The Chinese Government has made efforts in promoting economic, cultural and educational progress in areas inhabited by ethnic minorities and paid special attention to respecting their religious beliefs and protecting their cultural heritage. The cultural heritage and folk arts of all ethnic groups, including their religious culture, have been surveyed, collected, studied, collated, edited and published. The state has allocated huge amounts of funds to maintain temples and other religious facilities of historic and cultural significance in areas inhabited by ethnic minorities.

In the Tibet Autonomous Region, most locals believe in Tibetan Buddhism. There are more than 1,700 sites for Buddhist activities in Tibet, with 46,000 monks and nuns. Believers have set up a small sutra hall or niche in their homes, and every year over a million people make pilgrimages to Lhasa.

Since the 1980s, the Central Government has allocated more than 200 million yuan of special funds to Tibet for maintaining and renovating the Potala Palace and Jokhang, Tashilungpo and Samye monasteries. The state has also allocated special funds to support Buddhist circles in compiling and publishing important Tibetan Buddhist classics such as the Tripitaka. The Senior Tibetan Buddhist College of China in Beijing and the Tibet Buddhist Theological Institute in Lhasa are also sponsored with state aid.

The Chinese Government respects and protects the freedom of religious belief and customs of Muslims. Related government departments have provided various services for the pilgrimage to Mecca, which are applauded by the Muslim community. Over the past 10 years, more than 50,000 Chinese Muslims have made the pilgrimage safely and smoothly through charter flights arranged by the Islamic Association of China. In the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, there are 23,000 mosques with 29,000 religious professionals, satisfying the religious needs of Muslims.

Buddhism

Buddhism was introduced from India around the first century. After long development and evolution, it was divided into Han Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism (popularly known as Lamaism) and Pali Buddhism (also known as Hinayana, or Lesser Vehicle). Han Buddhism is quite influential among Han people, but because there are no strict rituals and rules for becoming a Buddhist believer, it is hard to produce statistics on the number of believers. Tibetan Buddhism is basically the religion of ethnic minorities such as Tibetan, Mongolian, Yugur, Moinba and Tu, with a total of about 7.6 million believers. Pali Buddhism is basically the religion of such ethnic minorities as Dai, Blang, De'ang and Wa, with the number of believers surpassing 1.5 million.

Currently, there are more than 13,000 Buddhist temples with about 200,000 monks and nuns. Of them, Tibetan Buddhism has about 120,000 lamas and nuns, over 1,700 living Buddha and more than 3,000 monasteries. Pali Buddhism has nearly 10,000 monks, nuns and elders, and more than 1,600 temples. In areas inhabited by the Han people, 142 Buddhist temples are under state-level protection.

The three language families of Buddhism have altogether 19 colleges/schools at the primary, secondary and senior levels, including 14 in Han, four in Tibetan and one in Pali. There are Buddhist websites on the Internet, such as China Buddhism Online (www.fjnet) and China Buddhism Information Network (www.buddhism.com.cn).

Taoism

Taoism originated from China in the second century. Characterized by nature worship and ancestral worship, Taoism was historically divided into many sects, which gradually evolved into two major ones¨CQuanzhen Taoism (Way of Completeness and Truth) and Zhengyi Taoism (Way of Orthodox Unity). Primarily, Taoism is popular among Han people. As there are no strict rituals and rules for becoming a Taoist, statistics on believers are not available. Currently, there are more than 1,500 Taoist temples in China.

Islam

Islam was introduced in the seventh century. There are two major sects¨CSunni and Shiite¨Cwith Chinese followers primarily belonging to the former. The vast majority of 10 ethnic minorities, the Hui, Uygur, Tatar, Kirghiz, Kazakh, Uzbek, Tajik, Dongxiang, Salar and Bonan, totaling more than 20 million people, are Muslims. Currently, there are more than 30,000 mosques in China.

Catholicism

Catholicism began to enter into China in the seventh century, but got popular after the First Opium War (1840-42). Currently, Chinese Catholics have 115 dioceses with close to 5 million followers. There are 5,000 churches open to the public throughout the country, together with 12 seminaries. Every year, about 50,000 people are baptized in Catholic churches. Since 1981, Chinese Catholic Church has trained and consecrated more than 1,500 priests. Of them, over 100 have been sent to seminaries in the United States, France, Britain, Belgium, Italy, Germany, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea and other countries, some of them obtaining a Master's or Doctor's degree before return to China. The Chinese Catholic Church has its own publishing organs, which have printed more than 3 million copies of The Bible and other kinds of religious works. Influential Catholic churches in the country are St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception Cathedral (Xuanwumen Church) in Beijing, the Church of St. Michael in Qingdao of Shandong Province, the Church of St. Joseph (Xikai Cathedral) in Tianjin, Hongjialou Church in Jinan of Shandong Province, and Sheshan Church in Shanghai.

Protestantism

Protestantism made significant advances into China in the 19th century. In 1950, Chinese Protestants launched the three-self patriotic campaign, which consequently enabled them to be independent through self-administration, self-support and self-propagation. During the Cultural Revolution (1966-76), church activities were suspended. They resumed in 1979, followed by the founding of the Chinese Christian Council in 1980.

Over the past two decades, Protestantism has developed well in China under the leadership of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement Committee of the Protestant Churches of China and the Chinese Christian Council. Approximately 50,000 churches are now open to the public, 70 percent of them being built in recent years. The number of Chinese Protestants has surpassed 16 million, with rural followers accounting for over 70 percent.

At present, there are 18 seminaries and Bible schools throughout the country, and nearly 5,000 graduates are serving in churches or seminaries all over China. The Three-Self Patriotic Movement Committee of the Protestant Churches of China and the Chinese Christian Council have published and distributed approximately 30 million copies of The Bible, 14 million copies of The Psalms (new edition). They also have their own website Chinese Protestant Church (www.chineseprotestantchurch.org).