{ "book_metadata": { "book_name": "History of Christianity in India: Source Materials", "book_author": "M. K. Kuriakose", "publisher": "Indian Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge", "published_on": "2011" }, "chunks": [ { "chunk_index": 1, "chapter_name": "1853. Krick on the Cross-Shaped Tattoo of the Padams", "page_numbers": [ 155 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00179-c631d4c5c0e707ca3dae.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Krick and the Padam Tattoos", "chunk_data": "102. KRICK ON THE CROSS-SHAPED TATTOO OF THE PADAMS (1853 A.D.)\nFr. N. M. Krick, Superior of the South Tibetan Mission of the Société des Missions Etrangerès, is the first missionary known to have visited what is today Arunachal Pradesh. He passed through the area twice on his way to Tibet. He and his colleague, Fr. Bourri, were killed by a hostile chief while returning from the second journey in 1854. He wrote extensively concerning his travels through Arunachal. He developed some rather imaginative theories about cross-shaped tattoos he found on the foreheads of the Padams. The following is taken from his Account of an Expedition among the Abors in 1853, translated by Fr. A. Gille, S. J. published in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. IX, (1913), pp. 108 ff. Cited in Verrier Elwin, ed., India's North-East Frontier in the Nineteenth Century, pp. 236-249.", "time": { "start_year": 1853, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1854, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1853–1854" }, "meta": { "people": [ "N. M. Krick", "Bourri", "A. Gille", "Verrier Elwin" ], "places": [ "South Tibet", "Arunachal Pradesh", "Tibet", "Bengal" ], "event": "Krick's 1853 account describes his journeys through Arunachal and his theories about the Padams' cross-shaped tattoos.", "tags": [ "Christianity", "Missions", "Arunachal Pradesh" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 2, "chapter_name": "1853. Krick on the Cross-Shaped Tattoo of the Padams", "page_numbers": [ 155, 156 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00179-c631d4c5c0e707ca3dae.webp", "raw\\pages\\00180-de2a734c0bc2a5a47093.webp" ], "chunk_title": "The Padams' Cross Tattoos", "chunk_data": "Now a few words on the race to which the Padams belong and on the marvellous signs which I have discovered among them.\nThe males are tattooed at the age of eighteen; the pattern is, in my opinion, of evidently Christian origin. The majority wear on the forehead a perfectly shaped Maltese cross of bluish colour; others wear the ordinary cross with the vertical beam running along the nose, and the cross-bar above the eyes. Others wear the Lorraine cross, with the upper cross-beam on the forehead, and the lower lying across the bridge of the nose. Others again wear the Maltese cross on their calves.", "time": { "start_year": 1853, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1853, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1853" }, "meta": { "people": [ "N. M. Krick", "Padams" ], "places": [ "Padam country" ], "event": "Krick describes the cross-shaped tattoos worn by Padam men and proposes that they have a Christian origin.", "tags": [ "Christianity", "Culture", "Missions" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 3, "chapter_name": "1853. Krick on the Cross-Shaped Tattoo of the Padams", "page_numbers": [ 156 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00180-de2a734c0bc2a5a47093.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Women's Tattoos and Facial Marks", "chunk_data": "The women have the Maltese cross tattooed on the upper lip, and on their legs and the Lorraine cross with two St. Andrew's crosses drawn on either side...", "time": { "start_year": 1853, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1853, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1853" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Padam women", "N. M. Krick" ], "places": [ "Padam country" ], "event": "Krick records the Maltese, Lorraine, and St. Andrew's crosses tattooed on Padam women's faces and legs.", "tags": [ "Culture", "Christianity" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 4, "chapter_name": "1853. Krick on the Cross-Shaped Tattoo of the Padams", "page_numbers": [ 156 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00180-de2a734c0bc2a5a47093.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Chin and Lip Tattoo Patterns", "chunk_data": "The men have as a rule their chin tattooed with three vertical and parallel lines; the women have five or seven of them, as the case may be, on the chin, and four on the upper lip, two on either side of a cross, and the whole set is bracketed", "time": { "start_year": 1853, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1853, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1853" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Padam men", "Padam women", "N. M. Krick" ], "places": [ "Padam country" ], "event": "Krick describes the differing geometric tattoo patterns worn on the chins and upper lips of Padam men and women.", "tags": [ "Culture", "Religion" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 5, "chapter_name": "1853. Krick on the Cross-Shaped Tattoo of the Padams", "page_numbers": [ 156 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00180-de2a734c0bc2a5a47093.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Padam Accounts of the Signs", "chunk_data": "I have often questioned the Padams as to the origin and meaning of these signs. Some answered that God at creation had given them to the Padams as a distinctive mark of the elder tribe; others asserted that they had received them from a northern tribe; several confessed their ignorance in the matter, but all agreed as to its being the sign of God, and a most beneficial badge too, as he who wears it, so they said, 'is acknowledged and protected by God; if he dies, he is at once received into heaven'. 'But what, if he has not the sign?' I asked: 'Where is he to go?' 'God will disown him and cast him off.'", "time": { "start_year": 1853, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1853, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1853" }, "meta": { "people": [ "N. M. Krick", "Padams" ], "places": [ "Padam country" ], "event": "Padam informants explain that the tattoos are divine signs offering recognition, protection, and entry into heaven.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Culture", "Beliefs" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 6, "chapter_name": "1853. Krick on the Cross-Shaped Tattoo of the Padams", "page_numbers": [ 156 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00180-de2a734c0bc2a5a47093.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Krick's Christian Cross Theory", "chunk_data": "I may be allowed to hazard here a suggestion with regard to the origin of these signs. It is my opinion, and all those who have come in contact with the Padams agree with me, that the pattern, as I have described it, is the Christian cross. These are briefly my reasons:\n1. No other marks are tattooed on their bodies.\n2. Their crosses are altogether similar in shape to our four crosses: the ordinary cross, the Maltese, the St. Andrew's and the Lorraine cross.\n3. The spiritual meaning attached to them by the natives strongly confirms my conjecture.", "time": { "start_year": 1853, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1853, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1853" }, "meta": { "people": [ "N. M. Krick", "Padams" ], "places": [ "Padam country" ], "event": "Krick argues that the Padams' tattoo patterns are Christian crosses based on their forms and spiritual associations.", "tags": [ "Christianity", "Religion", "Culture" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 7, "chapter_name": "1853. Krick on the Cross-Shaped Tattoo of the Padams", "page_numbers": [ 156 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00180-de2a734c0bc2a5a47093.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Biblical Meanings of Tattoo Numbers", "chunk_data": "What then would be the meaning of the vertical lines, always numbering 3, 5 or 7, with which they tattoo their chins? Might not the number 3 be reminiscence of the Blessed Trinity, the number 5 a reminder of the five wounds of Our Lord, and the number 7 a figure of the seven Sacraments? Whereas the four lines on the upper lip might with some plausibility represent some virtues or mysteries.", "time": { "start_year": 1853, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1853, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1853" }, "meta": { "people": [ "N. M. Krick" ], "places": [ "Padam country" ], "event": "Krick speculates that the numerical tattoo patterns symbolize the Trinity, Christ's wounds, the Sacraments, and Christian mysteries.", "tags": [ "Christianity", "Religion", "Culture" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 8, "chapter_name": "1853. Krick on the Cross-Shaped Tattoo of the Padams", "page_numbers": [ 156, 157 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00180-de2a734c0bc2a5a47093.webp", "raw\\pages\\00181-59ab0abc6d643f62440b.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Kircher's Evidence of Missions", "chunk_data": "But when were these emblems adopted by the Padams? Fr. Athanasius Kircher in his in-folio bearing the title La Chine Illustrée mentions several missions established in Thibet, China and Tartary from the time of the Apostle St. Thomas. This book was printed at Amsterdam in 1665. He also published a map, roughly drawn, but giving accurately enough the chief towns and districts; on it he traced the route followed by Frs. Francis Corwille and John Grabere from Peking to Goa, through China, Tartary, Thibet and Bengal. These Fathers travelled from Lassa to the North of the Padam country, whilst according to their information Fr. Andrada went as far as the Thibetan town Radoc.", "time": { "start_year": 1665, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1665, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1665" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Athanasius Kircher", "Francis Corwille", "John Grabere", "Andrada", "Saint Thomas" ], "places": [ "Amsterdam", "Thibet", "China", "Tartary", "Bengal", "Peking", "Goa", "Lassa", "Padam country", "Radoc" ], "event": "Kircher's 1665 work and map describe Christian missions and missionary routes across Asia near the Padam country.", "tags": [ "Christianity", "Missions", "Exploration" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 9, "chapter_name": "1853. Krick on the Cross-Shaped Tattoo of the Padams", "page_numbers": [ 157 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00181-59ab0abc6d643f62440b.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Reported Christian Traces", "chunk_data": "Now we are told that in this country they discovered evident traces of the Christian religion, proving to a certainty that the Gospel had been preached to those tribes. They speak of three men who bore the names of Dominic, Francis and Anthony.", "time": { "start_year": 1665, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1665, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1665" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Dominic", "Francis", "Anthony", "Francis Corwille", "John Grabere", "Andrada" ], "places": [ "Padam country", "Thibet" ], "event": "Missionary reports claim that Christian religion had reached tribes near the Padam country and mention three Christian-named men.", "tags": [ "Christianity", "Missions", "Religion" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 10, "chapter_name": "1853. Krick on the Cross-Shaped Tattoo of the Padams", "page_numbers": [ 157 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00181-59ab0abc6d643f62440b.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Wilcox Investigates the Cross", "chunk_data": "In 1826 Colonel R. Wilcox, on discovering the use of the cross among the Padams, made attempts to trace its origin, and found in Hindostan a map on which it was stated that since the twelfth century there existed a mission in the South of Thibet among a tribe called Shokhaptra.", "time": { "start_year": 1826, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1826, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1826" }, "meta": { "people": [ "R. Wilcox" ], "places": [ "Hindostan", "South Tibet", "Shokhaptra" ], "event": "Colonel Wilcox investigated the origin of the Padam cross and found a map referring to a medieval mission among the Shokhaptra.", "tags": [ "Missions", "Exploration", "Christianity" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 11, "chapter_name": "1853. Krick on the Cross-Shaped Tattoo of the Padams", "page_numbers": [ 157 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00181-59ab0abc6d643f62440b.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Possible Shokhaptra Connection", "chunk_data": "Now, I have entered Thibet by the South-Eastern frontier, without coming across any traces of our holy religion; several other travellers entered it by the South-West with no greater success. So, it is quite possible that the Shokhaptras be a tribe occupying the South of Thibet, in the vicinity of the Padam country. As a matter of fact, I have often been told by the Padams that there existed towards the North, before reaching Thibet, a tribe which shunned all intercourse with the Padams, and from which they pretended to have received the cross.", "time": { "start_year": 1853, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1853, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1853" }, "meta": { "people": [ "N. M. Krick", "Padams" ], "places": [ "Southeastern Tibet", "Southwestern Tibet", "South Tibet", "Padam country" ], "event": "Krick considers whether the Shokhaptras were a northern tribe that transmitted the cross to the Padams.", "tags": [ "Missions", "Religion", "Culture" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 12, "chapter_name": "1853. Krick on the Cross-Shaped Tattoo of the Padams", "page_numbers": [ 157 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00181-59ab0abc6d643f62440b.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Adoption of the Christian Cross", "chunk_data": "The Padams, being their next neighbours, must have been struck by the importance those people attached to the cross, and may have adopted it for their own use without guessing much of its meaning. Or it may be that the missionary, in order to bring home to those uncultured minds and hearts the truths of our faith, advised his catechumens to tattoo themselves with the cross; or anticipating, perhaps, that the missionary's death would leave them without a pastor, the natives may have wished in this manner to preserve a precious deposit of their faith.", "time": { "start_year": 1853, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1853, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1853" }, "meta": { "people": [ "N. M. Krick", "Padams" ], "places": [ "Padam country", "Tibet" ], "event": "Krick proposes that the Padams adopted the cross from neighboring people or were instructed by a missionary to use it as a lasting symbol of faith.", "tags": [ "Christianity", "Missions", "Culture" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 13, "chapter_name": "1853. Krick on the Cross-Shaped Tattoo of the Padams", "page_numbers": [ 157 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00181-59ab0abc6d643f62440b.webp" ], "chunk_title": "A Tibetan Witness to the Sign", "chunk_data": "I once met a Thibetan who was marked with the same sign; on my asking where he had learned to wear it, he pointed towards the Padam country, adding that he had received it from the savage mountaineers.", "time": { "start_year": 1853, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1853, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1853" }, "meta": { "people": [ "N. M. Krick", "Unnamed Tibetan" ], "places": [ "Padam country", "Tibet" ], "event": "Krick encounters a Tibetan wearing the same sign, who attributes it to the mountain people of the Padam country.", "tags": [ "Christianity", "Culture", "Missions" ] } } ] }