmandu Valley in 1715. They worked in each of the valley's three city-states,Alsop 1996, p. 123. and eventually made their main base in Bhaktapur, where they settled in 1740.Alsop 1996, p. 125. The Capuchins were surprised by the warm welcome afforded to them by the king of Bhaktapur, Ranajit Malla, who, one wrote, "embraced us all affectionately and treated us with great familiarity and confidence; he made us sit at his side and kept us for more than an hour". The missionaries focused their activities on the royal court, and composed a treatise on monotheism for the king. Although he did not convert, the king did offer some of his subjects to be Christians in his stead.Alsop 1996, pp. 131–2. The Capuchins refused this offer, and, although they succeeded in making a small number of voluntary local converts,Alsop 1996, p. 134. their mission was put to an end in 1769 after Prithvi Narayan Shah, the ruler of Gorkha, conquered the Kathmandu Valley and expelled all Christians from his new kingdom.Landon 1928, p. 236. The Newar Christians took refuge in India, settling first in the city of Bettiah and then later moving eleven kilometres north to Chuhari, where they reside to this day.

1769–1951