Dongxiang

The history of the Dongxiang begins with the 13th century Mongol expansion, when Genghis Khan sent garrisons to control the newly conquered lands in northwest China. The soldiers, among them Central Asian Muslims brought by the Mongols, settled in the region and intermarried with local women, Han, Hui, and other peoples, giving rise to a group with its own language and customs.

Over the following generations, Islam became established as the common religion of this people in formation. Before 1949, the Dongxiang were often called "Mongol Hui" or "Dongxiang Hui," a sign of how their identity was only fully affirmed as distinct over time, until their official recognition as a separate ethnicity in modern China.

Life revolves around the land and the herd in the valleys and hillsides of Gansu, where families grow wheat, corn, potatoes, and broad beans on terraces built into the hills, and raise sheep and other animals to supplement their livelihood. Hemp and rapeseed serve as cash crops, and fruits like apricots are a source of local pride. Wool felt is a traditional craft known in the region.

Hospitality is a central value: welcoming a visitor with tea served in lidded bowls, often flavored with dried fruit and herbs, is almost a social duty. Age hierarchy organizes domestic life, elders are served first and take the place of honor at the table, and marriages traditionally follow arrangements between families, mediated by third parties and celebrated with communal rituals.

The Dongxiang are Muslims, the great majority Sunni, though Islam among them has historically been divided into distinct streams, locally called old, new, and emerging, each with its own mosques and forms of teaching. The Islamic faith is not merely individual belief: it organizes the calendar, diet, rites of passage, and the very sense of belonging to the people.

Mosques scattered across the valleys of Gansu have for centuries served as centers of study and religious formation, and this structure still shapes communal life. Practices such as abstaining from pork and alcohol, and routines of ritual purification, are lived as a natural part of daily life, not as external demands.

The New Testament has already been translated into the Dongxiang language, a recent and significant step for a people of predominantly oral tradition. Audio recordings, the Jesus film, and some mobile apps have helped bring these portions to those who do not read easily, since fluency in reading Chinese is also low among them. Even so, the complete Bible does not exist in this people’s heart language, and contact between a Dongxiang person and any passage of Scripture remains rare.

To be Dongxiang is to be Muslim: the Islamic faith is interwoven with ethnic identity itself, and following it closely is what distinguishes the people from their Han and Tibetan neighbors. Leaving Islam is understood as abandoning family and clan, not merely changing religion. Add to this the isolation in the mountain valleys of Gansu, low literacy, and the near total absence of any Christian witness in their own language, and the result is a people who have rarely had the chance to hear the gospel from someone who speaks as they speak.

Life in the arid valleys of Gansu imposes constant challenges: scarce land, dependence on the weather for harvests, and income that rarely rises above the essentials. Literacy, both in their own language and in Chinese, is still low, which limits access to opportunities beyond farming and herding.

On the spiritual front, the need is equally great: there is practically no Christian community born among the Dongxiang themselves, nor discipleship or follow-up in the people’s own language. Whoever comes to know Jesus will need to find support and fellowship almost from scratch.