Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
is a minority religion in the
Xinjiang
Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...
region of the
People's Republic of China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
. The dominant ethnic group, the
Uyghur, are predominantly
Muslim and very few are known to be Christian.
Christianity in Xinjiang is the religion of 1% of the population according to the Chinese General Social Survey of 2009.
Pre-history
The
Church of the East, commonly known as Nestorians, reached Central Asia, Mongolia and China by the seventh century CE. The
Turfan
Turpan (also known as Turfan or Tulufan, , ug, تۇرپان) is a prefecture-level city located in the east of the autonomous region of Xinjiang, China. It has an area of and a population of 632,000 (2015).
Geonyms
The original name of the cit ...
texts dating to the ninth and tenth centuries include translations of Christian sacred texts into several languages, including Christian
Old Turkic
Old Turkic (also East Old Turkic, Orkhon Turkic language, Old Uyghur) is the earliest attested form of the Turkic languages, found in Göktürk and Uyghur Khaganate inscriptions dating from about the eighth to the 13th century. It is the old ...
. The tribe of the
Keraites
The Keraites (also ''Kerait, Kereit, Khereid''; ; ) were one of the five dominant Mongol or Turkic tribal confederations ( khanates) in the Altai-Sayan region during the 12th century. They had converted to the Church of the East ( Nestorianism ...
was known to be predominantly Christian from the 11th century and to the time of
Genghis Khan. Likewise the
Naiman and
Ongud
The Ongud (also spelled Ongut or Öngüt; Mongolian: Онгуд, Онход; Chinese: 汪古, ''Wanggu''; from Old Turkic ''öng'' "desolate, uninhabited; desert" plus ''güt'' "class marker") were a Turkic tribe that later became Mongolized ac ...
tribes were evangelised from the 11th century. The Uighur people were later
Islamised.
History
![Christians outside the church at Kashgar](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/Christians_outside_the_church_at_Kashgar.jpg)
In 1904,
George W. Hunter with the
China Inland Mission
OMF International (formerly Overseas Missionary Fellowship and before 1964 the China Inland Mission) is an international and interdenominational Evangelical Christianity, Christian missionary society with an international centre in Singapore. It ...
opened the first mission station for CIM in
Xinjiang
Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...
.
But already in 1892, the
Mission Covenant Church of Sweden
The Mission Covenant Church of Sweden ( sv, Svenska Missionskyrkan), founded in 1878, was a Swedish evangelical free church. It was the second-largest Protestant denomination in Sweden, after the national church, the Church of Sweden. In 2011, t ...
started missions in the area around
Kashgar, and later built mission stations, churches, hospitals and schools in
Yarkant and
Yengisar.
In the 1930s there were several hundreds of Christians among this people, but because of persecution the churches were destroyed and the believers were scattered. The missionaries were forced to leave because of ethnic and factional battles during the
Kumul Rebellion
The Kumul Rebellion (, "Hami Uprising") was a rebellion of Kumulik Uyghurs from 1931 to 1934 who conspired with Hui Chinese Muslim Gen. Ma Zhongying to overthrow Jin Shuren, governor of Xinjiang. The Kumul Uyghurs were loyalists of the Kumul ...
in the late 1930s.
Christian missionaries, such as British missionary
Hunter,
Johannes Avetaranian,
and Swedish missionaries
Magnus Bäcklund,
Nils Fredrik Höijer,
Father Hendricks,
Josef Mässrur,
Anna Mässrur
Anna Nyström-Mässrur (9 December 1849-December 1913) was a Swedish missionary. She served in the Caucasus and in Persia, and in 1894 moved to the Xinjiang region of China.
She married Persian-born doctor Josef Mässrur in Kashgar in May 1895, ...
,
Albert Andersson,
Gustaf Ahlbert,
Stina Mårtensson,
John Törnquist,
Gösta Raquette,
Oskar Hermannson, and Uyghur convert
Nur Luke Dr. Nur Luke was a Uyghur Bible translator from Hotan who converted to Christianity. He fled Xinjiang in the 1930s and together with Gustaf Ahlbert and Oskar Hermannson finished the translation of the Uyghur Bible in India. This was published by th ...
studied the Uyghur language and wrote works on it. A Turkish convert to Christianity,
Johannes Avetaranian went to China to spread Christianity to the Uyghurs.
Yaqup Istipan,.
There were several hundred Uyghur Muslims converted to Christianity by the Swedes. Imprisonment and execution were inflicted on Uyghur Christian converts and after refusing to give up his Christian religion, and the Uyghur convert Habil was executed in 1933. Ultimately in 1938, Sheng Shicai's pro-Soviet regime banished the Swedish missionaries after the East Turkestan Republic tortured and jailed Christian converts, who were made out of Kirghiz and Uyghurs.
The openly Islamic East Turkestan Republic forcibly ejected the Swedish missionaries and espoused hostility to Christianity while espousing a Muslim Turkic ideology.
The East Turkestan Republic subjected former Muslim Christian converts like Joseph Johannes Khan to jail, torture and abuse after he refused to give up Christianity in favor of Islam. After the British intervened to free Khan he was forced to leave his land and in November 1933 he came to Peshawar.
Recent converts
Alimjan Yimit (Alimujiang Yimiti) is one of several Uyghurs who have more recently converted to Christianity, who was arrested in 2009 and is serving a 15-year prison sentence for being a pastor.
Wu'erkaixi
Örkesh Dölet ( ug, ئۆركەش دۆلەت, zh, 吾尔开希·多莱特; commonly known by his pinyin name Wu'erkaixi) is a political commentator known for his leading role during the Tiananmen protests of 1989.
Of Uyghur heritage, he was bo ...
(Örkesh Dölet) may also be a Christian, but this has not publicly confirmed this. According to ChinaAid, six more Christians were arrested in 2019 for preaching.
Work with women
The Swedish missionaries observed the conditions of Uyghur Muslim women in Xinjiang during their stay there. The lack of Han Chinese women led to Uyghur Muslim women marrying Han Chinese men, These women were hated by their families and people. Unmarried Muslim Uyghur women who married non-Muslims like Chinese, Hindus, Armenians, Jews, and Russians if they could not find a Muslim husband while they were calling to Allah to grant them marriage by the shrines of saints. The Muslims also attacked the Swedish Christian mission and Hindus resident in the city. Lobbying by the Swedish Christian missionaries led to child marriage for under 15-year-old girls to be banned by the Chinese Governor in Ürümqi. Uyghur women converts to Christianity did not wear the veil. Uyghur Muslims rioted against Indian Hindu traders when the Hindus attempted to practice their religious affairs in public and also rose up against the Swedish Christian mission in 1907.
Violence against missionaries
Mullahs directed violence against the missionaries from Sweden since 1894 and it was only due to action taken by Chinese officials that a Uyghur Muslim apostate who became a Christian named Omar was saved from execution at the hands of mullahs.
In 1899, the headquarters of the Swedish missionaries was violently obliterated by a mass of rioters. This anti-Christian riot was incited by the landlord of the property who argued with his Swedish renters.
The Swedish missionaries welfare was one of the concerns by the British during the Xinhai Revolution.
The residences of the Swedish missionaries were attacked by mobs and violent outbreaks resulted in a garden becoming their home since nobody would rent to them.
An anti-Christian mob broke out among the Muslims in Kashgar against the Swedish missionaries in 1923. Violence and tensions brewed by Muslims who were stirred by Muslim apostates becoming Christian due to the Swedes in Ramadan of 1923. Orders to stop rioting were given to the Muslim Qazis and merchants by the Chinese Tao Tai after British diplomats contacted him.
The Bughras applied Shari'a while ejecting the Khotan-based Swedish missionaries.
They demanded the withdrawal of the Swedish missionaries while enacting Shariah on March 16, 1933.
In the name of Islam, the Uyghur leader Amir
Abdullah Bughra
Abdullah Bughra ( ug, (Kona Yëziq) ئابدۇللا بۇغرا, عبد الله بغرا; zh, c=阿不都拉·布格拉, p=Ābùdūlā·Bùgélā; died 1934) was a Uighur Emir of the First East Turkestan Republic. He was the younger brother of ...
of the
First East Turkestan Republic
The Turkic Islamic Republic of East Turkestan (TIRET; ug, شەرقىي تۈركىستان تۈرك ئىسلام جۇمھۇرىيىتى, , Шәрқий Түркистан Түрк-Ислам Җумхурийити; ) was a short-lived breakaway ...
violently physically assaulted the Yarkand-based Swedish missionaries and would have executed them, except they were only banished due to the British Aqsaqal's intercession in their favor.
There were beheadings and executions of Muslims who had converted to Christianity at the hands of the Amir's followers.
Other governments
Werner Otto von Hentig
Werner Otto von Hentig (22 May 1886, Berlin, Germany – 8 August 1984, Lindesnes, Norway) was a German Army Officer, adventurer and diplomat from Berlin. When still only a 25 year old lieutenant he was commissioned by the Kaiser to lead an exp ...
during the
Niedermayer–Hentig Expedition was assisted by a tip off from a Swedish missionary.
Along with British diplomats, the Kashgar-based missionaries from Sweden were prominent among European expatriates in the area.
Eleanor Holgate Lattimore met the Swedish missionaries and British diplomats in Kashgar.
The Swedish Mission Society ran a printing operation. ''Life of East Turkestan'' was the state run media of the rebel
First East Turkestan Republic
The Turkic Islamic Republic of East Turkestan (TIRET; ug, شەرقىي تۈركىستان تۈرك ئىسلام جۇمھۇرىيىتى, , Шәрқий Түркистан Түрк-Ислам Җумхурийити; ) was a short-lived breakaway ...
in the
Kumul Rebellion
The Kumul Rebellion (, "Hami Uprising") was a rebellion of Kumulik Uyghurs from 1931 to 1934 who conspired with Hui Chinese Muslim Gen. Ma Zhongying to overthrow Jin Shuren, governor of Xinjiang. The Kumul Uyghurs were loyalists of the Kumul ...
. The Bughra lead government used the Swedish Mission Press to print and distribute the media.
See also
*
China Inland Mission
OMF International (formerly Overseas Missionary Fellowship and before 1964 the China Inland Mission) is an international and interdenominational Evangelical Christianity, Christian missionary society with an international centre in Singapore. It ...
*
George W. Hunter
*
Mission Covenant Church of Sweden
The Mission Covenant Church of Sweden ( sv, Svenska Missionskyrkan), founded in 1878, was a Swedish evangelical free church. It was the second-largest Protestant denomination in Sweden, after the national church, the Church of Sweden. In 2011, t ...
*
Uerkesh Davlet
*
Alimjan Yimit
*
Nur Luke Dr. Nur Luke was a Uyghur Bible translator from Hotan who converted to Christianity. He fled Xinjiang in the 1930s and together with Gustaf Ahlbert and Oskar Hermannson finished the translation of the Uyghur Bible in India. This was published by th ...
* Christianity in Xinjiang's neighbouring provinces
**
Christianity in Qinghai
Christianity is a minority religion in the Chinese province of Qinghai. According to Asia Harvest, estimates from 2020 suggest that of the entire population (6,430,483) about 3.40% is Christian (218,361).
Overview
Christianity in Xining is a m ...
**
Christianity in Tibet
References
{{reflist
Christianity in China by location
Religion in Xinjiang