Nepal Church History Project Records

Collection

Call Number: RG 215

Description of the Papers

The collection includes correspondence, reports, and documents relating to the early history of Nepali Church in North India, its development in Nepal since 1951, and its outreach in the wider diaspora countries. It also includes photographs relating to the same three divisions, teaching materials published in Nepal and India by the Nepali Church and by Christian missions, including Bibles and hymnbooks, and published materials, both Christian and secular, relevant to the Nepali Church. The materials have been organized according to a numerical classification system devised by the Project. This finding aid provides an outline of the files. A searchable database that provides document-level description is available at the repository.

Dates

1896-2007

Creator

Nepal Church History Project

Language of Materials

In English.

Information about Access

The materials are open for research.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of the Nepal Church History Project

Arrangement

Series I, A - Church in Nepal
Series II, B -Diaspora
Series III, C - Audio Visual Nepali Language or Church Related Media Collection
Series IV, D - Nepali Christian Literature Collection
Series IV, E - Nepali Christian Magazines
Series VI, F - Church Survey
Series VII, G - Photograph Collection
Series VIII, H - Book and Pamphlet Collection
Series IX, I - Nepali Bible and Hymnal/Songbook Collection
Series X - Regarding the NCHP
Series XI - Addendum

Extent

31 Linear Feet (70 boxes, 1 oversize box)

Catalog Record

A record for this collection is available in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog

Persistent URL

https://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/divinity.215

Additional Description

Abstract

The Nepal Church History Project began in 1985 as an initiative of local church leaders in Nepal to research and collect materials relevant to the history of Christianity among the Nepali peoples. The objective of the Project is to preserve, maintain and update a comprehensive, organized documentary record of the Nepali Church from its inception, and to make available documents and information as appropriate to researchers, students and other interested users.

History

The Nepal Church History Project was an initiative of local church leaders in Nepal to research and collect materials relevant to the history of Christianity among the Nepali peoples. It began in 1985 and continues under the chairmanship of Dr Rajendra Rongong of Kathmandu. The objective of the Project is to preserve, maintain and update a comprehensive, organized documentary record of the Nepali Church from its inception, and to make available documents and information as appropriate to researchers, students and other interested users.

The roots of the Nepali Church can be traced back to 19th century Scottish and Scandinavian missionaries working among Nepali migrants in North-East India. As in the 1950s Darjeeling was the base from which Nepali evangelists returned to Nepal, in 1998 it was the venue of the Himalayan Congress of Evangelism (HIM-COE) that gathered Nepali Christian leaders dispersed around the world. Nepali Church evangelism is today concerned to spread the Gospel among Nepalis at home and throughout the Nepali diaspora.

In1951 the Kingdom of Nepal opened its frontiers to the external world. Christians, for the first time in two hundred years, were allowed to settle in the country. Church growth was initially slow, and Christians were vulnerable to social and legal persecution. From a few hundred Nepali Christians in the 1950s and 1960s, their number is now in excess of 300,000. This represents one of the fastest rates of church growth in Asia.

The NCHP documentation was originally located in the Centre for the Study of Christianity in the Non-Western World (CSCNWW), Faculty of Divinity, University of Edinburgh, Scotland. It was there that Dr Cindy Perry, Coordinator of NCHP, conducted her pioneer research on the Nepali Church, the preliminary fruits of which have been published in her Biographical History of the Church in Nepal (Kathmandu: Nepal Church History Project, 1990), and Nepalis Around the World (Kathmandu: RC Timothy, Ekta Books Distributors, 1997).