Sep 1, 2012
Mind on Missions: Chrame of China
The Chrame of China are a group of 46,000 people found mainly in a widespread, isolated area of southwest Sichuan Province.
Identity
The self-named Chrame were commonly known in the past as Xifan, a derogatory Chinese name meaning "barbarians of the west". It was a name not only applied to this group but sometimes also used for all Tibetans. The Chrame "are a member of the Tibetan minzu [nationality], but feel they have little in common with the Tibetans."
Customs
A 1981 survey of 131 households in Muli found 52% of the marriages engaged in monogamy, 32% practiced polyandry (brothers sharing a wife), and 16% practiced polygamy (sisters sharing a husband).
Religion
All Chrame adhere to Tibetan Buddhism. It forms a major part of their ethnic and cultural identity. The Chrame inwardly long for the restoration of their kingdom and their former prestige among the other peoples of the area.
Christianity
The Chrame are one of the most unreached people groups in China. There has never been a single known Chrame church or Christian believer. The Baptist missionaries Dan and Lucy Carr planned to work in Muli in the late 1940s, but they were evacuated from China before they had the opportunity to move there.
information from joshuaproject.net
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