Uighurs

The Uighurs have been in the news this year. They are now Muslim, but this was forced on them a long time ago.

They were once a Manichean people:

"In the 8thC it became the state religion of the Uighur Turks whom the Tang government in China relied as their principal mercenaries to fight their frontier wars. Under the patronage of successive Uighur Khaghans, Manichaean monasteries were established in the principal Chinese cities north of the River Yangtze. It was severely persecuted in the 9thC and the religion survived mainly in the region of Turfan, especially around the Uighur capital of Chotcho until the 11thC and in the province of Fujian in South China up to the turn of the 20th C."