Geographical Distribution
The Nisu population is now over 1,000,000.

The Nisu live in mostly hard to reach villages in the mountains of Central and Southern Yunnan Province of China. From Kunming, the capital of Yunnan, one can reach the closest villages within 4 hours. The furthest villages can take 2 full days of travel by bus to get to from Kunming.

Language
The Nisu belong to the Tibeto-Burman language grouping.

There are 3 main dialects of Nisu. They are the XinPing, JianShui and YuanYang dialects. Some are only 50% intelligible to the other according to recent surveys. Many Nisu under the age of 40 can speak the local Chinese dialect.

Livelihood
The Nisu are farmers that live in villages high in the mountains. Farming is difficult because they mainly live on slopes of the mountains. They grow various crops depending on the season. They work hard to maintain a living for their families. Their economy is based on market days which occur every 5 days at the nearest town. The women are especially hard workers; in the fields from sunrise to sunset.

Most families own at least one water buffalo, pigs, and chickens among other animals. Most families can only afford to send their children through the 5th grade of school. Although the Nisu are poor they are rich in hospitality. They always welcome you into their homes and are very interested to know why you are visiting their hard to reach village.

Religion and Beliefs
Animism, Ancestor Worship, and Buddhism. In general the Nisu are animists living in a world aware of the spirits and in fear of them. They use village witch doctors to find out how to get rid of their sickness. This witch doctor then prescribes a way to appease the spirits which usually involves animal sacrifice.

Mission
Less than 1% are Christians and most have never heard the Gospel before. Challenges to reaching the Nisu are many. Some of them include ancestor worship, clanship rules and pressure, no scriptures in their language, no written form of their language which the people use, no Christian radio broadcast in their language and very few laborers focused on reaching them for Jesus Christ

Vision
There will be an indigenous, multiplying church among the Nisu. This church will grow and reach out to its own people, surrounding people groups, and beyond….to the Glory of Christ our Lord. Amen.