The aim of this essay is to discuss the concept of biswas, or belief, among Protestants in Nepal through scrutinizing the cases collected in the Lalitpur District of the Kathmandu Valley, where numerous churches and Protestant-related organizations are located. Not only is biswas the word most commonly used to express their belief in God, but also, as it appears in the Bible, in the Hymn Book, and in the wide range of Protestant literature, it is the standardized vocabulary of Protestants. However, biswas is more commonly the word used in a variety of other contexts, from personal relations and economic activities to shamanism, but hardly ever for gods in the context of Hinduism and Buddhism, which are the indigenous and dominant religions in the area. Christianity, including Protestants, is the only dharma or religion that employs the word. According to a missionary who has been involved in Bible translation for nearly 40 years, it was probably chosen since it is the closest term for "belief among the other alternatives. In anthropology, the concept of "belief," or its verb form "to believe," has been brought up in linguistic discussions time after time. Among recent scholars, Joel Robbins [2007] formulated two meanings of the concept regarding its objectives. The first usage is known as the "to believe that" model, which takes propositions as its objective, meaning "to accept that certain propositions are true about the world" [Robbins 2007: 14]. The second usage is known as the "to believe in" model, which takes persons or gods as its objective, as it means "to trust it [the object of belief]" and implies "a commitment to act accordingly" [Robbins 2007: 14]. According to Robbins, the second usage has successfully captured "believers" of various religions. The biswas of Nepali Protestants, too, seems as if it perfectly satisfies the second usage, as its objective is God or Jesus, and as it "generally connotes trust" [Pigg 1996: 190], and a commitment to act according to the rules derived from the Bible is immensely important among Protestants. However, before assuming biswas and "belief" to be the same, further research is still needed because the quality of trust and commitment to act in biswas and those of "belief" may not be homogeneous. Therefore, the aim of this essay is, more specifically, to analyze the quality of trust and commitment to act connoted by biswas. By doing so, this essay not only clarifies the characteristics of biswas, but also makes contributions to the comparative study of beliefs.
