The Lahu are an ethnic group that originated in Tibet and migrated into the Yunnan province of China, Myanmar, northern Thailand and Laos.
The number of Lahu Christians declined to about 20,000 in Yunnan during Japanese occupation during World War II, and more fled when Communist forces approached the region.
The willingness of the government to facilitate such conversion is in part due to the ideological belief that monotheism is a natural stepping-stone from polytheism to Communism.
At least some of these churches may not have fully absorbed core Christian doctrines such as the Trinity, as they use a term for a lesser deity in reference to Jesus.
[1][4] The Thailand Lahu Baptist Convention had roughly 8,130 members in 108 congregations as of 1998.