Nepalese community in Columbus, OH

Columbus, Ohio is home to the largest Bhutanese-Nepali (Lhotshampa) community in the United States — the largest concentration of Bhutanese-Americans anywhere outside Bhutan. Estimates for the Greater Columbus and central Ohio community range from roughly 20,000 to 30,000, varying by source and by city-versus-metro definition. The community is overwhelmingly Lhotshampa: ethnic-Nepali people expelled from southern Bhutan beginning around 1990, who spent up to two decades in UN refugee camps in eastern Nepal before US resettlement began in 2008. Most families concentrate on Columbus's north side, along the Northland area and the Morse Road and Cleveland Avenue corridors, with Reynoldsburg as a major secondary hub — the suburb has estimated around 7,500 Nepali-Bhutanese residents and about 100 Nepali-Bhutanese-owned businesses, and in 2019 elected Bhuwan Pyakurel to its city council, reported as the nation's first Nepali-Bhutanese elected official.

The community's central institution is the Bhutanese Community of Central Ohio (BCCO), a Columbus nonprofit founded in 2009 (501(c)(3) in 2012) at 1925 E. Dublin-Granville Rd, which provides resettlement services, education and youth programs, health screening, and a community garden. This page gathers what's nearby: organizations and temples, restaurants and grocers, upcoming events, and the festival calendar — source links are shown when available.