{ "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": "94. Notice Concerning Establishment of a Mission to the Shans in North-Eastern Assam", "page_numbers": [ 132 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00156-b94db908f56a6ffae2a3.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Mission Notice Introduced", "chunk_data": "94. NOTICE CONCERNING ESTABLISHMENT OF A MISSION TO THE SHANS IN NORTH-EASTERN ASSAM\n(1836 A.D.)\nThe American Baptists were the first to establish permanent missionary work in North-East India. The following notice of the establishment of that mission is interesting for several reasons. It reveals not only the vast ambitions of the missionaries of that period, but also the considerable involvement of British officials in missionary work.\nCharles Trevelyan, Civil Servant and liberal reformer, and Francis Jenkins, the evangelical Governor-General's Agent and Commissioner in Assam, played an active role in the establishment and, in the latter case, the continuing development of the Baptist Mission in Assam.\nThe notice was published in the Baptist Missionary Magazine, vol. XVI (1936), pp. 19-22.", "time": { "start_year": 1836, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1836, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1836" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Charles Trevelyan", "Francis Jenkins" ], "places": [ "Assam", "North-East India" ], "event": "The chapter introduces the establishment of the American Baptist mission to the Shans in North-Eastern Assam.", "tags": [ "Christianity", "Missions", "Colonial India" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 2, "chapter_name": "94. Notice Concerning Establishment of a Mission to the Shans in North-Eastern Assam", "page_numbers": [ 132, 133 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00156-b94db908f56a6ffae2a3.webp", "raw\\pages\\00157-2e82ccb5f1454c843ce6.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Baptists Plan Shan Mission", "chunk_data": "Mission to the Shans\nWe have the pleasure of announcing to our readers that the Board (of Managers of the General Convention of the Baptist Denomination in the United States for Foreign Missions, and other important objects relating to the Redeemer's kingdom) are on the point of realizing their long cherished hopes of introducing the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ among this numerous and benighted people. Rev. Mr. Brown, recently of the Mission at Maulmein, has already been set apart to the work. It is expected, also, that one of the printers at Maulmein, with a printing press, will accompany him.", "time": { "start_year": 1836, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1836, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1836" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Rev. Mr. Brown" ], "places": [ "Maulmein", "North-Eastern Assam" ], "event": "The American Baptist Board announces plans to introduce Christianity among the Shans and appoints Rev. Mr. Brown to the work.", "tags": [ "Missions", "Christianity", "Education" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 3, "chapter_name": "94. Notice Concerning Establishment of a Mission to the Shans in North-Eastern Assam", "page_numbers": [ 133 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00157-2e82ccb5f1454c843ce6.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Sudiya Selected as Station", "chunk_data": "The station, at which it is proposed to commence operations, is Sudiya, situated in the north-eastern extremity of Assam, about 400 miles north of Ava (the Burmese capital), and at the northernmost point of territory inhabited by the great Shan family.", "time": { "start_year": 1836, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1836, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1836" }, "meta": { "people": [], "places": [ "Sudiya", "Assam", "Ava" ], "event": "Sudiya is selected as the starting station for the proposed Shan mission.", "tags": [ "Missions", "Geography", "Assam" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 4, "chapter_name": "94. Notice Concerning Establishment of a Mission to the Shans in North-Eastern Assam", "page_numbers": [ 133 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00157-2e82ccb5f1454c843ce6.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Jenkins Directs Baptist Attention", "chunk_data": "The attention of the Board has been specially directed to this point, in consequence of a letter addressed to Mr. Trevelyan, of the Civil Service, Calcutta, by Captain F. Jenkins, Governor-General's Agent and Commissioner in Assam, resident at Gowahatti. The letter was written in reply to one from Mr. Trevelyan, in which he had enclosed a communication from the Corresponding Secretary of the Board to Rev. Wm. H. Pearce, of the English Baptist Mission, Calcutta, and is dated Gowahatti, 10th March, 1833.", "time": { "start_year": 1833, "start_month": 3, "start_date": 10, "end_year": 1833, "end_month": 3, "end_date": 10, "time_display": "10 March 1833" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Francis Jenkins", "Charles Trevelyan", "William H. Pearce" ], "places": [ "Gowahatti", "Assam", "Calcutta" ], "event": "Captain Francis Jenkins writes to Charles Trevelyan recommending the north-eastern district of Assam for Baptist missionary work.", "tags": [ "Missions", "Colonial Administration", "Assam" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 5, "chapter_name": "94. Notice Concerning Establishment of a Mission to the Shans in North-Eastern Assam", "page_numbers": [ 133 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00157-2e82ccb5f1454c843ce6.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Khamtis and Singphos Identified", "chunk_data": "'The ground I would particularly wish to bring to their notice (Capt. J. says in this letter,) is the north-eastern district of Assam, occupied by two tribes of the great Shan family, the Khamtis and the Sing-phos. The dialects of these tribes differ very little from the Siamese and Burmese, and the characters in use are essentially the same; and, in consequence of the supremacy of the Burmese being established over the original provinces whence our Shans came, with the inhabitants of which they are in constant communication, the Burmese language is in a measure known to all these tribes.'", "time": { "start_year": 1833, "start_month": 3, "start_date": 10, "end_year": 1833, "end_month": 3, "end_date": 10, "time_display": "10 March 1833" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Francis Jenkins" ], "places": [ "North-Eastern Assam", "Burma", "Siam" ], "event": "Francis Jenkins describes the Khamtis and Singphos, their related languages, and their knowledge of Burmese.", "tags": [ "Ethnography", "Languages", "Missions" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 6, "chapter_name": "94. Notice Concerning Establishment of a Mission to the Shans in North-Eastern Assam", "page_numbers": [ 133 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00157-2e82ccb5f1454c843ce6.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Jenkins Describes Missionary Opportunity", "chunk_data": "Capt. Jenkins proceeds to remark that the labours of our Missionaries in Burmah 'would be, with very little difficulty made available for the district round Sudiya, and here they (the missionaries from Burmah) would labour under the protection of our government, and not be liable to those checks which the Rangoon Mission has constantly suffered from the jealousy and barbarity of the Ava government. The Shans, too, with whom the Mission at Sudiya would be brought in contact, are a much finer and more intelligent people than the Burmese, and ten times as numerous. Their kindred races extend throughout the country whence arise all the mighty rivers from the Burhampooter to Kianguan (the river of Nankin). Here is an ample field. It is indeed boundless; for it extends over all the north and west of China, (for such is the extent of communication that we command from Sudiya,) and it embraces some of the most fertile and most temperate countries on the face of the earth.'", "time": { "start_year": 1833, "start_month": 3, "start_date": 10, "end_year": 1833, "end_month": 3, "end_date": 10, "time_display": "10 March 1833" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Francis Jenkins" ], "places": [ "Sudiya", "Burma", "Rangoon", "Ava", "China" ], "event": "Francis Jenkins argues that Sudiya offers a protected and expansive base for missionary work among the Shans and beyond.", "tags": [ "Missions", "Geopolitics", "Burma" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 7, "chapter_name": "94. Notice Concerning Establishment of a Mission to the Shans in North-Eastern Assam", "page_numbers": [ 134 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00158-d1a2461338f06e8f7bb9.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Mission Correspondence Reaches Board", "chunk_data": "A copy of the letter from which we have made the above extracts, was forwarded to the Board, with other documents, by Mr. Pearce, under the date Calcutta, April 21, and was received prior to the departure of Mr. Malcom, in September. A duplicate of the same was transmitted to the Mission at Maulmein. Within a few days, letters have arrived from Maulmein, giving intelligence of the reception of Mr. Pearce's communication, and of the measures immediately consequent thereon.", "time": { "start_year": 1836, "start_month": 4, "start_date": 21, "end_year": 1836, "end_month": 9, "end_date": null, "time_display": "April–September 1836" }, "meta": { "people": [ "William H. Pearce", "Mr. Malcom" ], "places": [ "Calcutta", "Maulmein" ], "event": "William H. Pearce forwards Jenkins's letter and related documents to the Baptist Board, while the Maulmein mission receives the communication.", "tags": [ "Missions", "Correspondence", "Administration" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 8, "chapter_name": "94. Notice Concerning Establishment of a Mission to the Shans in North-Eastern Assam", "page_numbers": [ 134 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00158-d1a2461338f06e8f7bb9.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Brown Envisions China Network", "chunk_data": "The following is an extract from a letter of Mr. Brown, dated Maulmein, June 9. We present this at this time on account of the interesting view it gives of the relation which the mission at Sudiya will bear upon other operations of the Board in South-Eastern Asia. Referring to the eventual establishment of a 'connected line of operations from Sudiya, so as to meet the labours of Mr. Jones and the other Siam missionaries, at the other extremity of the region occupied by the Shans, Mr. B. says,\nYou will easily see, by inspecting the map, that br. Jones can ascend the Siam river about two thirds of the distance to Sudiya. A large portion of the remaining distance is traversed by the northern branches of the Salwen and Erawadi. This chain being completed, the whole western border of China will be open to us.", "time": { "start_year": 1836, "start_month": 6, "start_date": 9, "end_year": 1836, "end_month": 6, "end_date": 9, "time_display": "9 June 1836" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Rev. Mr. Brown", "Mr. Jones" ], "places": [ "Maulmein", "Sudiya", "Siam", "Salwen", "Erawadi", "China" ], "event": "Rev. Mr. Brown proposes connecting the Sudiya mission with Baptist missions in Siam through a network of rivers and stations.", "tags": [ "Missions", "Travel", "China" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 9, "chapter_name": "94. Notice Concerning Establishment of a Mission to the Shans in North-Eastern Assam", "page_numbers": [ 134 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00158-d1a2461338f06e8f7bb9.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Sudiya Considered China Gateway", "chunk_data": "There is little doubt, Mr. B. adds, that at the present time, Sudiya is the most feasible entrance, from the interior, to the empire of China. It is, in fact, precisely such a point of approach as the Board contemplated in their late resolutions. It is situated near the head waters of the Kiangku or Nankin river, which runs directly through the centre of China. Mr. B. also speaks of a line of communication that may be formed with the Mission at Ava, through the Katheh or Cassay country, the capital of which is Manipur, nearly in a line between Sudiya and Ava, and about 200 miles distant from each. Manipur district is said to be a very populous and fine country, and is independent of the Burmese government.'", "time": { "start_year": 1836, "start_month": 6, "start_date": 9, "end_year": 1836, "end_month": 6, "end_date": 9, "time_display": "9 June 1836" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Rev. Mr. Brown" ], "places": [ "Sudiya", "China", "Ava", "Manipur", "Katheh", "Cassay" ], "event": "Rev. Mr. Brown presents Sudiya as the most practical inland gateway to China and describes a possible connection with Ava through Manipur.", "tags": [ "Missions", "Geography", "China" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 10, "chapter_name": "94. Notice Concerning Establishment of a Mission to the Shans in North-Eastern Assam", "page_numbers": [ 134 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00158-d1a2461338f06e8f7bb9.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Brown Accepts Sudiya Appointment", "chunk_data": "It will be gratifying to our Christian friends to know that the designation of Mr. B. to Sudiya has met his hearty concurrence.", "time": { "start_year": 1836, "start_month": 6, "start_date": 9, "end_year": 1836, "end_month": 6, "end_date": 9, "time_display": "9 June 1836" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Rev. Mr. Brown" ], "places": [ "Sudiya" ], "event": "Rev. Mr. Brown enthusiastically agrees to his appointment at Sudiya.", "tags": [ "Missions", "Leadership" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 11, "chapter_name": "94. Notice Concerning Establishment of a Mission to the Shans in North-Eastern Assam", "page_numbers": [ 134, 135 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00158-d1a2461338f06e8f7bb9.webp", "raw\\pages\\00159-40e2c9486fc1915fa6e8.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Sudiya Opens Regional Mission Field", "chunk_data": "For the sake of presenting to our readers a further view of the importance of Sudiya as a missionary field, especially in the facilities it affords for extending the knowledge of Christ throughout adjacent provinces, and for the enlargement and success of the Missions already organized to evangelize Burmah, Siam and China, we subjoin a few remarks from Messrs. Trevelyan and Pearce, accompanying the above communication from Gowahatti. Mr. T. says:-\n'From this point (Sudiya) an impression may be made upon Burmah, from an exactly opposite quarter from that at which it has been heretofore entered by the missionary. The communication is open with Yunnan, the westernmost province of China, and it is the intention of the Indian government to send a mission there by this route, next cold season for the purpose of inquiring about the culture of the tea plant. On the other side, Bhutan, and Thibet, and more countries and people than we have any accurate knowledge of at present, are open to the messengers of the Gospel; and, lastly, the Shan language, which is near akin to the Burmese and Siamese, and belongs to the Chinese family, furnishes a ready means of intercourse with perhaps a greater number of people than any other language in the world, except Chinese itself.'", "time": { "start_year": 1836, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1837, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1836–1837" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Charles Trevelyan", "William H. Pearce" ], "places": [ "Sudiya", "Burma", "Yunnan", "China", "Bhutan", "Tibet" ], "event": "Charles Trevelyan emphasizes Sudiya's strategic access to Burma, Yunnan, Bhutan, Tibet, and the wider Chinese-speaking world.", "tags": [ "Missions", "Languages", "Geopolitics" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 12, "chapter_name": "94. Notice Concerning Establishment of a Mission to the Shans in North-Eastern Assam", "page_numbers": [ 135 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00159-40e2c9486fc1915fa6e8.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Trevelyan and Pearce Support Mission", "chunk_data": "We would here take occasion to acknowledge the truly Christian kindness with which, from the first, Messrs. Pearce and Trevelyan have interested themselves in the establishment of the proposed Mission, and their prompt and zealous co-operation in furthering the designs of the Board. It is also a matter of grateful acknowledgement that God has raised up, for the furtherance of His gracious designs in the commencement of a Mission to the Shans, so valuable an auxiliary in the gentleman first addressed by Mr. Trevelyan.", "time": { "start_year": 1836, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1836, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1836" }, "meta": { "people": [ "William H. Pearce", "Charles Trevelyan" ], "places": [ "Assam" ], "event": "The Baptist notice praises William H. Pearce and Charles Trevelyan for supporting the proposed Shan mission.", "tags": [ "Missions", "Christianity", "Colonial Administration" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 13, "chapter_name": "94. Notice Concerning Establishment of a Mission to the Shans in North-Eastern Assam", "page_numbers": [ 135 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00159-40e2c9486fc1915fa6e8.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Jenkins Commits Mission Support", "chunk_data": "Captain Jenkins is represented to be a man of activity, intelligence and benevolent feeling, whose character and exertions stand very high in the estimation of the Government, and who will probably retain the situation he now holds so long as he stays in that country. The part he has already taken in favour of the location of the Mission at Sudiya, evinces the keen interest he feels in the object, and assures us that no exertions of his will be wanting to secure its successful prosecution.", "time": { "start_year": 1836, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1836, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1836" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Francis Jenkins" ], "places": [ "Sudiya", "Assam" ], "event": "Captain Francis Jenkins's official standing and support are presented as important guarantees for the success of the Sudiya mission.", "tags": [ "Missions", "Colonial Administration", "Funding" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 14, "chapter_name": "94. Notice Concerning Establishment of a Mission to the Shans in North-Eastern Assam", "page_numbers": [ 135 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00159-40e2c9486fc1915fa6e8.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Jenkins Pledges Financial Aid", "chunk_data": "We venture to give the following additional extract from his letter to Mr. Trevelyan, as indicative of his views in regard to the importance of the measure. 'No attention of mine should of course be wanting to make the place comfortable to any missionaries, and I will be willing to contribute my mite to their establishment. You may mention, that I will subscribe 1,000 rupees, if a family is settled as a Mission at Sudiya, and whenever they have had a press at work for six months I will be happy to double that sum, if I remain in charge of the Province.'", "time": { "start_year": 1836, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1836, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1836" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Francis Jenkins", "Charles Trevelyan" ], "places": [ "Sudiya", "Assam" ], "event": "Francis Jenkins pledges 1,000 rupees for a family mission at Sudiya and promises to double the contribution after six months of printing work.", "tags": [ "Missions", "Funding", "Colonial Administration" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 15, "chapter_name": "94. Notice Concerning Establishment of a Mission to the Shans in North-Eastern Assam", "page_numbers": [ 135 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00159-40e2c9486fc1915fa6e8.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Judson Celebrates Baptist Expansion", "chunk_data": "In view of the facts which we have now presented, who will not heartily respond to the flowing language of Mr. Judson: My heart leaps for joy and swells with gratitude and praise to God, when I think of br. Jones at Bankok, in the southern extremity of the continent, and br. Brown at Sudiya in Assam, on the frontiers of China—immensely distant points, and of all the intervening stations, Ava Rangoon, Kyouk-Phyoo, Maulmein and Tvoy, and the churches and schools which are springing up in every station and throughout the Karen wilderness. Happy lot, to live in these days! O happy lot, to be allowed to bear a part in the glorious work of bringing an apostate world to the feet of Jesus! Glory, glory be to God!'", "time": { "start_year": 1836, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1836, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1836" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Adoniram Judson", "Mr. Jones", "Rev. Mr. Brown" ], "places": [ "Bangkok", "Sudiya", "Assam", "Ava", "Rangoon", "Kyouk-Phyoo", "Maulmein", "Tavoy", "Karen wilderness" ], "event": "Adoniram Judson celebrates the expanding network of Baptist missions, churches, and schools across South-Eastern Asia.", "tags": [ "Missions", "Christianity", "Southeast Asia" ] } } ] }