Robert B. Ekvall

This is a history of Christian missionary work around Gansu province in Northwestern China, during the period 1895-1930 approximately. There are three distinct cultural groups living in that area: Chinese, Turkic Muslims, and Tibetans. The discussion generally treats the missionary work among these separately. There is mythological impetus behind the work: Tibet may well be the last place that the Christian Gospel will reach, after which Christ will return to Earth. Very little progress is reported here in converting Tibetans to Christianity. The author is quite persistent in praising Christianity and denigrating Tibetan religion. It's a frank expression of missionary attitude in its time!

For me, all the missionary talk about conquering the heathen is a layer of weeds that obscures, but not very thickly, the fascinating glimpse into the history and culture of this region. The primary historical background that is sketched in this book is the Dongan Revolt - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungan_Revolt (1862-1877) - one of the challenges in understanding this book is that the names of many places have changed. That wikipedia article gives old and new names for some of the key places. On the front endpapers of the book there is a good map of the region with the key names. It's not too hard, from the map and also from the book's description of the terrain, to figure out what the region is.

The Labrang Monastery in the book is still prominent and called by that name. The Tao River in the book is called the Taohe River on google maps. Minchow in the book is Minxian on google maps. The Lower Tebu River in the book is the Bailong River on google maps. Can you tell that I have fun with this? Lhamo in the book is Langmusizhen on google maps - the fuller name of Tag Tsang Lhamo was given in the book when the missionaries learned about this place. Google maps links to photos of some monasteries there and sure enough there is Tag Tsang Lhamo right on a gateway!

Then a bit south of these places is what's called Ngawa in the book but is Abazhen, Sichuan (on the A Qu river) on google maps. My Dharma teacher Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche from Karma Triyana Dharmachakra was born in this region. It's also the area where a lot of the self-immolations have happened, where Tibetans are protesting Chinese domination - or is that the other town called Aba, further south but still in Sichuan?

This book is a valuable historical record of a place and time. There are lots of little details that could be quite useful to anyone studying these events.… (mais)