Brief Information on Inner Mongolia

The dark area of the map shows the geographic location of Inner Mongolia Autonomous region in the north and northwest parts of China. Here live approx. 4 million Mongolians and related people groups. Almost 2 million Monglian people live in neighbouring provinces, as well as in the western regions of Xinjiang and Qinghai. Capital city of Inner Mongolia is Hohhot. The largest city of Inner Mongolia is Baotou. The vast area of 1.18 million square kilometers stretches 1500 miles (2400 km) from east to west and 1060 miles (1700 km) from north to south. The Mongolians are a minority in Inner Mongolia. They are outnumbered by Han Chinese and other nationalities.

Besides Mongolians,  several other branches of Mongolian people groups live in north China: Daur, Buryat, Evenk, Dorbod and Tuvin. They speak their own dialects as  well as the Mongolian language.

While the other nationalities mainly dwell in urban areas and the cities, a large number of Mongolians live in the grasslands of the countryside as herdsmen and some agriculturalists. Main livestock are sheep, cattle, horses and also goats, two humped Bactrian camels and yaks.

The Mongolian language is a branch of the Altaic language family. The SIL (Summer Institute of Linguistics) code for Mongolian is MVF. Chahar is the main Mongolian dialect spoken in China. Besides there are eight other Mongolian dialects. The vertical script is standard for all Mongolians in China. This script was adopted from the Uighur script in the 14th century. A large number of Mongolians in China learn the Chinese language in school.

Religion: The Mongolians have traditionally followed Lamaism and Shamanist religions. In the 19th century, European and North American Christian missionaries brought the gospel to China and to Inner Mongolia. Some few mission stations were set up with small hospitals and churches. Since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China by the Communist Party in 1949, the missionaries had to leave and their stations were used for other purposes. The greatest hardship came over the Mongolians during the terrors of the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). The Christian groups were diminished and almost vanished. Only since around 1986, due to evangelistic efforts of Chinese Christians and Christian short wave radio broadcasts, the number of Christians grew again.

The Mongolian language underwent significant changes after 1949, due to the influence of communism. The meaning of words changed. Also, the war took its toll on education. No wonder, that the 1952 version of the NT could not be understood by the average Mongolian, due to the highly classical language. A new translation was necessary. The work began 1989 - it was partly a rough road due to the difficult restrictions and

1,500 gather for Sunday worship in a Hohhot church.

curcumstances. With God’s provision, encouragement and prayer it was possible to achieve the goal. May this translation be a blessing for the Mongolian people. Mongolian Christians requested God’s word in their language as their number 1 prayer request. Humble as they are, they thank us as their “older brothers and sisters in Christ.”

Some Mongolian Christians visit Chinese churches, take notes of the teachings and pass the translated messages on to fellow believers who don’t have access to the services and fellowship meetings due to long distances. To have no Bible means that false teaching of cults can spread rapidly because the people have no basis to examine the misleading claims.

According to UBS (United Bible Societies) 40% of the Chinese Christians don’t have a copy of the Bible. UBS also reports that since 2000, the official printing of Chinese Bibles has been reduced by 20%. As the Chinese Christians increase by 2-3% per every year, it will take decades until every Chinese believer will have a copy of the Bible.

For Mongolians in China, these figures are even more dramatic. In 2003, only a few Mongolian believers own a gospel portion or a handwritten copy thereof.