Bonans
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| (16,505 (year 2000 census)) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| People's Republic of China, concentrated in Gansu province. | |
| Languages | |
| Bonan (traditional), Mandarin Chinese | |
| Religion | |
| Predominantly Sunni Islam | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Mongols, Dongxiang |
The Bonan (also Bao'an) people (保安族; pinyin: Bǎo'ān zú; native [bɵːŋɑn]) are an ethnic group living in Gansu and Qinghai provinces in northwestern China. They are one of the "titular nationalities" of Gansu's Jishishan Bonan, Dongxiang and Salar Autonomous County, which is located south of the Yellow River, near Gansu.
Numbering approximately 17,000 the Bonan are the 7th smallest of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China.
The Bonan people are believed to be descended from Muslim Mongol soldiers stationed in Qinghai during the Yuan or Ming dynasties.
They are agriculturalists and also knife makers. They are mixed between Mongols, Hui, Han Chinese, and Tibetans, and wear Hui attire.
The ancestors of today's Bonan people were Lamaist, and it is known that around 1585 they lived in Tongren County (in Amdo Region; presently, in Qinghai Province), north of the Tibetan Rebgong Monastery. It was in that year that the town of Bao'an was founded in that area.
Later on, some of the members of the Bonan-speaking community converted to Islam and moved north, to Xunhua County. It is said that they have been converted to Islam by the Hui Sufi master Ma Laichi (1681?- 1766). Later, in the aftermath of the Dungan Rebellion (1862–1874) the Muslim Bonans moved farther east, into what's today Jishishan Bonan, Dongxiang and Salar Autonomous County of Gansu Province.
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