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Although there are thousands of Christians in Katmandu, their presence is barely discernible. The sole traditional churchlike structure in Katmandu is Catholic and lies secluded off a main road set among houses. After meeting informally for five decades in the Jesuit-run St. Xavier's School, the Catholics registered as a nonreligious, nongovernment organization in 1993, calling it the Nepal Catholic Society. This gave them the right to buy property for the community.

The Catholic organization bought a piece of property from another Christian who ran an orphanage and Bible school. Work on the Assumption Church complex started in 1993 and a cathedral was completed four years later in 1997.

Other believers meet in homes and rented halls, but there are no signboards to announce the Christian presence. For example, Gyaneshwor Church is identified by a small sign at the gate, while Christian offices and bookshops are not identified at all. Christian groups are not allowed to register with the government as openly Christian.

The pursuit of religious freedom, outside of Hinduism or Buddhism, has had a painful history in Nepal. Hindu and Buddhist traditions formed a historic bulwark against the growth of Christianity. Eighteenth-century Jesuit missionaries were the first to enter Nepal as they found varying routes through the Himalayas to Tibet. They established a small mission, and a community of 57 Christian converts lived in the Nepal valley until they were banished from the kingdom. Ever since King Prithvi Narayan Shah expelled Catholic Capuchin priests in 1760, the policy of the Nepali government had been to prevent Christians from entering the country and to mistreat those who managed to do so. For centuries, Nepal was unusually isolated.

But as natural disasters or epidemics hit the land, many Nepalis crossed the border into India in pursuit of a better life. Some were drawn into India's Christian enclaves, beginning a vibrant ethnic Nepali church within India.

William Carey, the legendary British missionary who spent a lifetime in India, was the first to recognize the need for a Nepali Bible. He started translating the New Testament in 1812 in Serampore, India, completing the New Testament in 1821. Ganga Prasad Pradhan, a Nepali pastor, translated the entire Bible into Nepali in 1914. Until Nepalis published Bibles within the country, they imported Bibles from India—but those were often seized by customs officials. Today, the New Testament has been translated into colloquial Nepali and 10,000 copies of the Gospel of Mark designed especially for children have been distributed in recent months.

The year 1990 is often referred to as a defining moment in Nepal's history, when democracy and religious freedom gained new ground. Since 1961, King Mahendra had exercised autocratic control of the country—in part by banning political parties and introducing Panchayat, a traditional Hindu form of local governing councils.

Under Panchayat, Christians (as well as other distrusted groups) were persecuted and at least 300 pastors and Christians were jailed. Many Christians suffered police brutality, and at least one died because of it. Through this difficult time, the church was driven underground and Nepali Christians practiced secret lives of prayer.

As repressions grew more commonplace, resistance to the monarchy gained strength. In 1990, pent-up demands for reform triggered civil unrest on a massive scale. Eventually, the Nepali Congress Party gained majority control of the new parliament, leading to many other democratic reforms and setting the stage for a significant growth of Christianity in Nepal.

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April 3 2000, Vol. 44, No. 4