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Religions and habits
Religious beliefs China is a country with multiple religions and has more than 100 million believers. In China the buddhism is professed, Islam, the catholicism and the Christianity. In addition, they are the taoísmo, own of China, as well as the chamanismo, the Eastern orthodox church and the religion dongba. Naturally, the different ethnic groups and different people have different religions: Islam professes between the ethnic groups hui, uigur, kazaka, kirguiz, tártara, uzbeka, tajik, dongxiang, to salar and bonan; the tibetano buddhism (also call lamaísmo) between the ethnic groups tibetana, mongola, lhoba, monba, your and yugur; between the ethnic groups dai, blang and de´ang, the buddhism of the Buddhist sect of the Hinayana; between the ethnic groups miao, yao, yi, etc. there is a good number of catholics and Christians; between the ethnic group there are some are Buddhist and also there are some Christians, catholics and taoístas. The buddhism introduced in China in century I a.n.e and in century IV it began to spread widely, becoming step by step the religion with greater influence. The tibetano buddhism is a branch of the Chinese buddhism, propagates in Tibet, Inner Mongolia and some other places. At the moment, they exist in China more than 13,000 Buddhist temples and 200,000 monks and nuns. Islam was introduced in China in the middle of century VII. In the dynasties Tang and Song, Muslim Persian Arabs arrived and at the zones of the northwest of China by earth and at the suroriental coast by the sea, to dedicate itself to the commerce. With himself they brought the Islamic religion. During the Yuan dynasty he prospered Islam. Now, in China he has more than 30,000 mosques and more than 40,000 magnets and akhunds. The catholicism began in China in century VII and after the War of the Opium of 1840 it transmitted itself in great spread. Now in all the country there are almost 4.000.000 believers and more than 4,000 priests. They exist more than 4,600 churches and collection points. The Christianity was introduced in China in century XIX and it transmitted itself on a large scale after the War of the Opium. At the moment, in all the country there are almost 10 million Christian believers, 18,000 shepherds and missionaries, 12,000 churches and more than 25,000 simple sites for his activities. The taoísmo formed in century II. One originated in bewitching practices and immortal alchemists in search of and geniuses, own of the old times of the Chinese society that adored spirits and demons. This doctrine venerates like its ancestor to Lao Zi, thinker of the taoísta school of the Period of Spring and Fall, it takes the Daodejing work like his main canon, and mitifica the principle of dao raised in that book. It considers that through improvements, the man can arrive “to be unified with dao”, to become immortal. At the moment, in China they have been constructed more than 1,500 daoistas convents and the number of monks and nuns exceeds the 25.000. The buddhism, Islam, the catholicism, the Christianity and the taoísmo have established own organizations, of national and local character. They are the organisms of national character the Buddhist Association of China, the Taoísta Association of China, the Association Islamist of China, the Catholic Patriotic Society of China, the Society of Catholic Bishops of China, the Committee of the Patriotic Movement of Three Autonomies of the Christianity of China, the Christian Association of China, etc. According to its own statutes, the religious organizations choose the supervising agencies and leaders, administer the religious subjects independently, found religious teaching institutions, print sacred books, publish religious magazines and they are dedicated to tasks of social public well-being.
Policy of freedom of religious beliefs According to the stipulations of the Constitution of China, “the citizens of the People's Republic of China are free to profess religious beliefs”, and “no organism of the State, social organization or individual he cannot force a citizen to profess tal o cual religion or to stop practicing it, neither to discriminate either against the believing citizens nor against the nonbelieving ones”. The Penal Law, the General Code of Civil Procedure, the Law of Ethnic Regional Autonomy, the Law of Education, the Law of Work, the Law of Election of the Popular Assemblies and the Statutory law of the Village Committees, have corresponding articles on the protection of the citizens as far as the freedom of religious belief and nobody can discriminate against the believing citizens nor against the nonbelieving ones. The basic content of the policy of freedom of religious beliefs is the following one: - To respect and to protect the freedom of religious belief. In China, all the citizens have freedom to profess the religion or to stop practicing it; freedom to profess tal o cual religion; freedom to profess tal o cual doctrine within a same religion; freedom of not professing the religion before and soon to profess it or the other way around. That is to say, the selection of religious belief is an individual subject of each citizen. No organism of the State, social or individual organization can force nobody. The citizens who profess religion and those are equal that does not profess it and enjoys the same rights stipulated in the laws, and must fulfill the same duties. - To protect the normal religious activities. All the activities of the believers, as much in the sites public of religious activities like in their own houses, are treated by the religious organizations or the believers same and protected by the laws; nobody can be found in that. The Chinese Government has promulgated the Regulation of Administration of the Premises of Religious Activities, that he establishes: The premises of religious activities are administered of independent way by their administrative organisms; its rights and I interest legitimate and the realized normal religious activities within these premises receive the legal protection. The violator of the rights or interests of the premises of religious activities must load with the legal responsibilities. - Equality of the diverse religions. In China any special religion does not exist On guard. The Government also tries to all the religions and promotes that these are respected mutually and tried in concord. In China, the religion and the Power, the religion and the education are separated. The state Power does not take advantage of any religion for itself and the religion does not take part either in the administrative, judicial or educational subjects of the State. - The diverse religions execute the direction of independence, autonomy and self-sufficiency. The religious groups, the religious personal and the believers administer the religious subjects, without being controlled by the foreign influences. In order to increase the knowledge and the friendship between both parts, the Chinese religious organizations wish to realize friendly interchanges with the religious organizations of the diverse countries of the world. Of course, these interchanges must be established in complete equality and mutual respect.
Protection of the freedom and rights of the ethnic minorities to the religious beliefs The Chinese Government does not scrimp efforts to foment the progress of the economy, the culture, the education and other activities of the zones of ethnic minorities. While he elevates the level of the material life and cultural of the popular masses of the ethnic minorities, he respects especially his religious beliefs and social habits and protects the cultural patrimony of the same. In Tibet, the majority of the popular masses of the tibetana ethnic group professes the tibetano buddhism. At present, Tibet owns more than the 1,700 premises of Buddhist activities and their internal monks and nuns are more than 46.000. In the houses of the faithfuls there is almost without exception a small room of sutras or niche with the statuette of Buddha. Every year more of a million Buddhist believers they travel in peregrination to Lhasa. From years 80, the central Government has transferred to Tibet more than 200 million of yuanes like special bottoms for the restoration and maintenance of the Potala Palace, the Jokhang Monastery, the Tashilhunpo Monastery, the Samye Monastery and other enclosures. The State assigned special bottoms like support so that the Buddhist circles ordered and published the Tripitaka in tibetana language and other important Buddhist canons of the tibetano linguistic lineage, and supported to the Buddhist circles in the foundation of the Institute Superior of Buddhism of the Linguistic Lineage Tibetano of China and the Institute of Tibetano Buddhism, in Peking and Lhasa. In 1995, accepting strictly the religious ceremonial rites and the historical system, by means of the drawing with a gold ballot box, with the ratification of the Council of State, the search of the boy-reincarnation of the Panchen Lama X was crowned, and it confirmed the registry and the enthronement of the Panchen Lama XI. In Xinjiang and Ningxia, concerning the governmental departments provide diverse services for the peregrination of the Muslims. From the decade of the 80, more than 40,000 Chinese Muslims they have traveled in peregrination to Mecca. In Xinjiang 23,000 mosques, 29,000 individuals dedicated to the catechesis exist more than and religious occupations, satisfying the needs with the faithful masses in their religious activities. The Islamic Association of Xinjiang has created the Institute of Islam and has published the Corán in language uigur. The Chinese Government also observes totally the customs of the meals and funeral drinks of the Muslim ethnic minorities and their rites; he has elaborated regulations on the production of foods for Muslims; and he has left local for Muslim cemeteries.
Social habits In the long process of the historical development, and due to the social differences of the natural environment, conditions, the degree of economic development and other aspects, each ethnic group formed her own customs. With respect to the food, as a rule, the southern ones of the ethnic group have like of the rice; northern, of foods based on wheat flour. There are them they prefer the vegetables, vegetables, meats, fish and eggs, and pay much attention to the technique of the kitchen. Mongoles the bovine meat and the sheep incline by, and like of the tea with milk. To the tibetanos they like to eat zanba (the shepherds prefer the bovine meat and of sheep), drink tea preparation with butter and came fact with qingke. Uigures, kazakos and uzbekos prefer the bovine meat and of sheep, they by hand eat the served rice and the pies. To the Koreans they like to eat cold pies of glutinous rice, tallarines and vegetal pickles. Li, gin and dai like to chew areca palm nuts. In clothes, the manchúes women use qipao; the mongola ethnic group, her peculiar túnica and dull of high cane; the tibetana ethnic group, her typical túnica; in the Korean ethnic group they wear rubber shoes with boat form; uigures takes a small cap of four sides with embroidered adornments; the women yi, miao and yao shine their skirts of “one hundred you fold” and take to gold adornments and silver. As far as the shelter, in the zones where the ethnic group has lives in compact form, the houses with a closed patio are adopted; in Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Qinghai, Gansu and other places of cattle ranch, in the majority of the cases, lodge in yurtas, and the southern ethnic groups like dai, zhuang and bouyei construct houses on piles. In China, to celebrate the birthday is not a general custom between the masses. Usually it is celebrated more in the city than in the field, between the old children and more than between the young people and adults. The day of the birthday any rite does not practice. People like to eat tallarines, that they have the sense of long life, for that reason in that opportunity “tallarines of longevity” is called to them. In the cities usually they celebrate the birthday with cakes, to the western style. As far as the marriage between the Chinese, it is enough with fitting itself to the age established in the Law of Marriage (22 years fulfilled man and 20 the woman); the marriage document is granted by the institutions of married registry to legalize the marital relations. Therefore, the celebration of weddings is not an essential proceeding, but a form of congratulation to the pair on the part of the relatives and friendly. Generally, the pair just married gives caramels to the friendly and colleagues and these give something to them. The funerals also are simple. Generally goodbye is said to the deceased and a funeral act is realized showing the condolencias to the relatives. In the city the incineration is the main thing, in the field, the burial. The traditional color of the mourning is the target, but now it is pronounced with a black fabric bracelet. |
