- Summary
- Adherents
- Religious Freedom
- Socio-economic
- Public Opinion
Religious Adherents1 |
China-Tibet | Eastern Asia | World |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baha'i | -- | 0.0% | 0.1% |
| Buddhist | -- | 12.9% | 5.8% |
| Chinese Universalist | -- | 24.1% | 5.8% |
| Christian | -- | 8.8% | 33.3% |
| Confucianist | -- | 0.4% | 0.1% |
| Ethnoreligionist | -- | 4.4% | 4.0% |
| Hindu | -- | 0.0% | 13.6% |
| Jain | -- | 0.0% | 0.1% |
| Jewish | -- | 0.0% | 0.2% |
| Muslim | -- | 1.3% | 20.8% |
| Shintoist | -- | 0.2% | 0.0% |
| Sikh | -- | 0.0% | 0.3% |
| Spiritist | -- | 0.0% | 0.2% |
| Taoist | -- | 0.2% | 0.1% |
| Zoroastrian | -- | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| Other Religions | -- | 3.0% | 1.6% |
| Neo-religions | -- | 3.0% | -- |
| Non-religious | -- | 37.3% | 11.7% |
| Atheist | -- | 7.5% | 2.3% |
Religious Demography
The Tibetan areas of China have an area of 871,649 square miles. According to the 2000 census, the Tibetan population of those areas was 5.4 million; the Tibetan population within the TAR was 2.4 million, while in autonomous prefectures and counties outside the TAR the Tibetan population was 2.9 million. Most practiced Tibetan Buddhism, although a sizeable minority also practiced traditional Bon religion. This held true for many Tibetan government officials and Communist Party members. Other residents of Tibetan areas who were religious believers included Han Chinese, who practiced Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism, and traditional folk religions; Hui Muslims; Tibetan Muslims; and Christians. There are four mosques in the TAR with approximately 4,000 to 5,000 Muslim adherents, as well as a Catholic church with 560 parishioners, which is located in the traditionally Catholic community of Yanjing in the eastern TAR. There were a small number of Falun Gong adherents in the TAR. The number of monks and nuns in the TAR fluctuated significantly in the late 1990s due to continuing enforcement of the "patriotic education campaign" and expulsion from monasteries and nunneries of many monks and nuns who refused to denounce the Dalai Lama or who were found to be "politically unqualified." Since 1996, the Government has reported that there are 46,000 monks and nuns and 1,700 religious sites in the TAR, but this figure has likely varied over time due to continued politically motivated detentions as well as monastic secularization and commercialization caused by tourism. The Government figure of 46,000 monks and nuns represented only the TAR, where the number of monks and nuns was very strictly controlled. According to statistics collected by the China Center for Tibetan Studies, a government research institution, there were 1,535 monasteries in Tibetan areas outside the TAR. Informed observers estimated that a total of 60,000 Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns lived in Tibetan areas outside the TAR. There are some unregistered Protestant churches or "house churches" in the TAR. Missionaries were present.2
Sources
Note: All country profiles, maps, and flags are taken from The World Factbook, 2005.
1. The World Christian Database (WCD) is based on the 2600-page award-winning World Christian Encyclopedia and World Christian Trends, first published in 1982 and revised in 2001. This extensive work on World religion is now completely updated and integrated into the WCD online database. Designed for both the casual user and research scholar, information is readily available on religious activities, growth rates, religious literature, worker activity, and demographic statistics. Additional secular data is incorporated on population, health, education, and communications. A dataset with these and the other international measures highlighted on the country pages can be downloaded from this website. Used with permission.
2. The U.S. State Department's International Religious Freedom report is submitted to Congress annually by the Department of State in compliance with Section 102(b) of the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) of 1998. This report supplements the most recent Human Rights Reports by providing additional detailed information with respect to matters involving international religious freedom. It includes individual country chapters on the status of religious freedom worldwide. A dataset with these and the other international measures highlighted on the country pages can be downloaded from this website. These State Department reports are open source.
