Tibet Autonomous Region (China) Religion

The main religion in Tibet has been Buddhism since its introduction in the 8th century AD. As of 2022 the historical region of Tibet (the areas inhabited by ethnic Tibetans) mostly comprises the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) of China and partly the Chinese provinces of Qinghai, Sichuan, Gansu, and Yunnan. Before the arrival of Buddhism, the main religion among Tibetans was an indigenous shamanic and animistic religion, Bon, which would later influence the formation of Tibetan Buddhism and still attracts the allegiance of a sizeable minority of Tibetans. According to estimates from the International Religious Freedom Report of 2012, most Tibetans (who comprise 91% of the population of the Tibet Autonomous Region) are associated with Tibetan Buddhism, while a minority of 400,000 people (12.5% of the total population of the TAR) profess the native Bon religion. Other groups in Tibet practise folk religions which share the image of Confucius (Tibetan: Kongtse Trulgyi Gyalpo) with Chinese folk religion, though in a different light. The statistics do not cover the government-sponsored atheist proportion of the Tibetan population. According to some reports, the government of China has been promoting the Bon religion, linking it with Confucianism.