ALYAB, PREFEITURA APOSTOLICA DI

APOSTOLIC PREFECTURE OF ALYAB. — Erected in 1940 with territory detached from the diocese of Chittagong (Burma). It is entrusted to the Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette (American province) and comprises four civil districts, which form the provinces of Arakan, with an area of 37,905 sq. km. Arakan was evangelized around 1600 by Portuguese Jesuits, then by Augustinians and Theatines, by the fathers of the Paris Foreign Missions Seminary, by Belgian Benedictines, and by the Religious of the Holy Cross. Population: 1,008,535, of whom Buddhists (of Burmese race) 653,699, Muslims (immigrants from India) 255,469, Hindus 18,350, Protestants (Anglicans and Baptists) 1,218, and members of various aboriginal tribes about 80,000. Catholics in 1940 numbered 850 (of these, 440 belong to the aboriginal Chin tribe) with five churches, 8 American missionaries, 18 English sisters, and 7 indigenous catechists.