The People’s Daily (of all places) recently put up a story on the Top Ten Most Beautiful Churches in China. Interestingly they are all Catholic Churches. I was most surprised to find a Catholic Church in Tibet listed because I wasn’t aware that there were any churches in Tibet (Catholic or Protestant). I decided to poke around a bit looking for more information on this church and found out that it is not, in fact, within Tibet proper, but in a Tibetan region of Yunnan Province. (photo from People’s Daily)
To learn more about this fascinating church, please check out the following articles:
Catholicism Flourishes in Tibetan Village (Chinese Embassy in Australia)
Cizhong — A Christian Shangri-la in Tibet (From a blog called In the Footsteps of Joseph Rock). This one has lots of photos of the church and villagers as well as a detailed history of the community.