page_title: Religion in Inner Mongolia
section_title: Christianity
hierarchical_section_title: Religion in Inner Mongolia / Abrahamic religions / Christianity
caption_attribution_description: 中文: 呼和浩特天主堂背面。
context_page_description: Religion in Inner Mongolia is characterised by the diverse traditions of Mongolian-Tibetan Buddhism, Chinese Buddhism, the Chinese traditional religion including the traditional Chinese ancestral religion, Taoism, Confucianism and folk religious sects, and the Mongolian native religion. The region is inhabited by a majority of Han Chinese and a substantial minority of Southern Mongols, so that some religions follow ethnic lines.
  According to a survey held in 2004 by the Minzu University of China, about 80% of the population of the region practice the worship of Heaven and of aobao. Official statistics report that 12.1% of the population are members of Tibetan Buddhist groups. According to the Chinese Spiritual Life Survey of 2007 and the Chinese General Social Survey of 2009, Christianity is the religious identity of 2% of the population of the region and the Chinese ancestral religion is the professed belonging of 2.36%, while a demographic analysis of the year 2010 reported that Muslims comprise the 0.91%.
  Mongolian Buddhism, which is of the same schools of Tibetan Buddhism, was the dominant religion in Inner Mongolia until the 19th century.
context_section_description: The Church of the East was an important religion among the Mongols at its peak of diffusion, and Inner Mongolia hosts archeological remains of the ancient Christian communities. It was reintroduced in China, after having disappeared among the Han Chinese, by the Mongols themselves, when they invaded the country in the 13th century establishing the Yuan dynasty.
  Protestantism was introduced in the 19th century. Ignoring the Qing dynasty policy that prevented them from entering Inner Mongolia and Manchuria, Christian missionaries, along with an ever-increasing number of Han Chinese settlers, entered the region and proselytised there since the last decades of the century.
  According to the China General Social Survey of 2009 there are 494,126 Christians in Inner Mongolia, equal to 2% of its total population.
caption: Cathedral of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Hohhot.
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