{
  "bookName": "History of Christianity in India: Source Materials",
  "authorName": "M. K. Kuriakose",
  "publisherName": "Indian Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge",
  "publicationYear": 2011,
  "chapterNumber": 102,
  "chapterName": "1853. Krick on the Cross-Shaped Tattoo of the Padams",
  "pageFrom": 155,
  "pageTo": 157,
  "pages": [
    {
      "pageNumber": 155,
      "ocrText": "SOURCE MATERIALS\n155\n8. Slaves employed by the Government shall be ordered to be\npaid wages equal to what is paid to the other workers.\n9. If the slaves of the Government or of the Kudiyans become\ndisabled for work because of old age or disease, they shall be given\nwhat is necessary for their livelihood so as to prevent their misery\nand suffering.\n10. Till the slaves attain the age of 14, they shall not be employed\nto do any work not suited to their age.\n11. As there shall be a definite Register relating to the children\nborn of the slaves after this date, the facts of facts of births and deaths\namong slaves shall be let known by those concerned to the Tahsildars\nof Mandapathuvathukals' (Taluks) through the Parvarthikars\nwithin 30 days.\nIf this rule is violated our Dewan has instructions to make the\noffenders pay the prescribed penalty, to give them the necessary\nwarning and to arrange for the maintenance of a Register.\n102. KRICK ON THE CROSS-SHAPED TATTOO OF THE\nPADAMS (1853 A.D.)\nFr. N. M. Krick, Superior of the South Tibetan Mission of the\nSociété des Missions Etrangerès, is the first missionary known to have\nvisited what is today Arunachal Pradesh. He passed through the\narea twice on his way to Tibet. He and his colleague, Fr. Bourri,\nwere killed by a ho hostile chief while returning from the second journey\nin 1854. He wrote extensively concerning his travels through Aruna-\nchal. He developed some rather imaginative theories about cross-\nshaped tattoos he found on the foreheads of the Padams. The following\nis taken from his' Account of an Expedition among the Abors in 1853',\ntranslated by Fr. A. Gille, S. J. published in the Journal of the Royal\nAsiatic Society of Bengal, vol. IX, (1913), pp. 108 ff. Cited in Verrier\nElwin, ed., India's North-East Frontier in the Nineteenth Century,\npp. 236-249.\nNow a few words on the race to which the Padams belong and\non the marvellous signs which I have discovered among them.\nThe males are tattooed at the age of eighteen; the pattern is,\nin my opinion, of evidently Christian origin. The majority wear\non the forehead a perfectly shaped Maltese cross of bluish colour;\nothers wear the ordinary cross with the vertical beam running along\nthe nose, and the cross-bar above the eyes. Others wear the\nLorraine cross, with the upper cross-beam on the forehead, and the\nlower lying across the bridge of the nose. Others again wear the",
      "status": "completed"
    },
    {
      "pageNumber": 156,
      "ocrText": "156\nHISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA\nMaltese cross on their calves. The women have the Maltese cross\ntattooed on the upper lip, and on their legs and the Lorraine cross\nwith two St. Andrew's crosses drawn on either side...\nThe men have as a rule their chin tattooed with three vertical\nand parallel lines; the women have five or seven of them, as the\ncase may be, on the chin, and four on the upper lip, two on either\nside of a cross, and the whole set is bracketed\nI have often questioned the Padams as to the origin and meaning\nof these signs. Some answered that God at creation had given\nthem to the Padams as a distinctive mark of the elder tribe; others\nasserted that they had received them from a northern tribe; several\nconfessed their ignorance in the matter, but all agreed as to its\nbeing the sign of God, and a most beneficial badge too, as he who\nwears it', so they said, 'is acknowledged and protected by God;\nif he dies, he is at once received into heaven'. 'But what, if he has\nnot the sign?' I asked: 'Where is he to go?' 'God will disown\nhim and cast him off.'\nI may be allowed to hazard here a suggestion with regard to the\norigin of these signs. It is my opinion, and all those who have\ncome in contact with the Padams agree with me, that the pattern,\nas I have described it, is the Christian cross. These are briefly my\nreasons:\n1. No other marks are tattooed on their bodies.\n2. Their crosses are altogether similar in shape to our four\ncrosses the ordinary cross, the Maltese, the St. Andrew's and the\nLorraine cross.\n3. The spiritual meaning attached to them by the natives\nstrongly confirms my conjecture.\nWhat then would be the meaning of the vertical lines, always\nnumbering 3, 5 or 7, with which they tattoo their chins? Might not\nthe number 3 be reminiscence of the Blessed Trinity, the number 5\na reminder of the five wounds of Our Lord, and the number 7 а\nfigure of the seven Sacraments? Whereas the four lines on the\nupper lip might with some plausibility represent some virtues or\nmysteries.\nBut when were these emblems adopted by the Padams? Fr.\nAthanasius Kircher in his in-folio bearing the title La Chine Illustrée\nmentions several missions established in Thibet, China and Tartary\nfrom the time of the Apostle St. Thomas. This book was printed\nat Amsterdam in 1665. He also published a map, roughly drawn,\nbut giving accurately enough the chief towns and districts; on it",
      "status": "completed"
    },
    {
      "pageNumber": 157,
      "ocrText": "SOURCE MATERIALS\n157\nhe traced the route followed by Frs. Francis Corwille and John\nGrabere from Peking to Goa, through China, Tartary, Thibet and\nBengal. These Fathers travelled from Lassa to the North of the\nPadam country, whilst according to their information Fr. Andrada\nwent as far as the Thibetan town Radoc. Now we are told that in\nthis country they discovered evident traces of the Christian religion,\nproving to a certainty that the Gospel had been preached to those\ntribes. They speak of three men who bore the names of Dominic,\nFrancis and Anthony.\nIn 1826 Colonel R. Wilcox, on discovering the use of the cross\namong the Padams, made attempts to trace its origin, and found\nin Hindostan a map on which it was stated that since the twelfth\ncentury there existed a mission in the South of Thibet among a\ntribe called Shokhaptra.\nNow, I have entered Thibet by the South-Eastern frontier,\nwithout coming across any traces of our holy religion; several\nother travellers entered it by the South-West with no greater success.\nSo, it is quite possible that the Shokhaptras be a tribe occupying\nthe South of Thibet, in the vicinity of the Padam country. As a\nmatter of fact, I have often been told by the Padams that there\nexisted towards the North, before reaching Thibet, a tribe which\nshunned all intercourse with the Padams, and from which they\npretended to have received the cross. The Padams, being their\nnext neighbours, must have been struck by the importance those\npeople attached to the cross, and may have adopted it for their own\nuse without guessing much of its meaning. Or it may be that the\nmissionary, in order to bring home to those uncultured minds and\nhearts the truths of our faith, advised his catechumens to tattoo\nthemselves with the cross; or anticipating, perhaps, that the\nmissionary's death would leave them without a pastor, the natives\nmay have wished in this manner to preserve a precious deposit of\ntheir faith.\nI once met a Thibetan who was marked with the same sign;\non my asking where he had learned to wear it, he pointed towards\nthe Padam country, adding that he had received it from the savage\nmountaineers.",
      "status": "completed"
    }
  ]
}