I sat in Hotel Annapurna waiting for my ride to the airport. A middle-aged man walked into the lobby center and lit candles around a replica temple. I closed my eyes to better appreciate the burning incense. The smell reminded me of our visit to the Hindu holy site of Manakamana Temple. The sound of a horn brought my attention back to the man. He was playing some type of instrument for his Buddhist ritual. Clearly religion is an important social factor in Nepali life.

Religion has been used as a fuel for conflict in many countries, most recently Nigeria among others. This is not the case in Nepal, where Hindus, Buddhists and Muslims have generally been able to coexist peacefully. Of course the caste system has been an inhibiting factor in creating new relationships between the Nepalese after the “People’s War” but in general religion did not exacerbate the fighting. Now that a peace agreement has been signed I assumed religious leaders would band together to remind everyone of shared values and norms that promote peace but I didn’t see that either. Even though religion was always present during my visit to Nepal, I must admit I found it’s expression subdued. Passion for politics and the search for new ethnic identities seems to trump religious fervor. One of the reasons we heard for the war was frustration towards the monarchy and government for not listening to or respecting various peoples/regions and this frustration led to aggression. After the war it seems that passion to overthrow the monarchy has been channeled into the fractious political parties. In both religious and ideological wars, passion can create the conditions for great frustration when things don’t go your way. Now I wonder how workers on the ground can direct those passions into a constructive force for peacebuilding that will limit frustration instead of adding to it.