Religion in Tibet#Christianity

{{Main|Bön in Tibet}}

File:Tsedruk1.JPG

Bön, the indigenous animist and shamanic belief system of Tibet, revolves around the worship of nature and claims to predate Buddhism.{{cite book | last=Arizaga | first=M.L. | title=When Tibetan Meditation Goes Global: A Study of the Adaptation of Bon Religious Practices in the West | publisher=De Gruyter | series=Welten Süd- und Zentralasiens / Worlds of South and Inner Asia / Mondes de l'Asie du Sud et de l'Asie Centrale | year=2022 | isbn=978-3-11-075896-2 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-K97EAAAQBAJ&pg=PT31 | access-date=2024-03-14 | page=31}}

According to Bon religious texts: three Bon scriptures – {{transliteration|bo|mdo 'dus}}, {{transliteration|bo|gzer mig}}, and {{transliteration|bo|gzi brjid}} – relate the mythos of Tonpa Shenrab Miwoche.{{cite book | last=Jardins | first=J.F.M. | title=The Tradition of Everlasting Bön: Five Key Texts on Scripture, Tantra, and the Great Perfection | publisher=Wisdom Publications | series=Library of Tibetan Classics | year=2023 | isbn=978-0-86171-448-3 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gO_LEAAAQBAJ | access-date=2024-03-14 | page=}} The Bonpos regard the first two as {{transliteration|bo|gter ma}} rediscovered around the eleventh century and the last as {{transliteration|bo|nyan brgyud}} (oral transmission) dictated by Loden Nyingpo, who lived in the fourteenth century. In the fourteenth century, Loden Nyingpo revealed a terma known as The Brilliance (Wylie: {{transliteration|bo|gzi brjid}}), which contained the story of Tonpa Shenrab.{{cite book | last=Arizaga | first=M.L. | title=When Tibetan Meditation Goes Global: A Study of the Adaptation of Bon Religious Practices in the West | publisher=De Gruyter | series=Welten Süd- und Zentralasiens / Worlds of South and Inner Asia / Mondes de l'Asie du Sud et de l'Asie Centrale | year=2022 | isbn=978-3-11-075887-0 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vbR_EAAAQBAJ&pg=PA35 | access-date=2024-05-10 | page=35}} He was not the first Bonpo tertön, but his terma became one of the definitive scriptures of Bon religion. It states that Shenrab established the Bon religion while searching for a horse stolen by a demon. Tradition also tells that he was born in the land of Tagzig Olmo Lung Ring (considered an axis mundi) which is traditionally identified as Mount Yung-drung Gu-tzeg ("Edifice of Nine Sauwastikas"), possibly Mount Kailash, in western Tibet.{{cite book | last=Karmay | first=S.G. | last2=Watt | first2=J. | title=Bon - the Magic Word: The Indigenous Religion of Tibet | publisher=Bloomsbury USA | year=2007 | isbn=978-0-85667-649-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bicRAQAAIAAJ | access-date=2024-03-14 | page=}} Due to the sacredness of Tagzig Olmo Lungting and Mount Kailash, the Bonpo regard both the swastika and the number nine as auspicious and as of great significance.{{cite book | last=Bajracharya | first=S.M. | last2=Loṭasa Risarca Seṇṭara (Pātan | first2=Nepal) | title=Buddhist Heritage of Northern Nepal: An Introduction | publisher=Lotus Research Centre | year=2008 | isbn=978-9937-2-1395-0 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=smFTAAAAYAAJ | access-date=2024-03-14 | page=}}

Tonpa Shenrab Miwoche visited Kongpo and found people whose practice involved spiritual appeasement with animal sacrifice.{{cite book | last=Reynolds | first=J.M. | title=The Oral Tradition from Zhang-Zhung: An Introduction to the Bonpo Dzogchen Teachings of the Oral Tradition from Zhang-zhung Known as the Zhang Zhung Snyan Rgyud | publisher=Vajra Publications | year=2005 | isbn=978-99946-644-4-3 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UCgRAQAAIAAJ | access-date=2024-03-14 | page=6}} He taught them to substitute offerings with symbolic animal forms made from barley flour. He only taught according to the student's capability with lower shamanic vehicles to prepare; until with prayer, diligence, devotion and application they could incarnate to achieve sutra, tantra and Dzogchen.{{cite book | last=Rinpoche | first=Y.L.T.N. | last2=Ermakov | first2=D. | last3=Ermakova | first3=C. | title=The Four Wheels of Bšn | publisher=Foundation for the Preservation of Yungdrung Bön | series=Public series A | year=2016 | isbn=978-1-5262-0035-8 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GhmBCwAAQBAJ | access-date=2024-03-14 | page=}}

Bon teachings feature Nine Vehicles, which are pathway-teaching categories with distinct characteristics, views, practices and results. Medicine, astrology, and divination are in the lower vehicles; then sutra and tantra, with Dzogchen great perfection being the highest.{{cite book | last=Johnston | first=W.M. | title=Encyclopedia of Monasticism | publisher=Taylor & Francis | year=2013 | isbn=978-1-136-78716-4 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iepJAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT204 | access-date=2024-03-14 | page=204}} Traditionally, the Nine Vehicles are taught in three versions: as Central, Northern and Southern treasures. The Central treasure is closest to Nyingma Nine Yānas teaching and the Northern treasure is lost. Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche elaborated the Southern treasure with shamanism.{{cite book | last=Klein | first=A.C. | last2=Rinpoche | first2=T.W. | title=Unbounded Wholeness: Dzogchen, Bon, and the Logic of the Nonconceptual | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=2006 | isbn=978-0-19-803968-6 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZWWEqmgaCH4C&pg=PA331 | access-date=2024-03-14 | page=331}}

File:Jokhang-1235.jpg, one of the most important monasteries of Tibet.]]

File:Ganden3.jpg.]]

File:Tibet-5919 (2676260079).jpg candles in front of the Shakyamuni Buddha, they are supposed to be some of the finest examples in the world. At Baiju Monastery, Gyangtse.]]

{{Main|Tibetan Buddhism}}

Religion is extremely important to the Tibetans and has a strong influence over all aspects of their lives.{{cite web | url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Tibet | title=Tibet | History, Map, Capital, Population, Language, & Facts | Britannica | date=19 August 2023 }} Bön is the ancient religion of Tibet, but nowadays the major influence is Tibetan Buddhism, a distinctive form of Mahayana and Vajrayana, which was introduced into Tibet from the Sanskrit Buddhist tradition of northern India.{{cite book |last= Conze |first= Edward |author-link= Edward Conze |title= A Short History of Buddhism |year=1993 |publisher=Oneworld |isbn=1-85168-066-7 }} Tibetan Buddhism is practiced not only in Tibet but also in Mongolia (During the Yuan Dynasty, the Mongol rulers of the Yuan Dynasty made Tibetan Buddhism the state religion and from there it spread to the Mongolian region.{{cite web | title=Tibetan Buddhism, the mongolian religion | website=Welcome to CentOS | url=https://www2.kenyon.edu/Depts/Religion/Fac/Adler/Reln260/Mongolian-Buddhism.htm | access-date=2024-05-10}}), parts of northern India, the Buryat Republic, the Tuva Republic, and in the Republic of Kalmykia and some other parts of China.

Tibetan Buddhism has four main traditions (the suffix pa is comparable to "er" in English):

• Gelug(pa), Way of Virtue, also known casually as Yellow Hat, whose spiritual head is the Ganden Tripa and whose temporal head is the Dalai Lama.{{cite book | last=Mizuno | first=K. | last2=Tenpa | first2=L. | title=Himalayan Nature and Tibetan Buddhist Culture in Arunachal Pradesh, India: A Study of Monpa | publisher=Springer Japan | series=International Perspectives in Geography | year=2015 | isbn=978-4-431-55492-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K_bLCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA59 | access-date=2024-03-14 | page=59}} Successive Dalai Lamas ruled Tibet from the mid-17th to mid-20th centuries. This order was founded in the 14th to 15th centuries by Je Tsongkhapa, based on the foundations of the Kadampa tradition. Tsongkhapa was renowned for both his scholasticism and his virtue. The Dalai Lama belongs to the Gelugpa school, and is regarded as the embodiment of the Bodhisattva of Compassion.{{cite book | last=Jinpa | first=T. | last2=Patton | first2=R. | last3=Rinpoché | first3=D. | title=Stages of the Path and the Oral Transmission: Selected Teachings of the Geluk School | publisher=Wisdom Publications | series=Library of Tibetan Classics | year=2022 | isbn=978-0-86171-445-2 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nG6dEAAAQBAJ | access-date=2024-03-14 | page=}}
• Kagyu(pa), Oral Lineage. This contains one major subsect and one minor subsect. The first, the Dagpo Kagyu, encompasses those Kagyu schools that trace back to Gampopa. In turn, the Dagpo Kagyu consists of four major sub-sects: the Karma Kagyu, headed by a Karmapa, the Tsalpa Kagyu, the Barom Kagyu, and Pagtru Kagyu. The once-obscure Shangpa Kagyu, which was famously represented by the 20th-century teacher Kalu Rinpoche, traces its history back to the Indian master Niguma, sister of Kagyu lineage holder Naropa. This is an oral tradition which is very much concerned with the experiential dimension of meditation. Its most famous exponent was Milarepa, an 11th-century mystic.{{cite book | last=Pabongkha | first=D.N. | title=The Extremely Secret Dakini of Naropa: Vajrayogini Practice and Commentary | publisher=Wisdom Publications | series=The Dechen Ling Practice Series | year=2020 | isbn=978-1-61429-560-0 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GCrADwAAQBAJ&pg=PT86 | access-date=2024-03-14 | page=86}}
• Nyingma(pa), The Ancient Ones. This is the oldest, the original order founded by Padmasambhava. Both the Nyingma and Kagyu maintained and developed instructions on the nature of mind, and on meditations cultivating recognition of that nature, known as the mind teachings of Tibet.{{cite book | last=Tsogyal | first=Y. | last2=Kunsang | first2=E.P. | title=The Lotus-Born: The Life Story of Padmasambhava | publisher=Rangjung Yeshe Publications | series=G - Reference, Information and Interdisciplinary Subjects Series | year=2004 | isbn=978-962-7341-55-0 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2aSdyq0DD4gC | access-date=2024-03-14 | page=}}
• Sakya(pa), Grey Earth, headed by the Sakya Trizin, founded by Khon Konchog Gyalpo, a disciple of the great translator Drokmi Lotsawa. Sakya Pandita 1182–1251 CE was the great-grandson of Khon Konchog Gyalpo. This school emphasizes scholarship.{{cite book | last=Terhune | first=L. | title=Karmapa: The Politics of Reincarnation | publisher=Wisdom Publications | year=2004 | isbn=978-0-86171-180-2 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wsk6Ovitb9YC&pg=PA49 | access-date=2024-03-14 | page=49}}

{{Main|Chinese folk religion}}

Most of the Han Chinese who reside in Tibet practice their native Chinese folk religion. There is a Guandi Temple of Lhasa (拉萨关帝庙) where the Chinese god of war Guandi is identified with the cross-ethnic Chinese, Tibetan, Mongol and Manchu deity Gesar. The temple is built according to both Chinese and Tibetan architecture. It was first erected in 1792 under the Qing dynasty and renovated around 2013 after decades of disrepair.World Guangong Culture: [http://www.guangong.hk/English/wenhua/std.asp?ID=2145 Lhasa, Tibet: Guandi temple was inaugurated].China-Tibet Online: [http://eng.tibet.cn/2010wh/xw/201303/t20130313_1869432.html Tibet's largest Guandi Temple gets repaired]{{dead link|date=April 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}. 2013-03-13{{cite book | last=Zhang | first=F. | title=The Eastern Land and the Western Heaven: Qing Cosmopolitanism and its Translation in Tibet in the Eighteenth Century | publisher=Taylor & Francis | year=2023 | isbn=978-1-003-84575-1 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uhnlEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT98 | access-date=2024-03-14 | page=98}}{{cite book | last=Lange | first=D. | title=An Atlas of the Himalayas by a 19th Century Tibetan Lama: A Journey of Discovery | publisher=Brill | series=Brill's Tibetan Studies Library | year=2020 | isbn=978-90-04-41688-8 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WFTqDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA91 | access-date=2024-03-14 | page=91}}

Built or rebuilt between 2014 and 2015 is the Guandi Temple of Qomolangma (Mount Everest), on Ganggar Mount, in Tingri County.World Guangong Culture: [http://www.guangong.hk/English/wenhua/std.asp?ID=2454 Dingri, Tibet: Cornerstone Laying Ceremony being Grandly Held for the Reconstruction of Qomolangma Guandi Temple].World Guangong Culture: [http://www.guangong.hk/English/wenhua/std.asp?ID=2456 Wuhan, China: Yang Song Meets Cui Yujing to Discuss Qomolangma Guandi Temple].

There is a Tibetan folk religious sect in Amdo County named the "Heroes of Ling", which was founded in 1981 by a Tibetan called Sonam Phuntsog, who claimed to be an incarnation of the legendary hero Gesar,[http://www.columbia.edu/itc/ealac/barnett/pdfs/link22-heroesofling.pdf The Heroes of Ling: The Elimination of a Tibetan Sect]. Bod sjongs 'phrin deb 1982. Translation first published on: Background Papers on Tibet – September 1992, part 2, London: Tibet Information Network, 1992, pp. 30–33. which was later banned as a disruptive and "splittist" sect.{{cite book | last=Gyatso | first=J. | last2=Havnevik | first2=H. | title=Women in Tibet | publisher=Columbia University Press | year=2005 | isbn=978-0-231-13098-1 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xHYA34GnfAAC&pg=PA160 | access-date=2024-03-14 | page=160}}

File:Mosques in Lhasa.jpg of Lhasa.]]

{{Main|Tibetan Muslims}}

Tibetan Muslims, also known as the Khache ({{Bo|t=ཁ་ཆེ་}}, {{literally|Kashmiris}}), are Tibetans who adhere to Islam.{{cite news |last1=Zargar |first1=Safwat |title=The Tibetan Muslims of Kashmir |url=https://thediplomat.com/2019/07/the-tibetan-muslims-of-kashmir/ |access-date=1 December 2023 |work=The Diplomat |date=31 July 2019}}{{cite news |title=The Tibetan Muslims who have made Kashmir their home |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-42165908 |work=BBC News |date=1 December 2017}} Many are descendants of Kashmiris, Ladakhis, and Nepalis who arrived in Tibet in the 14th to 17th centuries.{{Cite web|last=Cabezon|first=Jose Ignacio|date=February 1998|title=Islam on the Roof of the World|url=https://archive.aramcoworld.com/issue/199801/islam.on.the.roof.of.the.world.htm|access-date=8 January 2022|website=Aramco World}} There are approximately 5,000 Tibetan Muslims living in China,{{cite web |title=Tibet |url=https://www.state.gov/reports/2022-report-on-international-religious-freedom/china/tibet/#:~:text=Some%20scholars%20estimate%20there%20are,Tibetan%20Catholics%20in%20the%20TAR. |website=United States Department of State}} over 1,500 in India, and 300 to 400 in Nepal.{{cite news |last1=Hennig |first1=Clare |title=A minority within a minority |url=https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nepali-times-buzz/tibetan-muslims-celebrate-ramadan,1505 |work=Nepali Times |date=11 July 2014}} The government of the People's Republic of China does not recognize the Tibetan Muslims as a distinct ethnic group; they are grouped with Tibetan adherents of Buddhism and Bon. In contrast, the Chinese-speaking Hui Muslims are distinguished from the Han Chinese majority.{{cite book |last1=郭家骥，边明社 |title=迪庆州民族文化保护传承与开发研究 |date=2012 |publisher=昆明 |location=云南人民出版社 |isbn=978-7-222-09611-0}}

{{See also|Catholic Church in Tibet}}

File:AntónioAndrade.jpg]]

The first Christians documented to have reached Tibet were the Nestorians, of whom various remains and inscriptions have been found in Tibet. They were also present at the imperial camp of Möngke Khan at Shira Ordo, where they debated in 1256 with Karma Pakshi (1204/6-83), head of the Karma Kagyu order.Kapstein 2006, pp. 31, 71, 113Stein 1972, pp. 36, 77–78 Desideri, who reached Lhasa in 1716, encountered Armenian and Russian merchants.Françoise Pommaret, Françoise Pommaret-Imaeda (2003). [https://books.google.com/books?id=WhzF0N_X5KwC&pg=PA159 Lhasa in the Seventeenth Century: The Capital of the Dalai Lamas]. BRILL. p.159. {{ISBN|90-04-12866-2}}

Roman Catholic Jesuits and Capuchins arrived from Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. Portuguese missionaries Jesuit Father António de Andrade and Brother Manuel Marques first reached the kingdom of Guge in western Tibet in 1624 and was welcomed by the royal family who allowed them to build a church later on.Graham Sanderg, The Exploration of Tibet: History and Particulars (Delhi: Cosmo Publications, 1973), pp. 23–26; Thomas Holdich, Tibet, The Mysterious (London: Alston Rivers, 1906), p. 70.Sir Edward Maclagan, The Jesuits and The Great Mogul (London: Burns, Oates & Washbourne Ltd., 1932), pp. 344–345. By 1627, there were about a hundred local converts in the Guge kingdom.Lettera del P. Alano Dos Anjos al Provinciale di Goa, 10 Novembre 1627, quoted from Wu Kunming, Zaoqi Chuanjiaoshi jin Zang Huodongshi (Beijing: Zhongguo Zangxue chubanshe, 1992), p. 163. Later on, Christianity was introduced to Rudok, Ladakh and Tsang and was welcomed by the ruler of the Tsang kingdom, where Andrade and his fellows established a Jesuit outpost at Shigatse in 1626.Extensively using Italian and Portuguese archival materials, Wu's work gives a detailed account of Cacella's activities in Tsang. See Zaoqi Chuanjiaoshi jin Zang Huodongshi, esp. chapter 5.

In 1661 another Jesuit, Johann Grueber, crossed Tibet from Sining to Lhasa (where he spent a month), before heading on to Nepal.Narratives of the Mission of George Bogle to Tibet, and of the Journey of Thomas Manning to Lhasa, pp. 295–302. Clements R. Markham. (1876). Reprint Cosmo Publications, New Delhi. 1989. He was followed by others who built a church in Lhasa. Italian Jesuit missionary Fr. Ippolito Desideri (1716–1721) gained a particularly deep knowledge of Tibetan culture, language and Buddhism. In his many extant writings in the Classical Tibetan literary language, Fr. Desideri sought to demolish those foundations of Tibetan Buddhism, especially the doctrines of reincarnation and emptiness, that prevented Tibetan belief in the Christian God and conversion to the Catholic Church in Tibet. Fr. Desideri also deftly used conventions from Tibetan literature and passages from the dharma and vinaya to defend his thesis. Fr. Desideri was joined by Capuchins in 1707–1711, 1716–1733 and 1741–1745,Stein 1972, p. 85 Christianity was used by some Tibetan monarchs and their courts and the Karmapa sect lamas to counterbalance the influence of the Gelugpa sect in the 17th century until in 1745 when all the missionaries were expelled at the lama's insistence.{{cite web|url=http://www.pacificrim.usfca.edu/research/pacrimreport/pacrimreport36.html |title=When Christianity and Lamaism Met: The Changing Fortunes of Early Western Missionaries in Tibet |author1= Lin Hsiao-ting|author1-link=Lin Hsiao-ting |publisher=Pacificrim.usfca.edu |access-date=2010-03-26 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100626095547/http://www.pacificrim.usfca.edu/research/pacrimreport/pacrimreport36.html |archive-date=June 26, 2010 }}{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/country_profiles/6299565.stm|title=BBC News Country Profiles Timeline: Tibet|access-date=2009-03-11 | date=2009-11-05}}Lettera del P. Antonio de Andrade. Giovanni de Oliveira. Alano Dos Anjos al Provinciale di Goa, 29 Agosto, 1627, quoted from Wu, Zaoqi Chuanjiaoshi jin Zang Huodongshi, p. 196; Maclagan, The Jesuits and The Great Mogul, pp. 347–348.Cornelius Wessels, Early Jesuit Travellers in Central Asia, 1603–1721 (The Hague: Nijhoff, 1924), pp. 80–85.Maclagan, The Jesuits and The Great Mogul, pp. 349–352; Filippo De Filippi ed., An Account of Tibet, pp. 13–17.Relação da Missão do Reino de Uçangue Cabeça dos do Potente, Escrita pello P. João Cabral da Comp. de Jesu. fol. 1, quoted from Wu, Zaoqi Chuanjiaoshi jin Zang Huodongshi, pp. 294–297; Wang Yonghong, "Luelun Tianzhujiao zai Xizang di Zaoqi Huodong", Xizang Yanjiu, 1989, No. 3, pp. 62–63.

In 1877, the Protestant James Cameron{{Cite web |url=http://etheses.bham.ac.uk/6344/1/Usher15PhD.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2016-01-28 |archive-date=2016-02-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160203145747/http://etheses.bham.ac.uk/6344/1/Usher15PhD.pdf |url-status=dead }} from the China Inland Mission walked from Chongqing to Batang in Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan province, and "brought the Gospel to the Tibetan people."{{cite book | title=Tibet: Inside the Greatest Christian Revival in History | publisher=William Carey Publishing | series=The China Chronicles | year=2022 | isbn=978-1-64508-434-1 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iU2JEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT58 | access-date=2024-03-14 | page=58}}

File:Mauricetornayagaunien.jpg

During the 1905 Tibetan Rebellion Tibetan Buddhist monks attacked, tortured and murdered French Catholic missionaries including Fr. André Soulié and massacred ethnic Tibetan Catholics,{{cite book | last=Beolens | first=B. | last2=Watkins | first2=M. | last3=Grayson | first3=M. | title=The Eponym Dictionary of Amphibians | publisher=Pelagic Publishing | year=2013 | isbn=978-1-907807-44-2 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QJY3BAAAQBAJ&pg=PA172 | access-date=2024-03-14 | page=172}} including both recent converts and those whose ancestors converted to Catholicism.{{citation |last= Coleman|first=William M. |title= Making the State on the Sino-Tibetan Frontier: Chinese Expansion and Local Power in Batang, 1842–1939|url= http://academiccommons.columbia.edu/download/fedora_content/download/ac:169676/CONTENT/ColemanIV_columbia_0054D_11780.pdf |year= 2014|publisher= Columbia University}} pages 247–248.{{cite book | last=Terry | first=B. | title=Beyond Beauty: Hunting the Wild Blue Poppy | publisher=Touchwood Editions | year=2012 | isbn=978-1-927129-37-1 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tkuk4YcMmNYC&pg=PA99 | access-date=2024-03-14 | page=99}}

In 1949, after driving him from his parish in Yerkalo, Tibetan Buddhist monks from the Karma Gon Monastery ambushed and murdered Fr. Maurice Tornay C.R.S.A., who was travelling in disguise to Lhasa to appeal directly to the Dalai Lama for religious toleration to be granted to Tibetan Christians. Pope John Paul II beatified Fr. Tornay as a martyr for the Catholic faith on May 16, 1993.{{cite web |url= http://www.maristmessenger.co.nz/2013/05/01/missionary-audacity-the-mission-to-tibet/ |title= Missionary Audacity – the Mission to Tibet |last1= Filoni|first1=Cardinal Fernando |others=Translated by Brian Quin sm (from “Missions Etrangeres de Paris” No 478, December 2012.|date=May 1, 2013 |website= Marist Messenger National Catholic Monthly |publisher=Marist Messenger |access-date=24 April 2014}}

As far as Roman Catholicism is concerned, Tibet officially belongs to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kangding, which has been without a Bishop since 1962. Meanwhile, in the Tibetan Autonomous Region, both the Government-controlled Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association and the pro-Vatican Underground Church have a presence, although statistics for the latter are understandably hard to come by.[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2021/12/18/wine-prayer-song-chinas-tiny-catholic-tibetan-communitys-uneasy/ Wine, prayer and song: China's tiny Catholic Tibetan community's uneasy truce with the Communist Party] by Sophie Yan, The Telegraph, 18 December 2021.[https://amp/s/amp.scmp.com/news/china/article/1756768/easter-china-rebirth-tibetan-catholic-village Easter in China: rebirth in a Tibetan Catholic village] by Chris Helali, South China Morning Post, 5 Apr. 2015.{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=11 March 2014|title=The only Catholic church in use in Tibet|url=https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/travel/2014-03/11/content_17337557.htm|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2022-01-16|website=China Daily}}

With regard to Protestantism, both the Caesaropapism Three-Self Patriotic Movement and the independent House Church Movement also have a presence in Tibet, mostly in Lhasa.{{citation needed|date=May 2024}}

{{See also|Mount Kailash}}

The Tantric school of Nepalese Hinduism and Buddhism reached the Tibetan region through the Nepalese route, buy very few in Nepal's border region with China.{{cite book | last=Gray | first=D.B. | last2=Overbey | first2=R.R. | title=Tantric Traditions in Transmission and Translation | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=2016 | isbn=978-0-19-061378-5 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fKQDDAAAQBAJ | access-date=2024-03-14 | page=}}

Huang Xinchuan (1986), Hinduism and China, in Freedom, Progress, and Society (Editors: Balasubramanian et al.), {{ISBN|81-208-0262-4}}, pp. 125–138

• Buddhism in China
• Religion in China

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{{Religion in China}}

{{Asia topic|Religion in|PS=Palestinian territories#Religion}}

{{Tibet topics}}

{{Christianity in Tibet}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Religion In Tibet}}