| | | | 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. |