Hinduism is Nepal's official religion. Nepal is the only official Hindu nation in the world. 80% of the population is Hindi, while another 11% is Buddhist; however, the Nepalese often combine the beliefs found in Hinduism and Buddhism. Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, was born in Nepal in 563 B.C. Temples and shrines from either religion are considered to be equally sacred, and the Nepalese celebrate the festivals and holidays of both religions.

Hinduism

Hinduism is one of the oldest religions in the world. It has grown over a period of 4,000 years and has no single founder. However, modern Hindu leaders include Swami Vivekananda, Mohandas Gandhi and Aurobindo Ghose.

Hinduism has also no single book that is the source of its teachings. However, there are many sacred writings that have contributed to the religion. Some of these works include, Vedas, Puranas, the Ramayana and Mahabharata and the Manu Smriti.

Many schools of Hindu have developed throughout the centuries. However, in each school the basic belief states that the universe has no beginning and no end. Everything is a part of this cycle. The human soul is believed to be reincarnated, through many births until all karmas have been resolved and moksha is reached. This belief has contributed to the Hindu caste system, which are hereditary groups with social distinctions and rules.

All Hindus believe in only one Supreme Being, Brahman, but this deity may take many divine forms. The most important divinities are Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. The Hindu trinity, trimurti, is the best example of this. Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva are respectively the creator, preserver and destroyer of the universe. This is similar to the holy trinity in Christianity.

The worship of these gods and goddesses takes place in both temples and homes. Each temple or shrine within a home or temple is dedicated to one particular god or goddess. An essential guide to the daily worship of divinities is a satguru. The guru helps worshipers achieve the principles of Hinduism: personal discipline, good conduct, purification, pilgrimage, self inquiry and meditation.

Lord Brahma is the creator of the Trinity. He has four heads and hands and appears behind a lotus. His vehicle is a swan which is known for its judgment between good and bad.

Lord Shiva is known as both the god of regeneration and the god who destroys. He controls life and death.

Buddhism

Buddhism is one of the world's major religions. It was founded in India about 500 B.C., by a teacher called Buddha. Buddha was born in Nepal. His real name was Siddhartha Gautama. According to later Buddhist accounts he was part of a wealthy family. At the age of 29, Gautama abandoned his wife and son to seek religious enlightenment as a wandering monk.

He traveled through northeastern India for six years. After practicing self-denial and deprivation and finding no peace he began to meditate. It was through meditation that Buddha found enlightenment. The word Buddha means Enlightened One.

Buddha taught that life was a continuing cycle of death and rebirth. Each persons' position in life was determined by his deeds in a previous life. A person with good deeds might be reincarnated as a wealthy healthy person in the next life or someone with bad behavior in their past life might be reincarnated as a sickly creature. As long as an individual remained within the cycle of life and death they can never be completely free from pain and suffering. To break out of this cycle one must eliminate all worldly attachments. By ridding ones' self of such attachment, working hard and meditating one could achieve a perfect state of being. This perfect state of happiness he called nirvana.

According to Buddha, nirvana can be achieved by following the Middle Way. The Middle Way is a way of life that eliminates the uncontrolled satisfaction while avoiding the extremes of self-denial and self-torture. The path that leads to the Middle Way is called The Noble Eightfold Path. The path consists of eight steps: knowledge of the truth, the intention to resist evil, saying nothing to hurt others, respecting life, morality and property, holding a job that doesn't injure others, striving to free one's mind of evil, controlling one's feelings and thoughts, and practicing proper forms of concentration.

After Buddha's death his followers collected his teachings and compiled a scripture called the Tripitika. This word means Three Baskets. The first basket was the Basket of Discipline, containing the rules and regulations of Buddhist monks. The second, the Basket of Discourses, contains sermons. The third, The Basket of Higher Dharma contains discussions on the doctrines.

Throughout Asia, many schools of Buddhism have developed over the years. The four main schools of thought include Theravada, the Mahayana, the Mantrayana, and Zen. They have much in common but differ in various ways. How Buddhists live depends largely on what country they live in. However, in the last twenty or thirty years, the ideas of Buddhism have become much more widely accepted all over the world.