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Amharic - አማርኛ | Arabic - عربي
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Chinese (Traditional) - 中文（繁體) | French - Français
German - Deutsch | Gujarati - ગુજરાતી
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Portugese - Português | Russian - Русский
Spanish - Espanol | Tagalong / Filipino
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PEOPLE GROUP PROFILE

The Central Tibetans of China

The Central Tibetans of China, numbering approximately 1,190,000 people, are Engaged yet Unreached. They are an indigenous community of Tibeto-Burman people inhabiting the Trans-Himalaya region that divides India and Nepal from Tibet. They are an Indigenous people in the Tibetan people cluster of the Tibetan Peoples affinity bloc. Their primary language is Tibetan, Central and their primary religion is Tibetan Buddhism.

Photo by Google. (2026). Image generated by Gemini 2.5 Flash: Tibetan, Central

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Tibetan Peoples
Country: China
People Cluster: Tibetan
Primary Language(s): Tibetan, Central (bod)
Primary Religion(s): Tibetan Buddhism
Population: 1,190,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Engaged yet Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity
People Group ID: PG007403
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Pray for the Central Tibetans of China

Join others around the world in praying for the lost to be saved, the gospel to advance, the global Church to grow, and for laborers to be sent out and sustained in the harvest.

Pray Now!
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Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Tibetan Buddhism
Religious Affiliation: Buddhism

98%
%

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Tibetan, Central
Language Family: Sino-Tibetan

100%
%

Media Resources in Tibetan, Central:

Films:

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Provided by the Jesus Film Project

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Bible Resources in Tibetan, Central:

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Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Tibetan, Central bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

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Explore Lostness and Next Steps

Unengaged and Unreached

Strategic Priority Index (SPI): Unengaged and Unreached (SPI: 1), which means there are less than 2% evangelical Christian populations among which there are no known efforts focused on establishing self-sustaining churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice.
Lostness Priority Index (LPI): Frontier Unreached People Group, (LPI: 0), < 0.1% Evangelical.
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity (GSEC: 1), this people group is less than 2% evangelical, some evangelical resources are available, but there has been no active church planting among them within the past two years

Next steps for the Central Tibetans:
Begin signifcant prayer and fasting for this group
Send cross-cultural teams to discover and research this people group
Begin gospel seed sowing and church planting among this group

SPI: Unreached yet Engaged

The Central Tibetans are Engaged yet Unreached, which means there are less than 2% evangelical Christian populations but there are sustained efforts at establishing self-sustaining churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice.

Next steps for the Central Tibetans:
Continue prayer and fasting for this group
Continue gospel seed sowing and church planting among this group
Begin training up local leaders to lead and develop strategies to reach their own people

SPI: No longer Unreached

The Central Tibetans are No Longer Unreached, which means there are more than 2% evangelical Christian populations and there are churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice. There is still more to be done among them.

Next steps for the Central Tibetans:
Empower local believers to begin praying for their own people
Continue gospel seed sowing and church planting
Encourage local leaders to being leading church planting strategy and looking for Unreached and Unengaged groups nearby

Pray specifically for the Central Tibetans of China

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
readJohn 3:18

Pray for those who are living under the burden of their sin to believe in Jesus, the only Son of God, and receive freedom.

For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
readRomans 5:10

Pray that God will remove obstacles to the gospel so that many will see the hope He offers through the death, burial, and resurrection of His Son, and be transformed from being enemies to being His friends.

And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
readActs 2:42

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will devote themselves to God's Word, to fellowship with each other, and to prayer.

To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law.
read1 Corinthians 9:20

Pray that believers from similar cultures will be compelled by Christ's love to reach people who don't know the gospel, and that those people will receive the good news with joy.

Tibetan, Central Across Countries (ROP3 - 110033) reported in the following countries:

To download a comprehensive people group list in spreadsheet form, visit our Research Data page.

Peoplegroups.org relies on updates from the field and other organizations for much of our data, so if you have any updates, please contact us. We use various international naming standards. For a list of these standards and fields, visit our Definitions page.

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