Tibet

==== Islam ====
{{Main|Islam in Tibet}}
[[File:A new Muslim Mosque in Lhasa.jpg|thumb|200px|The [[Lhasa Great Mosque]]]]
Muslims have been living in Tibet since as early as the 8th or 9th century. In Tibetan cities, there are small communities of [[Tibetan Muslim|Muslims]], known as Kachee (Kache), who trace their origin to immigrants from three main regions: [[Kashmir]] (Kachee Yul in ancient Tibetan), Ladakh and the Central Asian Turkic countries. Islamic influence in Tibet also came from Persia. A Muslim Sufi [[Ali Hamadani|Syed Ali Hamdani]] preached to the people of [[Baltistan]], then known as little Tibet. After 1959, a group of Tibetan Muslims made a case for Indian nationality based on their historic roots to Kashmir and the Indian government declared all Tibetan Muslims Indian citizens later on that year.<ref>Masood Butt, [http://www.tibet.com/Muslim/tibetan-muslim.html 'Muslims of Tibet'] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060910081317/http://www.tibet.com/Muslim/tibetan-muslim.html|date=September 10, 2006}}, [[Government of Tibet in exile]], January/February 1994</ref> Other Muslim ethnic groups who have long inhabited Tibet include [[Hui people|Hui]], [[Salar people|Salar]], [[Dongxiang people|Dongxiang]] and [[Bonans|Bonan]]. There is also a well established Chinese Muslim community (gya kachee), which traces its ancestry back to the [[Hui people|Hui]] ethnic group of China.