| | | Part One |
1 | Grant | Matthews | An American grad student. |
| Dasho | | Grant's Bhutanese guide. A former monk. |
| Harold | Billingsly | Grant's mentor. Holder of the Winchester Professorship of Religion. AKA: Professor Billingsly. |
2 | Brian | Brady | A New Hope reverend. |
| Barbara | Howell | One of the church members. |
| William | Jennings | Director of operations of New Hope. |
3 | Karma | | The man who helped Grant. The town's doctor. |
| Kinley | Goenpo | The senior monk. |
| Jigme | | Kinley's student. |
| Ummon | | The little monk. |
4 | Tim | Huntley | An ex-soldier. A New Hope church member. |
| Johnny | Meckle | Tim's co-worker and childhood friend. |
| Elizabeth | | Johnny's co-worker. |
| Duncan | Summers | Vice President of ISG. Tim's boss. |
5 | Issa | | The mysterious Indian saint. |
| Nicholas | Notovitch | A Russian journalist. |
6 | | | INSCOM - The Army Intelligence and Security Command. |
| Saddam | Hussein | The President of Iraq. |
| Martha | Simpson | An English literature professor. The woman Billingsly dated. |
| Arthur | | Martha's dead husband. |
7 | Kristin | Misaki | Travel writer. |
9 | Lama | Dorji | The Fifth Reincarnation of Holy Lama. Je Khenpo's assistant. |
10 | Carla | Healy | The New Hope church new controller. |
| | | NAE - National Association of Evangelicals. |
| Jimmy | Jeffries | The current NAE President. |
12 | Manu | | Issa's new colleague. |
| | | Part Two |
19 | Prof. | Singh | Professor. |
21 | Charles | Dawson | The CNN news anchor. |
23 | Isabelle | | Kristin's older sister. |
24 | Edward | Flannigan | Chair of the Religious Studies department. |
25 | Shah | Jahan | An Indian emperor. |
| Ustad | Isa | The Persian architect who designed Taj Mahal. |
27 | Razi | | Grant's old friend. A local
Muslim student. |
32 | Vinay | | One of Issa's companions. |
| Swami | | Issa's teacher. |
34 | Deepraj | Bhatt | An Indian professor. |
| | | Part Three |
49 | Mara | | The God of Death. |
52 | Sangay | | Jigme's cousin. |