Banishment of Buddhist monks from Nepal

[citation needed] They were at the forefront of a movement to revive Theravada Buddhism, which had disappeared from the country more than five hundred years before.

Among the charges made against them were preaching a new faith, converting Hindus, encouraging women to renounce and thereby undermining family life, and writing books in Newari.

These five monks, whose Dharma names were Bauddha Rishi Mahapragya, Mahaviryya, Mahachandra, Mahakhanti and Mahagnana, had been ordained under the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.

The government objected to Mahapragya, who was born a Hindu, converting to Buddhism and the monks making alms rounds in Kathmandu.

The monks were summoned before the prime minister Juddha Shamsher Jang Bahadur Rana and ordered to sign a pledge that they would stop their activities.

There they founded Dharmodaya Sabha (Society for the Rise of the Teaching) which worked to promote Buddhism and published religious literature from exile.