The Sila of Vietnam

The Sila of Vietnam, numbering approximately 700 people, are Unengaged and Unreached. They are a small Tibeto-Burman hill people who migrated into Vietnam's Lai Chau province from Yunnan roughly 150 years ago as just six founding households, still recognized among Vietnam's smallest officially listed ethnic minorities today. They mostly adhere to Animism and Sila is their primary language.

Photo by Google. (2026). Image generated by Gemini 2.5 Flash: Sila

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Tibetan Peoples
Country: Vietnam
People Cluster: Other Tibeto-Burmese
Primary Language(s): Sila (slt)
Primary Religion(s): Animism
Population: 700
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Unengaged and Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): No Evangelicals, Churches or Resources
People Group ID: PG011221
View on Joshua Project

Pray for the Sila of Vietnam

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Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Animism
Religious Affiliation: Ethnoreligion

99%
%
Animism Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Sila
Language Family: Sino-Tibetan

100%
%
Sila Speakers

Media Resources in Sila:

Films:

No film resources are listed for this language.

Bible Resources in Sila:

No Bible resources are listed for this language.

Or check out the Sila bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

Explore Lostness and Next Steps

Unengaged and Unreached

Strategic Priority Index (SPI): Unengaged and Unreached (SPI: 0), 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): No Evangelicals, Churches or Resources (GSEC: 0), there are no evangelical Christians or churches among this people group and there is no access to evangelical print, audio, visual or human resources

Next steps for the Sila:
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

Pray specifically for the Sila of Vietnam

And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
readJohn 3:19

Pray that God will have mercy on those who love the darkness they are walking in and turn from their sin to faith in Christ.

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise).
readEphesians 6:1-2

Pray that God will bring young men and women to faith in Jesus and that the fruit of their faith will be a powerful testimony as they honor their parents.

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
read1 Peter 2:24

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will remember every day that Jesus' death on the cross brings real healing and restoration to their souls and joyfully share this good news with others.

Oh, magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together!
readPsalm 34:3

Pray that God will raise up believers who will go to those in this people group who do not yet follow Jesus, and that they will invite many to magnify the Lord with them so that His fame will spread to the ends of the earth.

Sila Across Countries (ROP3 - 109001) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

2 people groups

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 Data Standards section.

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