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Tajikistan
Other Religions
The vast majority of the non-Tajik population of Tajikistan
is composed of peoples who were also historically Sunni Muslims
(Uzbeks, Kyrgyz, Tatars, and Turkmen). The next largest religious
community is presumably Russian Orthodox, the historical faith
of many Ukrainians as well as Russians. A cathedral in Dushanbe,
St. Nicholas, serves the Orthodox community. By the end of the
Soviet era, Tajikistan also was home to small numbers of people
belonging to other Christian denominations, including Roman Catholics
(most of whom were German), Seventh-Day Adventists, and Baptists.
There also was a small Armenian minority, most of whose members
belonged historically to the Armenian Apostolic (Gregorian) Church.
Other religious groups included small numbers of Jews and Bahais.
The number of adherents to these minority religions probably decreased
sharply in the 1990s because of the wave of emigration from Tajikistan
in the early independence period.
Data as of March 1996
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