:^^^'•'►'"''•"''^^'^^^^ ^'^*r^• vVv'V'■•i■'].,"'»*■..*:.»-'■■!!''!■^»!'^'*!'»■!'*>'-'■•■%'^■ r,,, IMiiiM 'fvrvr%';'j'C''';*M'"' ^*^ *m ■ '■■■ •■■•■■■:;■>"•:■■■■■■ ■ ■ ■ ■■ ■ ■ "i ...... 'i ■-.■,* ' ''^'■^':^^'^■,''i'C*■^N•>."^'jV■i*J^%^,'^!*^^ ■ ■ ■ ■■ ■'■'■'■ ■■■ '^<^^^ii0^l I:::- ■ ■ ■ -%v.v,n\"v.---. Ills ;;.>..>'..;I;..sy;;' ■/>;•; UjoriicU Hniuersiti] library 3tljara. 'Sieax ^nrb CHARLES WILLIAM WASON COLLECTION CHINA AND THE CHINESE THE GIFT OF CHARLES WILLIAM WASON CLASS OF 1676 1918 ^r- ^%. Cornell University Library BV 3290.K14G74 On the threshold of three closed lands 3 1924 023 048 360 :x DATE DUE Intot lihr'ir f Loan eAYinBO PRINTED IN U.SA The original of tliis bool< is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924023048360 -t ON THE THRESHOLD "• . • THREE CLOSED LANDS ON THE THRESHOLD THREE CLOSED LANDS THE GUILD OUTPOST IN THE EASTERN HIMALAYAS BY Till-; Rev. J. A. GRAHAIM, ]\LA. INTRODUCTION liV Sir CHARLES A. ELLIOTT, K.C.ST., LL.D. I-Al'l^ t.TEL'TF.NANT-GOVERNliR ')I- l.FS',.\]. OX/; irrxDREi^ .ixii tu'extv /l/a-stkai /oxs EDINBURGH; R, & R. CLARK, LUIITED LONDON : A. AND C. KL.ACK / . ' !■ i! i I I- ! r; I; /■, : 1 Q 'IX^ TO THE GUILDSMEX AXII GUILIiSWOMEX WHO HOLD THE ROPES THIS SHORT SKETCH OF THEHi MISSION FIELI IS All El TIOXATELV DEUICATEI) BY I'HlilR MISSIOXAkY WA-M.\ ,i (I '1 o J i i V I 'I II INTRODUCTION This brightly written account of one of the most interesting and prosperous Missions in India needs no introduction for the benefit of those for whom it is principally intended — the members of the Congreg-ations, Associa- tions, Branches, and Guilds scattered through- out the country, who are already acquainted with the work, who perhaps already support it with their contributions, or have helped to send out some of the workers, and whose warmer interest and more active assistance will be called out by a perusal of this vivid narrative. But for the sake of those who hear of the Mission now for the first time, and who may be tempted to think that a Missionary's own account may be coloured, perhaps unconsciously, by too vi THREE CLOSED LANDS favourable prepossessions, it has been thought advisable that one who has held an authoritative position in the country and has seen the working of the Mission from outside should give his official testimony to the truth of Mr. Graham's description. During the five years that I was Lieu- tenant-Governor of Bengal I spent a portion of each summer at Darjeeling.and no year passed in which I did not pay a visit to Kalimpong. I saw it first in 1891, when the church described in Chapter V. had not been com- pleted, and the cemetery had only just been walled round. I saw it again when the tower of the church had been finished, and stood up a bright, conspicuous landmark visible from many miles around, as a lamp which shall not be extinguished till all the surrounding country is brought to the knowledge of our Lord and to iaith in Him. 1 watched the growth of the little village chapels scattered about the hillsides, each gathering its little congregation under its wing. I visited, on the last occasion I was there, the well - arranged and admirably INTRODUCTION vil equipped Hospital under Dr. Ponder, where medical science is used to attract people to the news of salvation, and the cure of the body is macie the forerunner of the cure of the soul. In the course of these years I became fairly intimate with the Missionary body and with some of the native Christians. I knew their difficulties and discouragements as well as their joys and successes, and I can bear witness without hesitation to the accuracy of the picture drawn by Mr. Graham, and to the blessing which has rested on the Mission at Kalimpong. To take the lowest argument first, the assistance given by this Mission to the work of civilisation and good administration has been considerable. It has been the agent of the Government, as mentioned in Chapter W\., in the spread of education in this part ol the country, in which some forty or fifty village schools are established, under the care of the Missionaries and manned by their staff. It has co-operated with the District officer in keeping order in the village and in putting down drunkenness, gambling, Mii THREE CLOSED LANDS and other vices. It offers to all the neigh- bouring population an example of the beauty of a Christian domestic life, and of the proper position which women should take in that life. Turning to the more definitely religious side, the Missionaries have been unusually successful in con\'erting the simple tribes from their animistic or Buddhistic beliefs to the Christian faith. Of the quality of the Christians Mr. Graham speaks with complete candour ; there are men and women of all sorts — some weak and doubt- ful, some of distinguished purity of life and character. One such, who is not mentioned in these pages, I knew well — he was the first convert made by the Scotch Mission in Darjeeling, and is now filling the high post of Inspector of Police. In that office a man is open to much temptation to misuse his power, but no such charge was ever made against Bhim Dal. He constantly ac- companied me in m)- tours in the hills, where his knowledge of botany and of bird and beast life was very instructive, and it INTRODUCTION ix was a real pleasure on Sundays to be able to call him in to join our family worship. The Church of Kalimpong is remarkable for possessing three distinctive notes of true Christianity. One is the extent to which its affairs are managed by its own Panchayat, or Presbytery, for the Missionaries wisely foster the spirit of self-government, and do not seek to rule their flock as autocrats. The second is the self-supporting character of the branches established in the various villages, which not only build their own churches but also partially pay for their own pastors, not looking for help to headquarters. The third is the missionary spirit which has led them to make the effort to proselytise in Bhutan narrated in Chapter XII. The three closed countries, Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet, into which no European (whether missionary or of other occupation) is allowed to enter, lie round Kalimpong, and it is natural that the Missionaries should Q-aze at them with longing eyes. The time no doubt will come when the door will be thrown open, but, for the present. Government X THREE CLOSED LANDS is compelled to refuse sanction to any attempt to cross the border, however much it may sympathise with the object. Meanwhile there is scope for all enterprise in the valleys and on the hillsides of Darjeeling and of Sikkim, and a band of men is being trained there in the lanp-uaye, the thoughts, and the ways of hill tribes, and is thus acquiring knowledge which will stand them in good stead whenever the door shall be unbarred and the light of Christianity admitted into those countries where now no white man is able to penetrate. C. A. Elliott. ] 3/// M^iriii I S97. CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I, The Way Thither . . .11 II. From the Church Tower . . 27 III. The Village . . , -33 I\'. God's Acre . . . -55 V. The Memorial Church . . .64 VI. The Ministry of Healing . . 74 \TI. Teaching ..... 84 VIII. The Hill Crofters . . .92 IX. Among the Tea Gardens . .104 X. A Himalayan Parish . . .116 XI. The Care of the Churches . .137 XII. Handing on the Torch . .146 XIII. Holding the Ropes . . . 160 ILLUSTRATIONS Dksign on CoviiR. — The Cross (Chi-Istianily) illumining the 'I the Crescent (Mohammedanism), the Frayei-uheel (I Denionolatry), and the Lotus (Kiiddhism). ntdlii 14. 15- 16. 17- 18. 19- 24- 25. 26. 27- 28. 29. jO- 34- 35- 3<5- 37 38 Cholamo Lakes, on Tibetan Frontier The W'eilge Itetween Closcrl Lands Bullock Cart Ferry Boat Teesta Bridge Darjeeling-LLinalayaii Kailwa)' Darjeeling and the Snowy iiange Misses Reid, Longhurst, an'.l Sco l\e\'. K. and Mrs. Kilg(^ur and Rev. A. an A Dandy . . " . Pashok Tea Bnngah ia\" A Cane Bridge Kalimpong Ma}i of District . Donkia I'ass View towards Darjeeling Rev. J. Macara and Evangelists On the Bhutan Frontier . The Main Street, Kalimpong ]\Lirwari Merchants ninilu Temple Hindu Sadhus JMosque . A Tailor . Roadside J-laker . Getting a Shave . Tibetan Musicians Hand Prayer-wheel Tibetan Trader's Encampment Lhassa Woman and her Son Buddhist Monastery Lamas Buddhist Altar . Mr, and Mrs. Mackenzie Rajah Tenduk and Family Tathi Lama Dak Bungalow . Bazaar Breaching Frontispiece 1 Mrs. Turnbull 14 14 15 17 18 ■9 25 28 29 30 31 34 35 36 37 5« 39 40 42 43 44 45 46 46 47 48 49 51 52 53 THREE CLOSED LANDS 39- Grass Cutters 40. First Mission I-iviildinc^'s, J-Calimp 3ng 41. Sul-ihman 42. Rev. William Macfarlane 43- Mr. Macfarlane's Grave . 44- Macfarlane Memorial Church 45- Laying Foundation Stone 46. Church Bell 47- John iii. 16 in Ten Languages 48. iMrs. Korlj 49- The Charteri.s Hospital . 50. Basket for Demon Offerings SI- Mospital Fatients S'- Professor Charteris 53- Dr., Mrs., and Miss Fonder S4- Dr. Ponder and Assistants 55- Scandinavian Alliance Missionar es 56. Miss Macfarlane . S7- Rev. W. S. Sutherland and Trai ning School 5S. Mrs. Sutherland . S9- A Village School 60. Anglo- Hindi School 61. (iirls' .School 62. Nepali Ploughing 63- Lepcha Fleadnian's Family 64. Ploughing in Rice Terraces 65. Nepalese Farmers 66, Planting Rice 67. Lepcha Farmhouse 6S. Lepchas carrying Oranges 69. Nepalese House . 70. Grinding Grain . 71- A Quiet Smoke . 72- Representation of Demon in Rict 73- Kalimpong Mela 74- Bhutia Dancers . 7S- Hill Tea Garden. 76. Taming Wild Elephants . 77- Clearing for Tea . 78. Nagpuri Coolies . 79- Santhali Coolies . 80. 81. Ijengali Babus Plucking Tea Leaf S2. Tea k'actfiry and Bungalow- 83- Tea Planlcrs S4. C.ielle Schoolhouse 8S- Pan Seller 86. Tea (harden Well ILLUSTRATIONS FIG. 87. Cabuli Packmen SS. Nagpuri Catechist 89. Bazaar Preaching and Colporteur 90. A Humble Church and School . 91. Mungwa Church 92. A Peep in the Parisli 93. The Pastor's P'amily 94. Vapto, an Elder 95- Cinchona Plajitation, Mongpoo 96. Sitong Church and Congregation 97. A School Teacher 98. A Priestess's Stock-in-Trade 99. Nepali Sadhus . 100. Bible School 101. Sir Charles A. Elliott, K.C.S.P. LP.P 102. Rev. J. A. and Mrs. Graham . 103. A Catechist, Polders, and Teachers 104. Panchayat 105. Teaching the Catechists 106. Mission Council 107. Young Men's Guild loS. House in Bhutan 109. Bhutanese Family no. Native Missionaries 111. Buddhist Monastery 112. Masked Lamas . 113. Large Prayer-wheel 114. Prayer-house 115. Delegates to Kirkcaldy Conference 116. Young Men's Guild Office-bearers 117. Woman's (luild Office-bearers . 118. Indian Delegate to Woman's Guild Conference 119. The Missionar}' Charter 9 p.^cr. 114 "5 116 117 118 119 119 122 1 22 r24 126 1 28 130 131 133 13S 139 140 141 142 144 148 149 152 155 156 157 158 161 163 165 166 167 Grateful acknowlL-dgmeiit is made to the frjllowlng for the use of photo- graphs taken by them — vi?. Messrs;. Bourne and Shepherd, Calcutta, Nos. 6, 77, and 81 ; Messrs. Johnston and Hoffman, Calcutta, No. 7 ; Messrs. F. Kapp and Co., Darjeeling, No. 32 ; Messrs. Wilson, Aberdeen, No. rS; Sir Benjamin Simpson, No. 76; Rev. W. S. Sutherland, M.A., Kalimpong, F?-ontis/'ii'ce ziuA Nos. 5, 12, 15, 17, 33, 45, III, 114; Rev. R. Kilgour, B.D., Darjeeling, Nos. 10 and 70 ; H. G. Cotton, Esq., Dooars, Nos. 26 and 83 ; W. Mair, Esq., Calcutta, Nos. 19, 44, and 54; Ninian Hill, Esq., Greenock, Nos. 39 aiid 41 ; Mrs. Cbristison, London, No. 43 ; G. J. (..lalloway, Esq., London, No. 46. Of the remaining illustrations, seventy-one are from the photographs of Mrs. Graham or the Author. Miss Macfarlane, Launceston, supplied illustrations Nos. 40 and 42; Mrs. Hill, Greenock, No. 47; and Professor Co\\'an, Aberdeen, No. 113. Thanks are also due to those whcj ha\''e gi\'en photographs of themselves or friends. T]ie Authfii- desires tn express his L^ratitudc and in- debtedness to the Rev. Duncan Campbell, B.l)., Edin- burgh, for much encouragement and constant ailvice ; to y(:)hn Dun, Esq., Artist, Edinburgh, for a sketch for the design on the cover; to I'eter Begg, Esq., of Alessrs. R. & R. Clark, Limited, for his valued heli'i ; and to Messrs. M. and T. Scott, Leadervale ^Yurks, Edinburgh, for their courtesy while preparing the illustrations. CHAPTER I THE WAV THITHER En route to the threshold of closed lands ! Few such are to be found nowadays. Of late years many writers have thrilled us with this aspect of the " Romance of Missions," telling how the doors of countries, barred a hundred years ago to the entrance of the Gospel, have, one by one, been flimg wide open, and how from out them the old cry, " Come over and help us," is now heard uttered with a peculiar urgency. Never during any period of her past history has the Church of Christ had such a grand opportunity nor, therefore, such a heavy responsibility. To almost every nation the good news may be freely offered. But not quite to all. On the north-eastern frontier of our Indian Empire lie three lands within which the European missionary may not preach, and it is to the confines of these — Tibet, Bhutan, THREE CLOSED LANDS and Nepal— we are to go. Signs are not awanting that God's good time for them, too, is near at hand, and that ere long the barriers will be broken down, and the King's Even now they are being encompassed by the missionary host. Tibet is being attacked from the In- dian and the Chinese sides. Nepal is being assailed at different points. The same is true of Bhutan. And as an assailant of all three the Church of Scotland, through her Eastern Himalayan Mission, a part of which we are to visit, occupies a unique posi- tion of vantage and of privilege. The northern part of her district, indeed, may be roughly compared to a wedge driven right into the heart of these three ereat closed lands. TiiF, Wedge. Kalimpong is our destination, and to reach it we have taken ship to Calcutta. A day or two is spent in that " City of Palaces " under the hospitable roof of' the Church of Scotland's General Assembly's THE WAV THITHER 13 Institution, the parent of those Christian colleges which have fulfilled and are still fulfilling an important part in the education and evangelisation of India. It is but sixty - six years since this college for Bengali youths was founded by the great Dr. Alexander Duff, the first missionary sent forth by a Reformed Scottish Church. Leaving Calcutta we go by rail 300 miles due north to Siliguri at the base of the Himalayas. Rather an uninteresting night journey it is over the flat fields of Lower Bengal, varied by the ferry across the sacred Ganges. But what a contrast, when in the morning we come within sight of the world's giants, and how grateful in the tropical heat to see, in the distance even, the snow- clad summits of Kinchinjunga and his not unworthy companions ! Arrived at Siliguri, we have the choice of two routes. If we be good riders we choose the Teesta Valley road, and Kalimpong is but thirty-six miles distant. For the first twelve we canter across the Terai or belt of land below the mountains, past the homesteads of Bengali crofters — the curved thatch roofs peeping out from among the clumps of grace- ful bamboos and bananas — and through the great shady sal-tree forest which provides cover for the tiger and the wild elephant, and furnishes that invaluable timber which even THREK CLOSED LANDS the white ant finds hard to digest. We then enter the valley of the Teesta, and for the next eighteen miles the road runs a 1 o n g the r i g h t bank of that s n o w -fed river. Words can convey little idea of the surpass- ing beauty and grandeur of this Teesta Valley with its steep, high banks wooded to the water's edge. "A hunch^ed Killiecrankies" was the descrip- -5^ tion of a canny Tkam:li,ing by Btllock Caut. Scot, and he did not exag- gerate. A halt at Kalijhora (the l3lack stream) Dak Bungalow or Rest - house, c h a r m i n g 1 y situated above the river, refreshes us and allows of a change of ponies ; and were it not that we have ridden thirty miles bv the time we cross the Teesta Suspension Bridoe we 'Dug-out" Fekky Bdat. 1 6 THREE CLOSED LANDS would be loath indeed to leave the valley and climb up the six remaining miles to Kalimpong. But before we do so we shall follow those who choose to go the other way. The alternative route from Siliguri is via Darjeeling, whither we journey by rail. It is a study to watch the smile — amused, patronising, doubtful, or encouraging — pass over the faces of those who for the first time change from the large, roomy northern Bengal train to the tiny, almost toy-like carriages and engine of the Darjeeling- Himalayan Railway, with its two-feet guage. No toy, however, is this Himalayan Railway, as the traveller will find while the train mounts the 7000 feet and more to Darjeeling. Many hours it takes to the fifty miles, but he to whom the scene is fresh would not wish the time shortened. A marvellous panorama of mountain and valley and plain meets his eye. Now we are passing through the dense forest of the Terai, again puffing up some mountain side, perforce going zig-zag and reversing from station to station. Now we are running along a narrow ridge or past the edge of a mighty precipice — "Agony Point" and " Sen- sation Corner " being the suggestive names given to two such critical spots. Again we are mounting a hill by circling it in cork- THE WAY THirilER 17 screw fashion. The botanist will revel in the rich and ever-changing vegetation, vary- ing from the tropical or semi-tropical plants at the foot of the mountains to those of the temperate climate of Darjeeling. The Darjeeli no-Himalayan Railway. P/ioto l>y ^rcssrs. r.ournc an,/ S/u-/'/u-rd, CnkjiHa. zoologist and entomologist will find equal interest, and all will be struck by the marked contrast in the people. The sharp-featured Indo-Aryan of the plains gives place to the squat-featured, mongolian type of the hills, and the scanty loin-cloth or thinnest cotton o-arment to the kilt, the trouser, or the woollen cloak. THE Il'AV THITHER 19 Traces of Mission work meet us on the route to Darjeeling. At Siliguri we might have visited the church and school in charge of a BengaU Babu, and at chfferent stations on the way up we pass Christian churches •ft' **.» Misses Scott, Reid, and Longiiurst. and wayside schools. The train stops at Kurseong for tiffin (lunch), though hardly long enough to let us pay a visit to Miss Longhurst, who is developing woman's work there, or to make a pilgrimage to the little cemetery where lies buried Mr. Duncan Campbell, one of the pioneers of the Mission, who died of malarial fever in 1S71, but five months after his arrival. As we TfTREE CLOSET) LANDS leave the Darjeeling Railway Station, the first building we see above it is the beautiful Mission Church, opened in 1894, and near by the Mis- s-tfe^^J sion-house oc- cu p i e d by Messrs. Turn- bull and Kil- gour, the Zen- ana Mission- house and Boarding School under Miss Reid and Miss Scott, and the various other agencies What a change these indicate since William Macfarlane, our beloved pioneer, came from Gaya but twenty- six years ago ! Much as we should like to linger in this beautiful hill station, the sanatorium of the Bengal Government, and to dwell upon the grandeur of its scenery and its intenseK- interesting surroundings, we must rather be early astir next morning tor our journey of twenty-five miles eastward to Kalimpong. Those who do not ride can be carried in a " dandy " by stalwart Bhutias or Lepchas. Rkv. r<. ANii Mks Kooni'i;, Rkv. a. and Mrs. Turnbui.l. of a vigorous mission THE WAV THITHER The road takes us past the military canton- ment of Jellapahar (nearly 8000 feet high) — A DaiNuy. through the Rungaroon Forest, whose great moss-covered and creeper-bound giants sng- gest the forest primeval — clown, clown, down, till we reach the terraced tea-garden of P a s h o k, at whose hospit- • - able bungalow, fifteen miles from Darjeel- inof, we are sure of a hearty wel- come. Norshall we regret a pro- longed rest, for Mr. Lister is not only the kindest of hosts, but he is also accomplished in all the learning of the country — its Pashoic Tea Bungalow, 2 2 THREE CLOSED LANDS plants, its products, its insects, its animals, and its people. To many a traveller his collection of butterflies and moths, in which the district is notably rich, has been a source of delight. Past Pashok the road still descends for four miles to the Teesta Valley, and we arrive at that bridge (630 feet above sea-level) already mentioned. As we in comfort cross the beautiful Suspension IJridge, we recall an incident of twenty years ago connected with the pre- vious cane structure. It was at the very beginning ot the Mission work, when there were only three native Christians across the Teesta. A fearful visitation of cholera befell the district, and in June 1876 Mr. Mac- larlane was hurrying from Darjeeling to Kalimpong with medicines to relieve the plague - stricken people. His own words, wTitten at the time, will best describe the pathetic and instructive incident : — On going down to the Teesta I found thnt crossing the river was a most difficult lousiness. Sukhman (the catechist) came down to meet me. . . . He gave me a very sad account of the state of matters at Kahmpong. He told me that Raghubir (a Christian Goorkha crofter) was dead ; that all in the house where he lived had fled as soon as he died ; that Jungabir (the teacher) and he had dug his grave and buried him ; but that before they had got the grave covered in Jungabir himself had been taken ill, and was then in a ver\' critical state at THE WAV rHlTHEK 23 Kalimpong. Committing ourselves and all to God we went to cross the bridge. I had to take off my shoes and stockings to prevent my feet slipping on the round slippery bamboo at the bottom of the bridge. Sukh- man was coming behind me carrying the bag containing the medicines I had brought with me. He somehow stumbled, and the bag fell off his back and went right through the bridge into the river below, and was lost. I was A C.-\NE BRn)GK. thankful that Sukhman himself did not go through after it. When we reached the end of the bridge he was very disconsolate. He said that there were only three of them in Kalimpong, that God had taken one, that another had been seized by the fatal malady, and that we had lost the medicines which were being brought to give him. Had God cast them off? I encouraged him by reminding him of the record of Paul's sufferings recorded in the iith chapter of the Second lipistle to 24 THREE CLOSED LANDS the Corinthians ; and told him that very much worse things had befallen the apostle than had befallen us, but yet that it never struck the ajjostle that on account of them God had either forsaken him or abandoned the Gospel. The ascent of Snowdon would fairly represent the climb from the bridge to Kalimpong, which is almost 4000 feet above sea -level. About three and a half miles up the shorter way (double that by the bullock-cart road) we suddenly get the first glimpse of the village, and he is a stolid man who will not be moved with feelings of glad surprise when it bursts upon his view. The Rev. A. Wallace Williamson of Edinburgh thus publicly expressed his feelings after a visit : — He had looked upon most of the principal cities of Northern India, but the most inspiring sight he saw was not the great historical cities, or the mighty architectural wonders, or the majestic mountains, but just the scene which met his eye when he saw the village of Kalim- pong and the little Guild Mission Church rising amongst the trees on its own wooded height. It is perhaps the homeliness of the scene, so unexpected in the heart of the mountains, that appeals to the traveller's heart. The church tower which dominates the surround- ing country is jsleasantly suggestive of some parish kirk in the home land, and is truly 26 THREE CLOSED LANDS prophetic of the future Church in the Himalayas. The Mission compound (or location) contains many other buildings. In front of the church is the Guild Mission- house, and below it again, at the corner of the Bazaar, is the Preaching House. The prominent buildings on the right ridge of the compound are (from back to front) the Charteris Hospital and doctor's house, ^ the Scottish Universities' Mission - house and the Training Institution. But of these and others we shall ha\-e a closer view later on. Now we hurry round the bend of the mountain, through the Bazaar, and, leaving the highway to Tibet which continues to the right, we enter the Mission compound and make our way up to one or other of the Mission-houses. ^ The doctur'-s huusu was not built when the phutoLjraph was taken. CHAPTER II FROM THE CHURCH TOWER A RHjn7<-s to the huh. 'Hr- Kalinip'ing Missinn 1 )i.slricl niibraccs litllc nuirc than Uiosl- porlioiis of the 1 ).irjrcliii,L; jih! Jalp.n^uti l)i:^LriL'ls \\hich lie lu thu rabt uf" Ihu River TcL'sla. FROM THE CHURCH rOWJ-.R ^9 we look up the valley of the Rungeet, a tributary of the Teesta, which it joins near the Suspension Bridge. The valley is a magnificent one, and commands our admira- tion whether filled with a great billowy sea of fleecy clouds or made expressive by the light reflected from the river, as a face is DuNKiA Pass on Sikkim-Tiiiet Fkuntikk, 18,300 i-Ei'ir iiiini. The Snowy Peak is 21,000 I'EE'i'. by the light of the eye. At its head is the ridge which forms the eastern boundary of Nepal, and on a clear day we can descry upon it the Rest-house at Phallut whither globe-trotters go to view the giant Everest. This valley, too, separates British Sikkim from Independent Sikkim. The latter lies to the north ; and just over that huge precipice beyond the Teesta is Chidam, the centre of 30 THREE CLOSED LANDS the Scottish Universities' Mission work, and the head-quarters of Mr. Macara, their missionary.' British Sikkim, to the south of the Rungeet, was ceded to the British in 1835 for a sanatorium, and as our eye follows up one of the tea-covered spurs it lights 1],W IdW'AKDS DARJEEI.ING. upon the houses of Darjeeling, the capital of the district. Turning now to the south we first trace the forest-clad Senchal ridge which marks our horizon in that direction, and from which, coming towards us, are five spurs, two under tea cultivation and two forming the Government cinchona plantation of 18,000 acres or thereby, producing the bark from which is manufactured Quinine, that priceless boon to a malarial country. On each of these spurs is a House of Prayer and a School which acknowledge Kalimpong ' The iMissioiury also of St. Ciuhl'Crt's. I''..linliuvi;li, FROM THE CHURCH TOWER 31 as the central sanctuary, and some such may also be made out on those other inter- veninof ridees which we see as we continue the line of our southern horizon eastward across the Teesta. Beyond them lie the plains of India, between which and the base of the Himalayas is the rich plateau (within the Mission's sphere) called the Dooars — now Ri-:\'. John Macara anii his Evangklists. filled with prosperous tea-gardens. To the east, looking across the River Rilli, another tributary of the Teesta, is ridge after ridge covered with great forests. Beyond them, not many miles as the crow flies, but three days' journey on foot, is the River Jaldacca, a part of which forms the boundary with Bhutan, and on which a Mission outpost is placed. The magnificence of the farther view is 32 THREE CLOSED LANDS but enhanced by the quiet beauty of the peaceful and prosperous foreground. At our feet nestles the village itself, situated on the saddle of a ridge which seems to run into the centre of that vast amphitheatre whose circle we have sketched. On the sides of our ridge, sloping down to the Teesta and On the Bhutan Frontier. Rilli, we see dotted thickly the little home- steads in the midst of the well-cultivated fields. It is hard to realise that all this land, with its Christian churches, and its schools within reach of almost every child, was a scene of distraction and terror and the home of a comparatively small number of oppressed peasantry till the British took it from the Bhutanese after the war of 1865. CHAPTER III THE VILLAGE The corrugated iron on the roofs of the wooden shops suggests the Occident rather than the orient. Nor are the tidy, well-made, The Main Stkicet. regular roads typical of an Indian Bazaar. This Bazaar, however, is but of yesterday, and has been planned by successive Deputy- Commissioners who have jealously guarded 34 THREE CLOSED LANDS its amenities. As the liead - quarters of a Government estate, Kalimpong has been specially favoured, and the water-supply just laid on is the latest evidence of this. But when we peep into the shops we find plenty to remind us that we are in Indian territory. That black-bearded man — squatting on the mat, which serves also as his bed, and adding up the beloved account book with his back against the iron safe — is the regular Marwari merchant from the Bombay Presi- dency, the Jew of Northern India. The bulk of the trade of Kalimpong is in the hands of those men. They buy wool from the Tibetans and cardamoms and other pro- duce from the cultivators, and in return sell Manchester and Birmingham o-oods and o o many "made in Germany." Their hope, however, is not in merchandise so much as money- lendina:, and the cultivator who once gets into theirclutches does not easily get free. Seventy- five per cent compound interest is no un- common rate! To Marwari Merchants. THE VILLAGE 35 give an example, a crofter who in a time of dearth got ten and a half rupee's worth of rice had, within five years, paid off seventy-six rupees and was still owing one hundred and forty! The Mission has done what it could to help the Government to checkmate such exorbitant demands, and the present Deputy- Commissioner has earned the gratitude of many a poor crofter by curbing those ex- tortioners — not, however, that they are all equally bad, nor that the debtors are all simple dupes, only it is hard that the re- spectable have to pay so severely for de- faulters. The Marwaris are mostly strict Hindus, who attend carefully to the toilet of their little idols each p morning and do the appointed obeisance before f^ them. They have too their common temple below the bazaar, and we hear the priest ringing up the idol -god with his tinsel trappings in the morning, or putting him to peaceful slumber in the evening. A poor specimen of a temple it is. Hinduism is marvellously comprehen- 36 THREE CLOSED LANDS sive ! lieside the temple we see a tree under which incense is burned to propitiate the spirit of a once famous Bhutanese free- booter, still dreaded by these money-grub- bing plainsmen. And we may see, gathering Hindu Sadiius. alms from shop to shop, a band of Hindu Sadhus — wandering religious mendicants whose appearance, repulsi\'e to us, must add weight to their supposed sanctity in drawing forth donations. A few of the Marwaris are fains by re- ligion — a kind of Hindu- Buddhist sect, a visible remnant of that Indian Buddhism once prevalent but now unknown in the land of its birth. Their chief dogma, as it pre- sents itself to an ordinar)- observer, is the protest against the taking ot life in any form THE VILLAGE 37 — a dogma strengthened greatly by the behef in the transmigration of souls. The exces- sive stress on this point is apt to lead to absurdity, and even to hypocrisy. Some may even wear a cloth upon the mouth to keep stray insects from entering the jaws of death. A terrible revelation to such is a drop of water out of an ordinary Indian tank as seen under the microscope ! Sacred above all to the Hindu is the life of the cow, which is to him as a cfod ; and one of his chief grudges against the Moham- medans, whose mosque is hard by the temple, is their cow-killing propensity, and especially at the time of a great Mohammedan feast with which cow -killing is associated. Two years ago, the Mohammedans at Kalimpong, against the Government orders and all rules of decency, insisted on holding this festival with full acces- sories, incIudiuQ- the killing of a cow by the side of the mosque. The results would have been disastrous could the Hin- dus and Jains fieht as well as lllli .MuIIAM.MKIiAN .Ml)b(JUE. talk. Their they I can temple, they said, and also their common 3S THREE CLOSED LANDS dining- house, had been polluted, and they could not again eat in Kalimpong. "They might as well have killed ourselves." They did not get beyond words, however ; but the incident illustrates the antagonism which exists between the two great religious sects of India, and which frequently ends in serious rioting'. The number of Mohammedans in Kalimpong is not great. They are nearly all from the plains, and act as butchers, tailors, masons, etc. Few- hill- peoples have joined them, and when they have it is grenerallv through the practice of Mo- hammedans ot tak- ing hill -women as wives when they can get them. The niaulvi or priest in Kalimpong supports himself chiefly by trade. F"ive times a day we can hear from the Mission compound the Muezzin's call to prayer, and even a Christian may take to heart the reminder of the command to pray, not at so many stated times, but " always." A number of the small traders and trades- MUIIAMMEUAN ■rAlL(.IK. THE VILLAGE 39 men are from the local Nepalis or Goorkhas who have of late years emigrated from Nepal. They are the most forceful of all the races, and year by year increasingly predominate. Many of them are recruited for the renowned Goorkha regiments -*- of the Indian army. The term Goorkha, first applied to cer- ro.m_.mu^; bakkk. tain tribes living to the west of Nepal, is now popularly applied to the Nepalese as a whole, though they in reality comprise many different tribes, which were one by one overcome by the con- quering Hindu dynasty, whose founders fied from the plains of India to the mountains to escape the Mohammedan invaders. The conquerors imposed Hinduism, and therefore caste, on most of the various demonolatrous or Buddhist tribes. The Nepalese have no temple of their own at Kalimpong, nor do they frequent that of the Marwaris. Though nominally Hindus, and so subject to certain hard and fast caste rules, their religion is in reality more their original demonolatry. Priests are employed to exorcise the demons, and once a year the people visit the junction 4° THREE CLOSED LANDS of two rivers for a festival, wfien a goat or other animal is killed by the head of the house, and its blood poured out upon an extemporised altar on the river bank. 1 his Xefali Client ami "I'lain-s" BAm:F.K. they hope will expiate the year's sins of the family, and propitiate the spirit of the river. Abundant provision is made in the bazaar for refreshments of sorts. We feel a strong suggestion of beer as we pass the fermented liquor or iinii'iua shop. M/ir-i^'a is brewed Irom a millet called kodo, and is generally THE VILLAGE 41 imbibed by being sucked through a narrow bamboo stalk. The big shop kept by a Bengah at the end of the same street is the Ritkslii-khana or spirit -shop, in which the hquor, distilled on the premises from the ijiohwa leaf, is retailed for a few pence a bottle. This is one of those out-stills for whose abolition there was much agitation a few years ago on the ground that they are vicious in principle and practice. Mr. Turn- bull, of IDarjeeling, was one of the leaders of the movement. The out-still shops in Bengal rent from Government the monopoly of manufacturing and selling spirits within a certain area. Nearly all have been abolished in favour of the siiddar or central distillery system ; but as yet at Kalimpong, and else- where on the frontier of semi-independent hill states from which smuggled lic^uor comes, the out - still system is retained as easier of control. To meet the huge monthly licence -rent the shop must sell a large quantity of liquor, and its existence is un- doubtedl)'' a grievous social sore. But the problem is not easy in a district so situated. Near by is a commendable rival in a tea shop. There are several of these for the different nationalities, but chiefly for the Bhutia traders and occasional Chinese travellers. The term Bhtitia is commonly applied to cover the whole of the Bhot race. 42 THREE CLOSED LANDS whether they come from Tibet or Bhutan or are located in Sikkim. It is not hard to distinguish the big - hmbed traders from across the snowy passes. Their long, wide- sleeved red mantles which serve as their cover- ing by night are in the day-time hitched up TlUEI'AN MUSICIAN'S. by a girdle, and within the capacious folds much gear can be stowed away. From the girdle hangs the inevitable knife. The long woven boots with thick woollen or leathern soles are suited to their rigorous climate. The " religious " among them may be seen THE VILLAGE 43 carrying in one hand a rosary by which is counted the revolutions of the prayer-wheel in the other, each revolution being supposed to make effective the sacred Buddhist phrase Om iiiani padinc lium, printed or written so many times on the scroll of paper within the prayer cylinder. Kalimpong is now the trading centre between Tibet and Bengal, and those Bhutias chiefly bring wool to sell to the two or three Euro- peans or the Indian merchants engaged in the trade. The wool is carried over the frontier — fifty miles off — on mules or coolies' backs. Besides wool, they bring ponies, musk, yaks' tails, etc., and they take back copperand manufactured articles. For some years the trade be- tween Tibet and Bengal was at through Tibetan Pkayer-wiieel. a standstill through various misunderstandings, chiefly the relation of Independent Sikkim to Tibet. The con- duct of the Tibetans forced us to send an expedition to drive them out of Sikkim. The trade has gone on improving since then (1888), but the jealousy of the Lamas still prevents the volume of trade from being what it might be. A trading centre has been by treaty opened at Yatung, a few miles within 44 THREE CLOSED LANDS the Tibetan frontier, but it is not likely to prove a success for this purpose. Among the traders at Yatung, there is working and witnessing Miss Annie R. Taylor,^ and with her is tlie boy Pontso, whom she took to A TlliE'lAN TkAlil'lU^ ENCAMI"Mi;\'r AT liNAToXG, SiKKIM, WITH Miss Ax'mk k. Tavi.oi;. Britain after she had completed that notable expedition during which she got nearer Lhassa, the capital of Tibet, than any European had done for more than fifty years. The Tibetans are Ikiddhists. A pleasant ' Miss Tayliir has lalcly liccn joiiiLil by Miss IJclla l-'ciijuson and other laiiics. THE VILLAGE 45 pious walk of half a mile along the Tibet road takes us to the picturesque Buddhist monastery, an offshoot of a large monastery in Bhutan. The cloths we see on the dozens of bamboo poles around the building are prayer-flags, on which are printed sentences, charms, and prayers," and the flappings by the wind are supposed to render them effective. Inside the monastery the walls of the chief room are covered with brightly coloured drawings, being re- presentations of sacred themes and great Lamas or priests. Some of the latter are supposed to be Lamas who, on their death, become re-incarnate in a little child who from some sign — perhaps the recognition of the pre- decessor's priestly ornaments — is chosen as the successor. The altar is suQ-eestive, like much else in northern Buddhism, of the rites of the Roman Catholic Church. On it, in the centre, is an image of Buddha, and on either side a famous Lama. Dishes with various offerings are placed in A Lhassa Woman and her Son. 46 THREE CLOSED LANDS front, and incense is regularly burned. TlIF BUDIIIIIM Mll\\MrK\ Alongside we notice the sacred manuscripts, I.Amas. J'lio/,> h' l\r,s.srs. /■. k'n/'/- n,i,i C,'., Dmycclin^. and the long trumpets which make them- THE VILLAGE 47 selves heard a great way off. The monastery is more for the exercises of the Lamas than for congregations of the people, who only come at infrequent intervals. The Lama A BuiiDiiisi- Altai; ix a rRisAri'. IImlnIv is sure to point out a partial footmark in the hard wooden floor, and say it was made in one year by a pious Lama in the course of his constant prostrations before the altar. But those who saw the priest and visited the monastery then have reason to doubt the cause assigned. 48 THREE CLOSE/) LANDS The members of the Tibetan Pioneer Mission Band organised by Miss Annie R. Taylor, and latterly under the leadership of Mr. and ATks. Mackenzie. Mr. Cecil Polhill Turner, spent a year or more at Kalimpong. They have now gone round to the Chinese frontier to work among the large number of Tibetans who there live outside Tibet. But two of the band, Mr. and Mrs. Mackenzie, have joined the mission THE VILLAGE 49 Staff at Kalimpong, and now a worthy effort will be made by the Church of Scotland to reach the Tibetans and Bhutanese, and so to directly intiuence those two closed lands. For this end the position of Kalim- pong as a trading mart gives a favourable opportunity. Kalimpong is the centre of the Govern- ment sub-division of Daling, a large Govern- ment estate, and we must pay our respects to the manager, Rajah Tenduk, who was honoured with the title of Rajah after the Tibetan war, in recognition of his long and faithful services as adviser in frontier matters. His characteristics are those of his people, the Lepcha race — a g'entle, kindly man, who hearty welcome. Rajah Temduk and his Family. gives us a polite and As we enter his little reception-room we notice the walls covered with photographs. His loyalty to the Mdhardni or Empress and the Royal Ivamily is evident, and we see tokens of the esteem in which he has been held by many of the rulers of India. Tenduk's wife — the 5° THREE CLOSED LANDS youngest of three, all of whom were alive till a few years ago, but resident at different seats — is a strong, modest-looking Sikkim- Bhutia. They have a healthy young family. Tenduk himself knows no English, but his eldest boy is receiving a liberal education. The young Rajah of Independent Sikkim, the old Lepcha kingdom, the second son and destined successor of the Rajah who lately abdicated, is under Tenduk's care at Kalim- pong. It is more than likely we may be offered a cup of tea, unless we prefer nntrzua. The tea is not likely to be to the taste of the uninitiated, for " Bhutia tea" is a churned- up mixture of brick - tea, salt, and butter, with a sprinkling of ashes ! It is nourishing, however, as well as stimulating, and, mixed with flour, forms the tsamba of the Tibetans, one of their chief foods. Tenduk, though a Lepcha, is an orthodox Buddhist, as Buddhism is found in these parts, and as we leave we shall probably see a Lama or Buddhist priest about the doors, or hear his conch or shell-horn. The Lcpchas, through their intercourse with the Tibetans, have come under the influence of Buddhism, but with most it is a mere veneer. The dread of evil s[)irits and their propitiation seems the ruling religious impulse, and even Tenduk has his offerings made in times of illness by the Bongtiiig or sacrificial priest THE VILLAGE 51 to propitiate the angry demon. There are monasteries served by Lepcha Lamas, and these conduct the rites at the burning or burying of dead bodies (both practices pre- vail), as well as officiate at other times. One well - known figure we are likely to meet is the Pdthi Lama, so called because he gets yearly from each of his con- stituents a pdthi or cer- tain measure of grain. Before returning to the Mission House, we should call on the few European residents. The Deputy Commis- sioner of Darjeeling may be on tour, and putting up at his Dak bungalow or rest-house. Only if it be the rainy season shall we find the Forest "■ Officer at home, for in the cold weather he is "in camp" looking after his vast tracts of timber. The remaining fellow-country- men are those enoafjed in the Tibetan wool trade. Most days of the week the village streets are quiet, but on Saturdays they are the scene I'Ariii Lama. 52 THREE CLOSED LANDS of much life, for that is our weekly market- day, when all come who have anything to sell or who want to buy or who may desire excitement, and they make a great open-air bazaar. As many as 4000 or 5000 people may be in Kalimpong on such a day. Sunday The Dak Dungalow. used to be the market-day, but it was found by native Christians to be both an annoyance and a temptation to church-goers, and, more- over, a loss to those who from religious scruples could not buy or sell on that day. The Christian community were therefore happy and grateful when, in answer to their memorial, the Government at once changed the day to Saturday. This action, and the THE VILLAGE 53 readiness with which the order was obeyed, showed at once the loyaky of the people and the growing importance of the native Church. Advantage is taken of the great concourse of people to proclaim the gospel from the Bazaar Preaching. Preaching-House built for the purpose. Mr. Sutherland and his training-school teachers and students draw the crowds by their sing- ing, and at intervals addresses are given in different languages. By this means many from near and far first hear the gospel, and others attend from week to week. The 54 THREE CLOSED LANDS direct conversions from such bazaar preach- ing are not numerous, but the method is one — and an important one — of a number of ao;encies, all of which seek to brings the gospel message to bear upon the people. On Wednesdays there is the growing Chota Bazaar or small market, which was begun amid derision and opposition by Sukhman and a few native Christians as a protest against the Sunday Bazaar, and is itself a mommient of their zeal and enthusiasm. The illustration is from a snap-shot taken of the missionary speaking from the steps of the Preaching-House at a Wednesday market. OiiAss Cl'tti:i;s. CHAPTER IV god's acre " Our God bids us first build a cemetery before we build a church or dwelling-house," wrote the East African pioneer Krapf when his comrade fell, and the same might be said of most missions. "We have taken pos- session of the land by a grave," urged Mr. Macfarlane upon those in Scotland who were downcast on hearino- of the death of his first colleague, Mr. Duncan Campbell. A quiet hour in the "God's acre" at Kalimpong will help us to serve ourselves heirs to those men into whose labours others have now entered. In imagination go back twenty years and picture two Goorkha youths digging that first Christian grave, now marked by a mound of stones. There was then nothing but jungle ; none of those fine buildings had been thought of. One of the two was Sukhman, himself baptized in Darjeeling the previous year, and soon thereafter sent u; 2 O H 8 GOD'S ACRE 57 as the first native preacher to the east of the Teesta. The other was Jungabir, the teacher of the little mission school, the first-fruits at Kalimpong, who had given himself to Christ on the last St. Andrew's Day, when Mr. Macfarlane, with his colleague, the Rev. John Anderson, 1 and Sukhman, had been visiting Kalimpong, and had been uniting "with the Churches at home in interceding on that day with God in behalf of missions to the heathen." A few months later, Rag- hubir, a Nepalese cultivator, was baptized, and now, that same year, Sukhman and Jun- gabir were committing his cholera-stricken body to the dust. But the death and the cholera were the prelude to a brighter time. Referring to these dark days, Mr. Macfarlane wrote : — The Lord's people have the promise that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose, and we have had ample experience of the fulfilment of this promise in this very matter. Near by Raghubir's grave, Sukhman's, too, is now shown. He, however, was privi- leged to do a great work before his call came. He was one of the first to be im- pressed with Mr. Macfarlane's teaching, and ^ Mr. Anderson, now of the Register House, Edinburgh, was compelled to leave through ill-health. 58 THREE CLOSED LANDS the circumstances of his baptism in 1875 were an index of the man's character and a prophecy of his life's work. We shall read the account of his baptism as given in Mr. Macfarlane's own words : — Sukhman was the life and soul of the [Bible] class. He was a natural leader amongst the others. His chief trials are of a social kind. He is not allowed to enter any Nepalese house. He has to eat his food outside, and to listen to jests about feeding the Christian dog. He has also to sleep outside in an outhouse, or in the jungle under the open sky. Sukhman's faith will, how- ever, easily bear trials of that kind. When he was baptized, and when I asked him whether he believed in Christ, and whether he was resolved to follow Him for life, he said that for Christ's sake he forsook father and mother, brother and sister, and all his companions, and that he would give his life for his Lord and Saviour. He meant what he said, and, the grace of Cod helping him, he will live according to his baptismal vows. Altogether, he is a man of more decided and sterling character than I have ever come across among the natives of India. i, |,j,rij Sukhman was, as we saw, ^^\\i. the first native preacher at Jllf'li Kalimpong; he was the suKiiMAx, natural leader of the native Church as he had been of the Bible Class, and he was also the first GOD'S ACRE 59 foreign missionary of the native Christian community. But that forms the story of a future chapter. Of that first trio Jungabir alone remains. His later history, however, has been such as to point a moral rather than to set an ex- ample, and therein lies one of the mysteries of missions as of all life, difficult to under- stand and hard to endure. But we believe Macfarlane's prayers were not in vain, and will prevail. The holiest spot in the cemetery, if we may so speak, is that corner where lie the remains of William Macfarlane himself We wish we could do justice to the memory of this strong man of God. A native of Strath- braan in Perthshire, the best mathematician of his time at St. Andrews University, the devoted assistant minister of St. Columba's, Glasgow, — he was chosen by Dr. Norman Macleod, of the Barony, then the Convener of the Church's Foreign Mission Committee, to go to Gaya in India in 1865. When the Church resolved to give up the work in that sacred city, and start a mission among the more accessible races, Mr. Macfarlane chose the Darjeeling district for the new field, and went there in 1870. How for years he laboured, in season and out of season, with- 6o THREE CLOSED LANDS out visible success ; how he ministered to Europeans as well as natives ; how one by one the converts were brought in ; how station after station was occupied — that story Rkv. William Mallarlaxe. will be told by another pen.^ IMr. Turnbull and Mr. Sutherland were sent to join him in 1879, and shortly thereafter he removed to Kalimpong, leaving Darjeeling to Mr. Turn- bull. But his furlough was long past due, and when he went to Scotland Mr. Suther- land took up Kalimpong. Mr. Macfarlane's ' TliL- Kcv. Ki.l.crl Kilgour, P..!)., is writing a history of the Eastern Himalayan Missions, entitled fJu' Gospel in the Hinialayas. GOD'S ACRE 6r unceasing work as a deputy among the home congregations contributed largely to the recent increased missionary interest of the Church of Scotland. Those who heard him speak were impressed with his intense reality and quiet power. His success made the Church keep him at home for three years on this work, and when he returned to India it was to tide over troubles in the Calcutta Mission, and then to start the Scottish Uni- versities Mission in Independent Sikkim, which country had been already to a small extent under the influence of the Darjeeling mission. The Rajah of Sikkim would not give him permission to build within the territory, though there was no serious ob- jection to his itineration, and his beloved Kalimpong was fixed upon as the head- quarters of the new work. Thither he was about to transfer the Training Institution, which we shall visit later. On the morning of 1 6th February 1887, succeeding a severe day's search in the forest for timber to build his school, he was found dead in bed. He had gone without a struggle. The good soldier had a quiet end to his hard warfare. His work was finished just as to men's eyes he was to begin the most fruitful period of life. He had spent but forty-seven years in the world, but most of them had been years of intense activity. 62 THREE CLOSED LANDS A mourning sister and fellow-labourer has erected a tombstone to his memory. The Macfarlane Memorial Church bears witness to the rever- ence and re- spect for him felt by Euro- p e a n and Pj Indian. But the most en- during memor- ial is to be found in the men and wo- rn e n w h o through his witness were led to Christ, andwhoin turn are handing on the sacred torch to others. As tor Mr. Macfarlane, it is, we believe, as expressed in the text on his tombstone, " His servants shall do Him service and they shall see His face." Mk. ilACFARLAXE'i GkAVE.^ The little "God's acre" is now full. Most of the graves are marked by mounds of stones, for few of the native Christians ' Mr. M.icfarlane's friend, Ihc lale Mr. James Munro of Pashok is staiuling liy llie grave. GOD'S ACRE 63 can afford aught else. Here and there we see one squarely made of bricks, and covered with cement, or even built up in the shape of a cross. One row, indeed, there is of the familiar chiselled stones, but these are to mark the graves of Europeans. Two pioneers of British commerce rest there : one remembered by his "wee wifie," and the other by a sorrowing widow who not long afterwards married an Afghan Doctor and embraced Mohammedanism. There lies also the representative of the great Indian Government service in the English forest officer who died in 1895. There, too, is a representative of the increasing army of missionaries seeking to evangelise Tibet, in the baby boy of Mr. and Mrs. Mackenzie of the Tibetan Mission Band, now, as we have seen, of the Church of Scotland Mission. And, last of all, the infant child of Dr. Ponder, the medical missionary. Cherishing with affection the memory of the dead, and recollecting that the present is largely what they under God have made it, we shall endeavour to describe what is being- done to-day where they so faithfully laboured. CHAPTER V THE MEMORIAL CHURCH A CHOICE site has this central church at Kahmpong, — and, seen as it is from many A ■> k MACKAKLA.N'li Ml-lMOklAt, ClIUKI H. distant mountain sides, it is the architectural feature and the pride of the district. And TRE MEMORIAL CHURCH 65 no mean mission agency is the building itself, for it is a constant and significant advertisement to those around and to the traders from Central Asia of the faith which it represents and of the love which prompted its erection. And, while raised to the glory of God, it is associated with the name of the beloved pioneer missionary, William Mac- farlane, for whose affectionate remembrance it was built by friends in India and Scotland. The banks which slope down in every direc- tion are covered with flowering shrubs and a young orange grove which will in the future be at once beautiful in its evergreen foliage and useful as an endowment for the upkeep of the Church fabric, perhaps long after it has been found possible for the European missionaries to leave the then well -tilled field for a needier sphere. The building is in itself a striking testi- mony to the progress of the work. It had several predecessors. The first house of prayer would be the little bamboo and thatch shanty built by Mr. Macfarlane for his reception when he made his early occa- sional visits to Kalimpong. With it would come the frail little schoolhouse of the same materials. These gave place to the low stone and mud walls and shingle roofs of the two succeeding houses, and only after the spiritual Church had grown to considerable 5 66 THREE CLOSED LANDS proportions was it possible to have such a building- as the present of stone and lime. The foundation stone was laid on 24th February 1890 by Dr. Herdman of Melrose, himself for many years an Indian missionary and chaplain, and a former Convener of the Church's Foreien Mission Committee. A L.iiYlNG OF FOI'NDATIOX -StON'!-:. Border neighbour of his, Mr. Waddell of Jedburgh, was also present to represent the home Church. In his address on the occa- sion, Dr. Herdman dwelt lovingly upon his friend Macfarlane's characteristics, as hav- ing ''singleness of eye" and "steadfast faith, ^' being " faithful in that which is least," and "a man of prayer." THE HrEMORIAL CHURCH 67 Twenty months afterwards the body ot the church was opened for public worship, and the opening Sunday was a red-letter day in the history of the Mission. On thai date sixteen years before there ivas not a single native Christian at Kaliinpong. The Christians from the out-stations and from Darjeehng and Sikkim had arrived on the Saturday, as also a number of European tea-planters and other friends. A few sentences written at the time will best describe the memorable scene : — Sunday, ist Nm^emher. — A lovely day ! An early open-air Prayer Meeting began the proceedings. At 10.30 A.M. the congregations, each headed by a dis- tinctive banner inscribed with its own name, were marching up the Church Road. Each one, big and little, wore a pretty rosette. As the people entered the church the banners were leant against the outside wall, and above them all, surmounting the Church, was the grand old flag of the Auld Kirk — "A'ir tamcn consume- I'atur" — lent by Mr. Christison of Tukvar. Within the church every available bit of space was occupied. There were only a few seats, and these were placed at the back, and the mass of the people sat in rows on the floor. I'he catechumens were in front of all. At least 700 Christians would be present, besides many others attracted by the novelty of the proceedings. It was an inspiring sight, and as that crowded congregation rose to sing the first song of praise, it would be hard to describe the feelings of those present. Each catechist led up his own contingent for 68 THREE CLOSED LANDS baptism. The total number baptized was 134. Many of tliem were old men and women. " To see the young folks was not so wonderful, but to see the gray- headed old folks, with such keen realisation of what they were doing, brought tears to my eyes." To this effect remarked a planter who was present [the late lamented Mr. James Munro of Pashok]. The large majority of those baptized were Lepchas. One who timed the actual baptismal part of the service said it took thirty-six minutes. About 150 Europeans and natives united in com- memorating their Lord's dying love. It was felt to be a time of holy refreshing. Nothing in connection with the proceedings was a greater source of pleasure to us than the presence and participation of planters and other European friends. The slight real knowledge of mission work in India which the average European has, is, as a rule, remark- able, and yet it is often excusable, as the work is often so difficult for them to judge of. The opening of our church was an occasion when our visitors could judge, and they expressed themselves as aston- ished at the progress made by the Mission in the hills. Some of them have given very sub- stantial proof of their interest. Much has been done to the church since 1891. The tower has been built, and, largely at thesugges- ciiuKrn Bell. tiou ot the Rev. Profcssot THE MEMORIAL CHURCH 69 Lindsay of the Free Church of Scotland, who visited KaHmpong, friends have provided a rich-toned, 8 cwt. bell, a sister to that placed in the Duke of Albany Memorial Church at Cannes. The plans for the church were the gift of, and do credit to, a staunch friend to the Mission, Mr. George Trussler, of the Indian Public Works Department. The interior of the church is plain but substantial, the woodwork being of sal timber. The chief decoration at present consists of wall-texts painted on zinc by a Greenock Guildswoman, and representing in brief the Gospel message. Between the windows of both side walls, the declaration of God's love to the world in Christ, as stated in John iii. 16, is proclaimed in ten different languages, representing the peoples with whom the Mission is brought into contact. They too are significant of the surrounding babel of tongues and of the universality of the destination of the Gospel — reminding us of Zechariah viii. 23, where we are told that "in those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all langruaofes of o o the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you : for we have heard that God is with you." Stretching along the whole seventy feet of the top of the western wall is the invitation 70 THREE CLOSED LANDS of Jesus to each individual, " Come unto me," of Matthew xi. 28-30; and corresponding to it on the eastern side the missionary command of Matthew xxviii. 18-20. On the north wall two brass tablets with Hindi inscriptions have been placed by a friend, to com- CHINESE l» i,mi'f i-c.,,,, ) s % i^ M s a ^ J: tit li%. ffi. * 4n m » H Itt % is «3 m Z 4 ^ « ^ ,^t^^ ^'^^■<-° " ^^^ ^^^ so LOVED THE WORLD, BIHEl, ™" "^ "^'"^ "'^ °"'-'' BEGOTTEN SON, '"'.' '-., i,^^ 1,^ ^ THAT WHOSOEVER BELIEVETH IN HIM I-EPcsi r^ ?fl^ ^ar )j^ '"°"'-° ""■^ '■"'S". J ^3 '0 '* -fj -tfi JnM^TTCftT! BUT HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE,- *V jr lO (JJ /O ^ H ».v '» ^, "v -nail .* # ^ ^TfhffiT: 5nrai gm H=i^ iTEpn Nn:5t m^tJ^O-J l i John hi, i6 in Tkn L,\\gu.\ges, l-'roui Ihc ^uHiailh'fis of the British and Foragii BiHc Society memorate Mr. Macfarlane and Sukhman, our Scottish and our Nepalese pioneers. THE MEMORIAL CHURCH 71 The presence of so many nationalities makes the question of the language a difficult one. In the mountains the Nepali race is now the most numerous and vigorous, and its language becomes increasingly used as the best medium for preaching at Kalimpong, unless it be to an audience composed ex- clusively of a special race. If we therefore enter the church at noon on Sunday we find the service being con- ducted in that language. The missionary has not unlikely had an early morning ser- vice, with communion and baptisms, at one of those four little churches, under native cate- chists, which are within easy riding distance of Kalimpong. The Sunday School, with a large attendance of teachers and children, has just been held, and some of those Training Institution Students we see have returned from their little village Sunday Schools, to teach which they had gone, two by two, before breakfast. The English lady at the harmonium, surrounded by her trained choir of boys, is Mrs. Korb, the wife of a local wool merchant. We notice the men are all on the preacher's left and the women on his right, and we are probably surprised at the number of babies and young children present. The service, however, is less formal than in Scotland, and no one wonders to see a mother walkincj out, and in again, with 72 THREE CLOSET) LANDS her restive child. The tune of the first hymn may be Old Hundredth, or one from Moody and Sankey's collection, or a native air; and after it is sung the missionary may lead in extempore prayer, or he may ask one of the congregation to ™ do so, or he may use a model form drawn up for voluntary use. One of the students may read the lessons. The preaching is most frequently in the shape of simple expositions upon the chapters for the day. Selected portions of Scripture or the Creed and the Lord's Prayer are repeated by the whole congregation — a valuable exercise for teaching and interesting those cultivators and their wives who are illiterate. An attempt is made to make the whole service varied and bright and free, and to have as many as possible taking part in it. Great interest is manifested in the baptismal service, and the "collection" is never forgotten. Two deacons with brass plates give all an oppor- tunity to make an offering, and nothing strikes the visitor more than the almost universal RiKS. KOKB. THE MEMORIAL CHURCH 73 custom to contribute by those whose income, with a few exceptions, wiU not reach three or tour shilhno's a week. o A very different congregation gathers to the afternoon service in English. There may be only the few Europeans of the missionaries' and traders' households and one or two natives who understand English ; but there may happen to be a consider- able number of Europeans in the station — Government officers on tour, soldiers pass- ing to the front, planters on a visit, globe- trotters, or, as happened lately, the welcome band of fellow-labourers seeking entrance into Tibet. But, even though there be but the two or three, the English service on Sunday and the week-day Bible reading are helpful to all. They keep fellow-countrymen in touch with each other on the points of greatest importance, and this is a need specially felt in a heathen land. CHAPTER VI THE MINISTRY OF HEALING "The Church's sappers and miners" is the description of mechcal missions by one Tllli ChAKTKKIS Hl^lsI'lTAL. honoured in their service. A pioneer missionary finds himself confronted by sus- THE MINISTRY OF HEALING 75 picion, sometimes by hatred, and that barrier can be removed quickest by the dynamic of love. He who would best heal the body treats it not as mere matter, so he who would reach the spirit must not neglect its temple, as Jesus taught by His example and by His precept. He said, " Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers," as well as " preach." That bag of medicines which dropped from Sukhman's back into the roaring Teesta was part of the regular equipment of our missionary pioneer, and we read that the fresh supply he got from the Civil Surgeon of Darjeeling was greatly blessed in the hands of the good soldiers " praying always with all prayer and supplication." Mr. Macfarlane wrote thus of the result of that fortnight spent among the plague -stricken villagers, when "thick gloom settled down over the whole place " : — Tlieir sentiments towards the Mission at this time underwent a complete change. At first it was viewed with deep suspicion. Now they began to come daily in twenties and thirties for medicines. We were welcome to their houses, and allowed to read and pray where no one would previously have permitted us to enter. Soon thereafter began that chronicle of baptisms which continues to the present da)'. Dr. Purves, the Civil Sur^jeon of the time, still survives to repeat that testimony to Mr. 76 THREE CLOSED LANDS Macfarlane's great services during the epi- demic whicli he gave in his report to Government at the time. Another powerful obstacle to the mis- sionary is the gross superstitions of heathen- ism. As the preachers move about, they find the entrance for the Gospel message hermetically sealed by many customs antago- nistic to its spirit, and strong because hoary and respected from ancestral usage. De- monolatry prevails in those mountains among all the races, irrespective of the religious system with which they claim connection. To the aboriginal Lepcha, the rites of religion are chiefly valuable in averting the anger or malice of an evil spirit as shown in the illness of a dear one, and all sickness is caused by such possession. The Bongting or sacrificial priest is the cunning expert who indicates the offended demon, and prescribes the proper sacrifice ot cow, or goat, or pig, or fowl needed to appease him. As a perpetual offering to ward oft danger, each household keeps in one corner a little basket, containing rice and a small silver coin. Time and again it has happened that families who had sacrificed all they possessed — nay, had also drawn a bill on the future, by putting into the votive basket a little rice tied up in a leaf as a pledge of a coming ofiering when they could afford it — THE MINISTRY OF HEALING yj had found all to be unavailing ; and, after they had come to an end of their resources, had, through the advice of some neisfhbour, called in the Christian catechist, whose simple remedies were blessed to the re- covery of the sick one. The superstition in such a case would receive a fatal blow, and the minds basket tor demon offerings. of that family be prepared to receive the tidings of the Good Physician. And a sure pledge that the old faith had been forsaken would be the handing over of the basket itself to the catechist. Among the Hindu Goorkhas the iron- bound system of caste is being undermined when the proud Brahmin, who would con- sider it worse than death to drink from a Christian's hand, gets accustomed to swallow freely a pint of water which has been mixed with a drachm of tincture of iron ; and the fear of the spirits of the dead, or of defile- ment from contact with a corpse, is weakened when a heathen patient occupies a bed in the hospital next to that in which death comes to a fellow-patient. Besides its preparatory work, the medical mission has oreat value as a direct agent. The gospel of brotherly love and of self- 78 THREE CLOSED LANDS denial assumes a beautiful setting in the eyes of the heathen when they, for example, see the missionary, as they have often seen Mr. Sutherland, watching for days at the bedside of a native brother in his poor hut, and winning him back from the brink of the Hospital Patienis. grave ; or when they notice Dr. Ponder among his patients, or Miss Ponder nursing the sick in the hospital. In such examples they will understand the meaning of that message of so great love which the mission- o o aries preach. From the beginning practically every preacher, Scottish or Indian, has been to a greater or less degree a medical missionary. THE MINISTRY OF HEALING 79 And the beautiful hospital — named after the Very Rev. Professor Charteris, the founder of the Church of Scotland Guilds by which the Mission is maintained — has but de- veloped and put on a better basis the past policy of the Mission. The foundation stone was laid on 1 9th October 1892 by Mr. Christison, a leading- tea- planter and staunch friend of the Mission. It stands above the Tibetan highway, and, as seen by the travellers from beyond the snowy rauQ-e, pro- claims to them the spirit of the teaching of Jesus Christ. Even the European visitor, who has not the time nor perhaps the requisite sympathy for inquiring into other departments of the Mission's work, can at once appreciate this aspect of its activities. I'KOl'ESSUK CllAKTEKIS. PliotohyJ. IMoffat, Rdinhurgli. So THREE CLOSED LANDS Dr. Ponder, the medical missionary in charge, was for many years a tea-planter in the district before he studied medicine at Dr. Pondi;k, Mrs. Toxdek, .\xd >riss Tondek. Edinburgh University. His sister, IMiss Ponder, was sent in 1S95 by the Woman's Guild to help him as missionar)- nurse. The hospital contains twenty-six beds, and every day this work and that among the outdoor patients becomes better equipped and estab- THE MINISTRY OF HEALING 8i lishetl. Miss Ponder has the assistance of a Bengali nurse. The Government showed its confidence in the Mission by giving a large grant to build the hospital, and it has handed over to the Mission the medical charge of the district, supplying Dr. Ponder with a native Christian assistant doctor. The catechists are supplied with medicines for their respective spheres, and trained in their use ; and Dr. Ponder has laid the foundations of a medical school in his compounders' class, some of whose members have already passed the Government examination and got their diplomas. At Padong, thir- teen miles along the Tibet road, a branch dis- pensary has been estab- lished under a catechist com- pounder sup- ported by the Young Men's Guild of St. Andrew's Church, Calcutta. Much could be I'oNDER, Assistant Doctor, and CO.MPOUNDEKS. written 6 of the patients 82 THREE CLOSED LANDS treated, but it must suffice to quote a sentence or two from a recent letter of Dr. Ponder to his constituents in the Woman's Guild :— AVe are having some interesting cases just now. One, a Bralnnin, a man aged about twent)'-six, was talcen ill in tlie Dooars, and his father carried him aljout sixty miles to bring him to us. AN'e have to-day one of the Ivoman Catholic i)riests at Fadong getting medi- cine for one of his servants, who is mortally wounded, I fear. An- other man, one of the catechists of the Scandi- navian Alliance Mission, has been with us, dying of [ihthisis. It was beautiful to see the firm laith with which he clung to the Saviour at a time when his iViends were pressing him with all tlie arguments tliey could adduce to give up Christianity, and return to the demon-worship of his fathers. The Bhutias are a difincult people to inlluence, and it is quite a treat to come across one who is firm in his faith to the very last. ^K?»^ ^s-*^ \MiI\ \\ I \^ Al I I WtL MlSSI(j.\'.\KIIiS.' ^ Tlic Scandinavian Missionaries have stations al Jore]iini"alow (Iiarjceling) and on the Annlicrs of Til.cl and liluitan. * Mr. T'lcduriclvscii is Superintendent. THE MINISTRY OF HEALING 83 This extract not only gives an insight into the class of patients, but also testifies to the power of healing in bringing Christians of different denominations into sympathetic touch. CHAPTER VII TEACHING Teaching completes the trio of great evangel- istic agencies, and the traditions, as well as the experience of Scottish missionaries, give to it a foremost place. The open Bible in the hands of a literate people is one chief end of his work, and the best antidote to all false doctrine. To enable its agents to carry out the Lord's injunction to teach " all things whatsoever I have commanded you, " the first care of a mission is to have the Word of God translated into the vernacular of the district. This was begun by Mr. Macfarlane for Nepalese and Lepcha, and is continued for the former at Darjeeling by Mr. Turnbull and a native Christian, who is supported by the British and Foreign Ilible Society ; while for the Hindi, Tibetan, and other Scriptures advantage is taken of the publications of other societies. For the evanQcHsation of a whole district TEACHING the European missionary can do compara- tively little in a direct way, and he endeavours to have his influence multiplied through native fellow-labourers. And so Mr. Macfarlane, like most pioneers, drew around him a band of the likeliest - - youths, lads of the calibre of his favourite pupil Sukhman, whose daily con- tact with him was the best com- mentary on his message. In the Traininglnstitu tion or Normal School which he founded he was assisted for many years by his sister, Miss Macfarlane, whom ill -health has compelled to return home. We already noticed that they were transferring the school to Kalim- pong as part of the work of the new Scottish Universities Mission when Mr. Macfarlane died. Under Mr. Sutherland, the Universities Mission still trains in it the future preachers and teachers for the three-fold Himalayan Mission. A busy scene is before us as we AflSS .MACKAR7^ANI' 86 THREE CLOSED LANDS enter the long, low building (which it is hoped will soon give place to a worthier). Fifty students, of different races, are being taught ATk. Siri'HERLANII ANII TIIK TkAIXIXC, SCHOOL. in four or five classes. Size and age do not determine seniority here. We may find a lad in his early teens at the head of the senior class, while a man of five-and-twenty may be at the bottom of the lowest. This is to be expected in a community largely illiterate. Hitherto the standard of education has not been high, but a great change is being wrought under Mr. Sutherland's constant care. 1 he teaching ot the P)ible occupies a prominent part of each tlay's progranune, and the; knowledge of its facts and principles gained b)' many of the; pupils is astonishing. So is their accurate singing from the tonic sol-fa notation sheets, and if we visit wdien TEACHING 87 Mr. Sutherland is giving his own class their lesson in physics we shall be still more astonished. Somethino- too is clone by way of industrial train- ing. The progress made in recent years is well expressed by the latest entry in the visitors' book by Dr. Martin, the Government Inspector of Schools : — 1\[RS. SL'TiIERr,j\ND. In few words, I may say I liavc been more tlian surprised with what I have seen in this school. I could not have l)eheved, without seeing it for myself, that Hill boys should be so much advanced in education and in- telligence. This is due no doubt to the great trouble taken with them by Mr. Sutherland. The instruction which is given in heat, light, electricit)', and siniiile chemistry all helps to awaken their curiosity and to open the eyes of their understanding. . . . "With the training that the students of this school are now getting, I foresee very great improvement in the state of the village schools, of which they will ultimately become the teachers in the near future. To further prepare the students for those village schools referred to by Dr. Martin, there is a practising school attached to the institution, and in it is taug-ht the art ot teach- ing. It is but a .superior edition of the eighty or more village schools scattered over the mountain sides. These schools are further proof of the 8S THREE CLOSED LANDS mutual confidence between the Mission and the Government, which practically gives to the Mission the care of the vernacular educa- tion of the district. Large monthly grants are made, and yet full freedom is given as to the method and matter of the teaching. Christian hymns are sung, and the Bible Village School. lesson kept in the forefront. Nearly all the school-books used (chiefly in the Hindi lan- guage) are compiled by the Mission itself or by the Christian Vernacular Education Society, and in every case the teacher in charge is a Christian. No words are required to emphasise the \'alue of these schools imdcr sucli conditions to the risiuQ- aenera- tion. TEACHING 89 Since the clays of Dr. Duff, English educa- tion has made great strides in India, and the English language is now largely used as the lingua franca of the continent. It is neces- sary for many coveted posts in the much- sought-after Government service, and even in this frontier region the hunger for the laneuas^e of the rulinsf race has been keenlv Anglo-Hindi School. felt. To satisfy it, the Mission has opened an Anglo-Hindi school, on the principle that, as the young people ivill have English, it is desirable they should get it under Christian auspices. The school, though small, is largely self-supporting from the fees and Government grant, "its two teachers are Harkadhoz, a Nepalese, and Kiron.a Bengali Christian, and their labours have proved 9° THREE CLOSED LANDS fruitful. At least one bright Goorkha, now a medical student, owes his conversion to the influence of this school. In the mountainous districts there is little of the Zenana system. A few Bengalis or Mohammedans from the plains shut up their Miss Hig('-,i\s(in and the <;iki,s' .Scimoi.. wives, and some well-to-do Nepalis ape their bad example. With these exceptions, the hill women and girls move about quite freely. Still female education is little sought after outside of Christian circles, though" an odd girl may be met with in a village school. At Kalimpong, however, a hopeful beginnino- has been made with a girls' school under Miss Higginson, a devoted Em-asian teacher, TEACHING 91 who also visits tlie few Zenanas in the villaQ-e. One or two of the ofirls are them- selves being trained to be teachers, and indi- cations are not wanting that the gentler sex will play no unimportant part in the mission work of the immediate future. Nepali Ploughing. CHAPTER VIII THE HILL CROFTERS We are now ready for an expedition into the country around Kalimpong. As we make it, one great contrast to the conditions in the plains will strike us. There the cultivators live in villages. Here, as a rule, each has his own homestead upon his own land. The change is significant, and speaks of security and peace. Since the country was acquired from Bhutan thirty years ago, the strong arm of British justice has protected the poorest THE HILL CROFTERS 93 crofter, and made it unnecessary for him to seek the protection of a village community. As the country was but very thinly peopled in its Bhutanese days, our Government had a free hand, with the result that the settle- ment reflects great credit on the officers who Lei'Cha Mandal and Family. arranged it, and might win the approbation of Mr. Henry George himself The rent charged is really only a tax. The Govern- ment do not in these days repeat the mistake of the permanent settlement of Bengal, where the land was handed over in perpetuity to Zemindars, who reap all the advantages, at 94 THREE CLOSED LANDS the expense both of Government and ryot. In the Government estate at KaUmpong, on the contrary, each ryot has his small holding direct from Government on a ten years' lease, renewable on a re-valuation and a re-adjust- ment of the rent. He may sell his tenant right, but for this he must have the approval of Government, to ensure its passing to a bona fide cultivator, and to prevent the land falling into the hands of money-lenders or land speculators. Over each district is a headman or Manclal, who is responsible to the manager of the Government estate in Kalimpong, and he in his turn to the Dar- jeeling Deputy Commissioner.^ The staple crop of the hills is maize, or Indian corn, and one finds it hard to realise that this o-rain is a gift from the West Indies o o to the East. The little wooden plough, drawn by oxen, is now universally used, though many mountain sides are far too steep or stony even for it, and occasionally we still see the Lepchas in an isolated part using the primitive crooked stick to stir up the soil. The Lepchas are the aborigines of the district — a very ancient people, if we can believe their historian and linguist, the lateGeneral Mainwaring (theLepchaBlackie), ' To lliu laic Sir George Campbell, M.P. for Ihe Kirkcaldy Burghs, the crofters of the Kalimpong District owe their vahiable reservation. Sir George arranged (he matter, when Lieutenant- (Jovcrnor of Bengal, after an interview with Mr. Maefarlane. THE HILL CROFTERS 95 who averred he could prove, from its simjile structure, that their language was as old as the Garden of Eden. Certainly them m u c h which is at least suggestive of patriarchal times, althouo^h contact with the pushing and more assertive Pl.uUGIlING IN KiCIi 'I'EKKAIJES. N e p a 1 i s and others is rapidly breaking down the old landmarks. Not that this contact has been Group of Nepai.ese Farmers. wholly evil, for it has also taught them much. 96 THREE CLOSED LANDS Their old method of agriculture was to settle on a fresh piece of land, cut down and burn the jungle, scratch the surface, cultivate it for two or three years, and then seek pastures new. Such rolling stones gathered no moss, and when the Goorkhas beo-an to emigrate * i—- J,ac . ji Pl.ANllXG Kid.;, from Nepal they took possession of the abandoned locations, which became per- manently productive under their careful cul- tivation. And so to-day the best of the land is in the hands of those now greatly prepon- derating Nepalis ; but the Yepchas have also learned the better ways, and some of THE HILL CROFTERS 97 them are not behind their instructors in intelhgence and enterprise. The rice terraces, for example, are an evidence of this Nepalese influence. In the mountains there is no such thing as a level field, and, to allow of the necessary irrigation for the much-prized rice, our crofters ingeni- ously and with great labour cut out terraces in the hillsides. The seed is sown thickly in a little nursery which can be easily watered, and by the time the rains break the seedlings are ready for transplanting. A dirty job it is for the workers, as they, almost knee-deep in the soft "glaur" of the terraces, drop in the plants one by one ; but the burden is lightened by the large gathering of helpful neighbours, who keep themselves lively with responsive singing or are cheered by the strains of a few instruments played by the tailors {darzis), the recognised musicians of India. Many other products of the farm might be noticed. The buckwheat, which when flowering makes a rich pink field ; the kodo, with its head suggestive of the Prince of Wales' feathers ; the millet, from which is brewed the iiiui-iva or native beer ; the slen- der crop of winter wheat ; the mustard plant, whose bright yellow flower is to the crofter full of promise of the oil which is indispensable to the ordinary household ; the little creeping dal 7 9-8 or lenti THREE CLOSED LANDS which, eaten aloiiQ- with rice, forms the food of milHons in India; the yams and sweet potatoes, , and other grains and roots. There are no grass fields on these slopes. Those who have any large number of cattle must send them at certain seasons to the forests to graze. The school-teachers are often in despair from LKI'CIIA FAKMHUUSili. Lepciias taking Okanges to Market. the consequences of the want of fences ; for the goats, destructive to a degree, must THE HILL CROFTERS 99 be herded by the children. The pigs too may be met scampering about, though the Lepcha usually keeps them under his house, which is, if anything, worse than the Irish custom of havino- the beloved animal in the same room, and has bad consequences in the shape of tapeworm and other evils. There are few Christian Lepchas, however, who fail to discover that "cleanliness is next to godliness," and so honour "grumphy" with a house of his own. The homesteads are often picturesque, and each well-established croft has a banana and an orange grove. The con- fidence and pro- sperity through British influence is seen in the sub- stantial stone houses which are taking the place of the slender wooden and bamboo struc- tures. But within find little in the shape of furniture. A European visitor, indeed, would not be allowed beyond the verandah of a Hindu house for fear of defilement to the dishes. The iloor is the common sitting-place, or there may be a stool for a stranger. The NEl'.ALlCbi: HoUsli, the houses one would THREE CLOSED LANDS "bed" is in the evening spread out on the ground or on a slightly raised platform. The well-to-do goodwife's pride is chiefly in her bright brass cooking-vessels and the plates from which they eat with their fingers, though the poorer people use leaves for dishes. In a corner of the house, or, it may be, in the middle of the floor, is the open fire from which the smoke escapes at the roof. In the verandah we notice the hand-stones (quern) which day by day grind the grain, and whose rumbling sound is to the passer-by grateful in its suggestion of life and plenty. In the verandah too is fixed into the g-round the hollowed-out locr which, with the loner wooden pestle, is used to husk the rice or other grain, and around it, try- ing to catch the stray seeds, will be found the pigeons, and also the hens which in Britain are but acclimatised strangers but thrive here on their native soil. The men and women alike smoke the hookah, or, as it is often called, the hiibblc-buhhlc, from the -^'^ OidNIUNi; THIC Ukain'. THE HILL CROFTERS sound produced as the smoke is drawn through the bowl filled with water. Many of the crofters • 4 themselves orow the tobacco-leaf, which, however, is mixed with other ingredi- ents, and when J used in the pipe is in the form of a moist, black, gritty paste and is lighted with confined pn;tty A (JuiicT Si\roKK. a hot cinder much to the old Snuffino- is er o'enera- tion, as at home, but chewing is freely indulged in, and if you look closely behind the ear of a scan- tily clothed and pocketless Lepcha crofter you may observe a half-exhausted chew reserved for another occasion. As we wander among the crofts, we shall see of the pre- . It may be the little offering in the middle of the path to bar the progress vailing fear of demons o Rki'kicmcniation of Iilvn. SriKir .MAUK OF RlCIC. I02 THREE CLOSED LANDS of an evil spirit, or the living sacrifice being offered to propitiate another, or the flattering rice image of a demon supposed to be causing sickness, or the burning of a rag before the door, over which the friends step when they return from burying a relative, to prevent A Kalimi'O.ng Mela. any accompanying spirits from entering with them. The missionaries naturally sympathise with the social interests of the crofters and try to help them as best they can. Experiments have been made with a view to the introduc- tion of the silk industry. The initiative was taken five years ago to start an Agri- Horticul- tural Exhibition and Jllcla (Eair), which has. THE HILL CROFTERS 103 through the generous efforts of Government and the local planters and others, grown to large dimensions. The various kinds of pro- duce and animals of the district are brought together. The planters bring their tea for competition. The Government have made the Fair the occasion for buying transport BlIUTIAS HANGING AT A MeI.A. mules from the Tibetans, who also bring in ponies, silks, and other merchandise. Europeans and natives meet in a happy way, and there is a general holiday in the district for a couple of days. Nor are the festivities marred by drunken brawls, for the Govern- ment close the spirit-shop while the Fair lasts — an example well worthy of being followed by our home authorities. I'l.AXTICK AND HeAUMEX (Jl- A Hll.E Tl-^A GAKDIIN. CHAPTER IX AMONG THE TEA GARDENS The chief industry in which the Europeans are interested is tea - planting. The tea grown on the mountain slopes and known under the name of " Darjeeling " has no superior in the market. The industry is comparatively a new one, the first garden having been opened in 1857.^ On the hills the tea coolies or labourers are almost ex- clusively Nepalcse emigrants. There are not many hill gardens in the district assigned to the Kalimpong Mission, ' l''(ii- Aill IrcalmciU of Darjeeling tea imUisirv, sec llie foiDuat oj^ til,' S,;i,ty ,1/ Jr/s r. ir J\ine 1896, which ccn'itaiiis a |iapei liy <'. W. Ghiislisun, Em|., laic iif Tiikvav. AMONG THE TEA GARDENS 105 as most of that land has been reserved for crofters ; but in the tract known as the Dooars (or Doors), which runs for nearly 100 miles along the foot of our mountains, and to the south of Bhutan up to the Assam frontier, British capital has developed a great and rapidly increasing area under tea. Taminc Wild Elf.i'hants in the Dooaus. Until about 1870 the "Dooars" was a malarial jungle, the haunt of the tiger, rhinoceros, elephant, and buffalo, with a village here and there of Mechis or Raj- bunsis. There is still plenty of jimgle to afford timber and sport to the planter, and the Government's Elephant Department occasionally makes good catches. io6 THREE CLOSED LANDS Many a fine young man from Scotland, England, and Ireland, lies in the little cemetery, the victim of the deadly malaria contracted while converting the dense jungle into the smiling tea-garden. The death roll Clearing for Tea. P/ioto by J/cssrs. Bourne and S/u'/'hcrib, CabarHa. Still remains too hiofh, thoug-h the health of the district undoubtedly improves with the cultivation. At present there are some eighty gardens, with more than 50,000 acres of tea bushes. Each garden has generally a European manager with one or more as- sistant managers, and these are likelier than not to b(i Scots, because the capitalists most largely interested have their headquarters in AMONG THE TEA GARDENS 107 lation of the tea district Glasgow. The popu is perhaps from 100,000 to 150,000. There is practically no local labour, and the coolies, im- ported from various parts of India, are a mixed lot of Kols, Santhals, Nepalis, etc. These coolies usually return to their native country when they have saved a little money, ^agpuk, cooliks (Ko,.s). though some settle down as crofters in the neighbourhood of the gardens, on that land which, too low and wet for tea, is suit- able for rice. The clerks em- ployed are al- most invariably Bengali Babus, whose know- ledafeof EnQ-lish makes themuse- ful in many ways totheplanter. " Babu"correspondstoour" Mr." SANT}IAy,l Coor.iKs. loS THREE CLOSED LANDS I'.KNGAH RABUS. The management of a large tea-garden, with from 600 to 2000 acres under cultiva- tion, and a labour force which should be at least one and a half persons to the acre, is no sine- cure ; and to bring it into "bearing" has been the work of many years of hard labour. During the cold season the planter has had to pitch his tent in the forest or tall SLin-grass, and with o his coolies make a clearing around him. The jungle is burned, the land hoed, and the tiny seedlings transplanted four or five feet apart with geometrical precision. These have to be carefully tended, and at the end of two years the tops are cut oft. In the cold weather of each year the pruning process is repeated, so that the plants, which would otherwise grow tall and slender, are kept low and bushy, to produce as large a plucking area as possible, tor it is usually only the two leaves and a bud trom the top of the soft succulent shoots which are pluckc:d for tea. The bud produces the best tea (say broken orange pekoe), the first leaf ma)' become pekoe, and the next pekoe AMONG THE TEA GARDENS 109 souchong. And to the stalk, if not removed, are due those welcome "strangers" in the cups at home ! COOLIIC PLUCKING LEAF. Pfioto by MCSS7-S. licunic and Shc/'furJ, Ca/m/la. The leaf is carried to the factory, and goes throuo-h a few simple processes. First it is spread out thinly on shelves for a single ni()-ht to be withered. Next it is rolled no THREE CLOSED LANDS for twenty to thirty minutes — nowadays by machinery, but formerly rubbed by the hand — until the leaf is crushed and broken. This crushed, green, moist leaf is left to the action of the air for some hours, the time varying according to the temperature and state of the leaf, until it becomes something like salmon coloured. The process is called fermenta- tion, but oxidisation would more properly A Tea Factory and Plantlr's Bungaluw. describe it. The fermented leaf is then dried. The old-fashioned way to do so was over open charcoal fires, but now machinery does it more expeditiously and economically. Air, heated to a high temperature, is drawn through the leaf, causing it to curl up and blacken. This is the last essential process. Afterwards it is merely sifted into the different classes and generally sorted up, ■A\\(}i paeked m'i.o lead-lined boxes containing a man lid, or eighty pounds. It is then sold in the Calcutta or London market. The missionaries feel that the tea district A J/0 NO THE TEA GARDENS in has upon them a double claim. Their own kith and kin are strangers in a strange land, with the special and powerful temptations of a heathen environment, and whatever they can do by offering fellowship to them, and by holding services for them, is their privi- GKUUP UF PLANTEKi. lege and their duty. And they look forward to doing more for them in the future than they have hitherto been able to do. From a missionary point of view, the influence of European masters for good or evil is enormous upon the workers, who naturally look upon them as the representatives of the Christian religion. The true ideal is that each planter be the missionary among his own people. 112 THREE CLOSED LANDS The Mission rejoices in much help from many planters. It was through the influence of a godly planter, Captain Jerdan, that Mr. Macfarlane was first drawn to begin his work at Darjeeling. A considerable income comes annually from the subscriptions of tea-planters. Some of them build schoolhouses, and other- GlELLE SCHOOLHOUbii. wise help directly with the work. The Gielle Schoolhouse, for example, was chieHy built by the neighbouring planters, most of them being present at the opening service, as shown in the illustration. So far, little has been accomplished in the Dooars in the way of missionary effort. The field is not an easy one. The population is largely alien and migratory. The district is not yet fully settled, and among the natives AMONG THE TEA GARDENS ■'3 F'AN SKLI.KK. are many who have found in it a refuge from creditors or others in their own homes. As yet there are few- native Christ- '"" ians, and some of these even — both our own hill people and from the mis- sions in Nagpur and Santhalistan — have come be- cause of some wrong conduct, and to escape discipline in their homes, a strong native Church has the further dis- advantage that some who are merely out- casts from Hinduism call themselves Christ- ians, and there may be no one to gainsay them. To the Hindu, the want of a caste is the worst of all calamities ; and if he has lost it for any reason, he often sets about supplying himself with another. When a man embraces Christianity, he loses his caste privileges ; and to the illogical and ignorant, a man who loses caste becomes a Christian, and so the outcast, it sometimes happens, assumes the title. This had become so much the case in the Dooars that the name of native Christian had acquired bad s The absence of 114 THREE CLOSED LANDS associations in the minds of many of the planters, and was synonymous with outcast Tea Garden Well. ... among the ignorant heathen. A few years ago a careful inquiry was made in the Dooars, with the result that only one native Christian was found em- ployed as a do- mestic servant (he, too, a re- spectable man), whereas the planters had im- agined that they were numerous. Whatever, in other parts of India, may be the reason of the admitted Drciudice ao'ainst native Christian servants L \Bl LI 1 \(.K\I1 N rcj u AMONG THE TEA GARDENS 115 among Anglo- Indians, to the above practice is it largely clue in this district. In the Dooars a Nagpuri catechist looks after the Christian Kols and preaches to those who are not Christ- ians, and an attempt is made to reach the Nepalis and other races. The optical lantern is used for drawingr toijether crowds of coolies in the evenino-s around the planters' bunga- lows. Advantage is taken of the weekly bazaars for Gospel preaching, the selling of literature, and the distribution of tracts. But, as yet, the work is barely begun, and a large development is needed and expected. A beautiful location has been secured at Goru Bathan, a hill which runs out into the Dooars ; and, if the Mission's hopes are realised, there will be upon it in the near future a busy mission centre, with a hospital for the fever- stricken native workers in the tea-gardens, and perhaps a sanatorium for the tea-planters. Nagpuri Catechist and Famii.v. Bazaau Pkicaching and Colkjktklk. CHAPTER X A HIMALAYAN PARISH It is among the crofters that the iMission has its chief work, and in that work the European missionary is not by any means the main factor. The aim is rather to have a truly indigenous native Church, which shall be self- supporting and self-governing. The "mission" is not, as is sometimes supposed, a charitable institution, with a European benefactor as its head to provide alms tor its converts. Not one single penny of the ordinary funds goes ' The Ccilpniteur is siippnrled liy llie Nalinnal llil.le Society of Scotland. A HIMALAYAN PARISH \^^ for that purpose. On the contrary, the Christ- ians are taught the duty and privilege of contributing to the support of their own pastors and of their own missionaries. Two or three of the congregations are already within reasonable distance of self-support. They have, for example, to provide their own churches, and the nature of these at once indicates the strength and resources of the Christian community in each district. At first, indeed, there is no separate building at all, and we may speak, as in New Testament times, of the " Church in the house of" a cer- tain man ; or we may find a handful of people met in a tiny open bamboo structure, where the service is con- ducted by the school- teacher, with oc- casional visits from a catechist. The next stage is a neat w o o d e n - f r a m e house, with bamboo- lath and mud-plaster walls, and a few square holes for light. And now, in more than one instance, we have reached the stone wall, wooden floor, and glazed window. But at whatever stage we find the church buildings (all of which are also used for school purposes), we may be sure they have been built by the people A HUMBLE Church and School. ii8 THREE CLOSED LANDS with their own hands. The Mission's rule is to give no grants for such liuildings outside the central station at Kalim- pong. We shall visit Sitong, one of the best organised of the out-stations, and in giving a descrip- tion of the "parish" and work we shall quote from letters written to Guild Life and Work, embodying perhaps one or two incidents which more strictly belong to a neighbouring "parish." MuNGWA Church. The Parish Every time I visit Sitong I am reminded of \Vords- wortli's Excursion, at least of that portion of it wliich tells of the old church and churchyard among the hills, and of the pastor beloved of the people. Not that Sitong has a church hoary with age, or ancient tombs, or a minister bowed down with years. It is within the last thirteen years since Dyongshi (now forty-seven years of age) became pastor, then indeed a pastor without a flock save his wife and child. But the surroundings suggest the hills and valleys of the Lake District, only they are of bigger mould. On three sides are steep mountain slopes, two of them surmounted by a great virgin forest ; and in the almost awful silence of the place resounds the river from the valley below as it A Peep in the Parish, A HIMALAYAN PARISH 119 rushes over its bouldered bed. The dwellers in Sitong are (juiet crofters— decent country folk we would call them ; and had one but the gift and the knowledge of a Wordsworth, Sitong and its inhabitants would yield ample material for a second Excursion. There are both Nepalis and Lepchas, but as yet the Christians are confined to the latter, Dyongshi's own race. Altogether there are only about 800 Lepchas in Dyongshi's parish, and nearly one-sixth have become Christ- ians, drawn by the sweet, loving man who has been among them for the past few years. The Pastor He would be a strange man who dis- liked Dyongshi, for he loves every one. Shy and unassuming, yet able and brave, he is a spiritual force recog- nised by all with whom he comes into contact. When he first em- braced Christianity, and Mr. Macfarlane sent him among his own kith and kin, he had to endure much scorn. But The Pastor and his Family. I20 THREE CLOSED LANDS he has won by waiting. All his father's fomily, except his eldest brother, have been baptized, and that brother is also a sincere believer in Christ, though on account of his two wives he has to stay in the position of a catechumen. Dyongshi has stood the hardest of all tests. He has gone home and told his own people what great things Christ has done for him, and he has witnessed in such a way that they too have gone to Christ themselves. Dyongshi has a large family of his own. His eldest boy, Rapcha, is now in Calcutta, pre- paring to study medicine. A Contrast ^Vhat a change between the i)resent pastor and the old Lama or priest. The other day Dyongshi and I went to visit a I.aina nearby. He had then gone, we were told, to search for an ox to sacrifice to the demons, because his child was ill. On his return we offered medicine for the fever, but he would have none of it. His forefathers sacrificed, and why should not he? C)tliers might give up the old customs, but he could not. The Lamas themselves do not sacrifice, but, like ordinary pieople, call in the sacrificial priest or Boiigti/ig, who is versed in the ways of propitiating the evil spirits causing the sickness. The Lama is called to read the sacred books in the case of deaths. I took a fancy to a big Lepclia fowl in the Lama's yard, and offered to buy it. "On no account," said he. "It has been devoted for sacrifice to the spirits, and great evil would befall me if I parted with it." Consider for one moment the contrast presented by tlic message of hope and love which Dyongshi has to give to the ])eople, and the poor consolation of the old I ,:ima- A HIM A LA VAN PARISH The Ei.ders To help Dyongslii with his parish, four Kyiiiiiis have lately been set apart. A Kvitiiii is pretty much what we mean by Elder. The name means "Speaker." It is the custom in a Tepcha village to have a man who is by common consent recognised as the settler of disputes, the " knowing " man of the district, to whom all naturally go for advice or help. And this name we have recently adopted for a somewhat similar office in the Christian Church. The qualification is ^tuirk — the man who takes a class in the Sunday School, teaches the catechumens, visits the sick, etc. As yet no ecclesiastical privilege is attached to the office except this of helpfulness. The congregation of themselves choose them, and we had a most impressive service when those at Sitong were set apart. 'J'hey are all young crofters, and all teach in the Sunday School, which, at Sitong, embraces the ivhole coi'ii^i-cgation. On i\\G death of one of those Kyu/nis, the following testimony was borne to him : — Influenza has carried off Yapto, the flower of our Christian crofters at Sitong. I believe that Yapto had attained to a standard of personal faith in Jesus, of love towards Him, and of service for Him rarely excelled in our home Church. Tiiough but twenty-six years of age, he was a Kyiiini or elder. \\'herever there was sickness or distress in the parish there would he be found. In- deed it was while visiting an influenza-stricken family in the neighbouring parish of Gielle that he caught his illness. Tor this family he practically acted as servant for days, carrying their water and cooking their food. He often came to Kalimpong at Panchayat time, and his presence and speech were always helpful. Last THREE CLOSED LANDS year he i)lanted a dozen banana trees, the fruit of which was to go towards the upkeep of his beloved pastor, Dyongshi. " His talk was so sweet, and his walk and conversation so upright," was the un- bidden testimony of a companion. " I relied on him more than any other," says Dyongshi. Yapto had a great grief in his wife. Two years ago she was convicted of infidelity, but, on her seeming repentance, Yapto forgave her. Again she proved un- faithful, and fled to Burmah with her para- mour. To enable him to obtain a divorce, several fellow-Christians had at the beginning of this month subscribed the necessary legal ex- penses. But he has been mercifully spared the pain of the proceedings. Yapto. Church Extension Dyongshi's parish is a big one, consisting of two great ridges. Until a few months ago there were no Christians on the Mongpoo ridge, except two who had gone from Sitong. Dyongshi had often preached to the Lepchas there with no apparent result. The first-fruits were Tumhit and his wife, who were baptized at the A HIMALAYAN PARISH 123 opening of our new church. The next were from the most unhkely quarter, viz. an old man, Salemu, a priest, to whom Dyongshi thought it useless to preach. But when Tumhit went home from Kalimpong and told Salemu of the proceedings, he too got interested. After a while he sent for Dyongshi, and the end of it was that this man, who was looked up to by his neighbours as one of their chief priests, abandoned his old practices and confessed Christ. He had, he said, tried all he MONGPOO. could with demonolatry. He had been of the strictest sect, and worshipped an ever-increasing number of evil spirits, but to no purpose. He begged to get baptism quickly for himself and household, so as to cut them off at once from the old practices. And now we have another family on probation, if possible more interest- ing, that of Songhor, a Lama, and also Ka?-ivari or sub- headman of the district. It is the same old story of want of satisfaction in his own books and satisfaction found in Christ. A new school is being built through the kindness of Mr. Gammie, Mongpoo, the Manager of the Government Cinchona Estate, of which Sitong is a part, and service will be held there. 124 THREE CLOSED LANDS The Church Service A hopeful and suggestive sight it is to see the con- gregation gathering in to the sound of a gong, bare- footed most of them, but with their "Sunday best." From all sides they come along the narrow beaten freld- tracks. As they enter, few pass the box without dropping in a small coin, and that weekly offering at Sitong is .*,* Thf, Church and Cungkegatrin. devoted wholly to their foreign missions (of which we shall hear in a later cliapter). Heads are bowed in silent prayer. ^I'lie catechist takes his seat, and gives out a h)inn in the Lepcha tongue from a goodly sized hymn-book, which has been compiled by these people tliemselves. One of the Kyi/inis or elders is asked to lead in prayer, the Scriptures are read and expounded, and the simi)le service is conducted much after the home manner, only less formal, in keeping with the surroundings. The family feeling one recognises is A HL\rALAYAN PARISH 125 strong among the people ; and while in the prayers there is a wide catholicity, there is a special remembrance, often by name, of their own sick or absent dear ones. When the missionary is present, the Lord's Supper is dispensed, and baptism administered; though it is hoped before long Dyongshi will himself be in a position to do this, as it is only meet he should. An afternoon Sunday service and a weekly prayer meeting are also held. Touches of humour are not awanting in the services. Here are three incidents, the experience of one Sunday in Dyongshi's parish : — " That morning at Ranchong the folks went up and placed their oflerings in the plate before the catechist. One worthy waited till the others had contributed, then, laying down a piece of silver, gravely counted out and bore off his change ! During the service our gravity had been disturbed by a perfect shower of oranges from the rafters of the church, where they had been incautiously placed by a kincl parishioner to refresh the minister after the kirk. At Sitong, on the same day, I noticed an old lady near the door with a big stick. With it she was paying a good deal of attention to stray cobwebs on the roof, and when a poor dog dared to put his nose inside the church she was ready to pounce upon him. I am glad to say there were no sleepers for her to disturb." The P.arish Schooi, The place held by the vernacular district schools in the work of the INIission has been already described. At Sitong there has been a day and a night school since Dyongshi went there, and now he has also the super- intendence of schools on his other spur. As in the rural parishes of Scotland, many boys liave gone out from these schools to be teachers and preachers, or to 126 THREE CLOSED LANDS undertake other work, and the Christian community itself contains a large percentage of literate people. The teachers are expected to assist in the various services, and in this way get a practical training in pastoral theology — all-im- portant because the natural promotion for them is to the office of catechist. The Teacher. The Sunday School.; The Sunday Schools which Dyongshi conductsare patterns. The other Sunday I was with him at Ranchong, his "Chapel of Ease," though " Chapel of Difficulty" would better describe it, as it means five or six hours of most tiring mountaineering when he goes there from Sitong. After the service the whole Church was turned into a Sunday School ; no one was allowed to leave. Dyongshi took the elder men ; a young farmer took the rest of them ; and a domestic servant (man) taught the women. There were over forty present. Thirteen months ago there was not a single Christian in the village. Nothing could be more signi- ficant than the composition of Dyongshi's class. There was the old Lama or priest, seventy years of age, humbly answering questions as to the number and nature of the Commandments of God, repeating the Lord's Prayer, etc. There was also the quondam Bmii^ting or sacrificial priest of the village, who used to officiate in all times of sickness. Reside him sat a fine- looking middle-aged farmer, who had that day been baptized, and whose brother is a Tama of importance at A HIMALAYAN PARISH 127 Sitong. And so on, young and old, male and female, all had to learn of the law and love of God in their own native I^epcha language. Some Striking Conversions A Priestess At Tanglyo, Kanong was the chief Bijiiani or priest- ess among the Lepchas. The whole village was in fear of her powers over the nether world. She had been frequently talked to by the catechist, but her case seemed the most hopeless one in the district. A year ago she became ill. For months and months great sacrifices were made on her behalf to the demons causing the sickness, but to no purpose. Then she had a dream. A heavenly messenger came and called her up to the church on the hill, perhaps 800 feet above her house. On the way there were all sorts of obstacles to keep her back, but her guide told her to follow him, and at last she reached the little plateau. It was planted out, she thought, with fragrant and beautiful flowers and shrubs, and her companion told her she was to remain there. When she awoke she summoned the catechist. He taught her and gave her medicine. For a time she rallied. A few Sundays ago she was baptized in a Christian neighbour's house — not in her own, for her husband did not share her faith. The poor woman was far through, and could with difficulty sit on the ground. But her old pinched face was radiant as she confessed the Lord, and for life and death gave herself to Him. Eight days afterwards she peacefully passed away. To the heathen Lepcha the one great dread is death. How gloriously does Jesus light up the way for the true convert ! As we looked upon the old woman, and contrasted her then peace, yea, joy in the prospect \' Tkapr. 'J'lu'y wfiir straps hung from tlic shouUIcr and girdles, nnd to these ore nltaclied charms, teeth and claws of wild beasts, boars' tusks, talons of birds of prey, heads of small birds and bones of fishes, bits of skin, bells, seeds of peculiar shape, etc,, cowrie shells are used foi- decoration. A HIMALAYAN PARISH 129 of departure, with the frantic efforts of a month or two before to ward off the evil day by sacrifice, we might well say, " O Death, where is thy sting ? " An Old Ldiiia An old Lama (priest) of eighty-seven was baptized at Sitong. It was touching to see the old man, now blind, led up for baptism, and to hear him, on being asked to make a declaration of his faith, say that he had re- nounced all the past and had given himself up entirely to the service of God. And when he was afterwards lamenting that he could not see us he added, " But I can see with the inward eye." A Huuhi Devotee Chandrabir Nepali, with his wife and son and daughter, were baptized last Sunday at Mangwa. He belongs to the Newar or Merchant caste, though he himself is a crofter. For years he has been in search of the true religion. His first knowledge of Christianity was gained in the Vernacular School, but at this time it did not seem to have affected him much. Subsequently he joined a reformed sect of Hinduism, Sadluis or saints, always associated in my mind with the strictest sect of the Pharisees, and possessing a full share of their hypocrisy. In it he found no rest, and last year went to the holy city of Benares to see if he could get satis- faction at the fountain-head of Hinduism. Again was he disappointed, and at the time got from the catechist St. Matthew's Gospel. But he wanted to give the old faith a thorough trial, and this year went on pilgrimage to Puri at the time of the Juggernaut Festival. All to no purpose, so far as his soul's salvation was concerned. 9 THREE CLOSED LANDS A second time lie spoke to the cntechist about Christ, and <"'0t a New 'I'estament away with him. For months he did not look near tlie catechist, but in the meantime he was still searching after the truth. He con- sulted the Lamas, vainly hoping that liuddhism could supply his need ; and then seeing that in Christ alone could he find that which re- sponded to his heart's deepest needs, he began to attend church, and soon de- sired baptism. As he was a man already versed in Scripture, there was no need to put him on probation, and he was baptized at once. He being a caste man, moreover, it was desir- able for his own sake that he should at once be out and out. Everybody spoke well of him. Now, though, I fear many of his old Hindu friends will have hard names for him instead. But this he is prepared to meet for Christ's sake. Nlil'.\LI b.VUHCS. Thi-: Native Ciirlstians But what sort of people are those con- verts ? That is a question often asked, and A HIMALAYAN PARISH 131 not infrequently asked in a tone suggestive of an unfavourable answer. The correct answer would be, " They are of all sorts." Men of Dyongshi's stamp are beyond the need of defence ; the\' would bear comparison with the best in our home Churches. A Marwari monej'-lender — an unlikely witness Bible School (see p. 143). in the circumstances — once said to the writer in the course of a dispute regarding debts due by some of the crofters ; " Those Sitong Christians do not tell lies." Even he was probably too charitable and sweeping in his statement, though his testimony was valu- able. There are black sheep indeed, and Dyongshi has had sad cases of those who, under the power of the old superstition or 132 THREE CLOSED LANDS of lust, have fallen from their profession. Not the least pleasing feature of the Church life at Sitong is the loving sympathy shown to win back the erring ones, though no one is received until he or she on three successive Sundays makes public confession of repent- ance. They feel strongly that this is needed to keep the Church pure, and they argue that if there has been true penitence in the sight of God there will be no fear of man. There is an impression in many quarters that Missionary methods in India are too much on sectarian lines. An incident of the last census is significant from this point of view. When the Sitong Christians filled up the column of the census paper asking to what sect of Christianity they belonged, they w^rote " Jesus Sect ! " There is also a widespread idea that Christian Missions tend to denationalise their converts or to take them out of their proper sphere. That mav be an accompani- ment in some cases, thouoh not the result of Christianity. At any rate, it cannot be said ot the Sitong crofters. It was to such that Sir Charles Elliott, late Lieutenant-Governor fjf Bengal, referred when he, along with other leading luiropeans, bore their testi- mon)' at the Semi -Jubilee Thanksgiving Service which was held to commemorate the .'/ HhMALAYAN rARTSff twenty-fifth anniversary of Mr. Macfarlane's arrival at Uarjeeling. Sir Charles said — Here we have scattered over the district bodies of cultivators who have in no way altered from the manner of life of their forefathers, and who not only have livelihood in- dependent of the Mission, but who also are themselves, in many cases, active Christian workers. It is a great satisfaction to know to what an extent Christianity has llourished in the Kalimpong dis- trict, and that it has been fostered and furthered by the fact that the sub - division is a Government pro- perty, and so no in- termediary stands in the way of the social and moral improvement of the cultivators there. This helpful relationship which Sir Charles Elliott indicates as existing between the Government and the Mission is a source of mutual strength. In educational, medical. Sir Cn.-vurKS A. Va ■ LL.D. (I'.diii,) Photo by Arossrs. Elliolt ami F, 134 THREE CLOSED LANDS and social matters the Mission at Kalimpong co-operates with Government, and the mis- sionaries rejoice in the confidence thus ex- pressed in their work. The Government must maintain a position of neutrahty in rehgious matters, and the Christian missionary supphes that spiritual teaching which is essential to true advance. Bearing upon this subject is the following quotation from a speech delivered at Darjeeling in 1892 by Sir Charles Elliott : — As the head of the Government, I feel that the missionaries are, so to speak, an unrecognised and unofficial branch of the great movement in which we are all engaged, and which alone justifies our presence in the country. They occupy a field which the officers of Government are unable to take up. We are doing a great work in spreading the blessings of civilisation, making life and property secure, teaching the rule of law, and encouraging the growth of education ; but we cannot directly touch on religious subjects. By the orders of the Queen, as well as by the general fitness of things, we are prevented from proselytising. In religious matters we must perforce treat all alike, and show no more consideration for one faith than for another ; and yet we know right well that the only hope for the realisation of our dream, and for the true eleva- tion and development of the people, lies in the evangelisation of India, and we know that the people who are carrying on this work are the missionaries. It is they who arc filling u|) that which is deficient in the efibrts of Government, b)' devoting their lives and their labours to bringing the people of India to the knowledge of Christ. A HnrALAYAN PARISH 135 Sir Charles Elliott's position is that of the greatest statesmen of India. In speaking of native converts, a mis- sionary is no doubt in danger of conveying an exaggerated notion of the progress inacle. Although not desirous to convey an unfair impression, one naturally chooses the bright colours for one's canvas, for one is apt to see results in the light of one's ideal. The new convert is thought of as he stood before the conoreoation to make his bold confession of his newly owned Lord, rather than as he is in his ordinary everyday life, struggling with temptations, and, it may be, often falling under them. The new church is thought of as the ideal house of God, to which the crowds of worshippers go up with joy, rather than as the place wdiere are also found listless hearts and wandering thoughts. The new oreanisation is thouoht of as it would be if O ^ O ... perfectly realised, rather than as it is with all the imperfections attaching to its human ao-ents. But is the caution specially necessary with Mission work ? Is it not to be taken for granted in the records of all kinds of work .'^ And one may not be untrue to one's self or to others if, in the enthusiasm of his ideal, he forgets at every point to give the warning that what is intended to be and what should be may not always be perfectly realised. We think of the dear departed 136 THREE CLOSE! > LANDS friend as he endeared himself to us by the highest revelations of himself, and yet he too may have had unlovely traits. And may one not so deal with work and workers which too have been very dear? CHAPTER XI THE CARE OF THE CHURCHES The basis for the Church orranisation in the parent Church in Scotland is the parochial unit, with a church and school within reason- ably manaofeable bounds. That too is the aim for the Himalayan daughter, and the district is divided into parishes, but alas ! some of them are yet beyond the power of any catechist to work. But in the hill portion, a school at least will, it is hoped, soon be within the reach of almost every child, Christian or non-Christian ; and, where there is a school with a Christian teacher, a Christian cono;reo-ation should not be long; awantina. O Already the general plan of the native Church organisation will have been evident. The European ordained missionary acts as the Superintendent — in much the same capacity as did the superintendents in the transition period when John Knox was 138 THREE CLOSED LANDS legislating for the future Presbyterian Church of Scotland. The office, like that of Knox's superintendent, created for a special want, is likely to be temporary, and to be abolished when the organisation of the native Church is such as to do without it. The missionary visits, counsels, and instructs the different Rev. J. A. and Mrs. Gk.-\h.-\m. Plioto by Ak.v. Arton, Edinhii-gh. Churches, dispenses the sacraments (tempor- arily), and inspects the schools. The catechist is the pastor, doing all the work of a Minister, except the administra- tion of the sacraments. He therefore more closely corresponds to Knox's )radcrs or cxhortcrs — men of no great education, but afterwards to be raised to the full status of THE CARE OF THE CHURCHES 139 minister if approved by the superintendent ; and some of the catechists will, it is hoped, be soon ordained. Cunningham in his Church Hislory s?iY^'' "Thus the system of readerships not merely supplied a temporary want, but served as a school in which men were trained for the ministerial work, for no A Cateciiist, his four Elders and three Teachers. college curriculum had as yet been pre- scribed." If we substitute " catechistships " for "readerships" in this quotation, we have an exact description of the position of the catechist. The Elders find their counterpart in the Kyntmi already described, or in the corre- sponding Barhaiili (Nepalese for "old man "), 140 THRRF, CLOSED L.iNDS andthc Deacons in the/jV/^?;/^/^?;-/ (Treasurer). The order of Ea'AN(;ei.ist the Mission seeks also to establish, and so to revive the full apostolic pattern. The home Church Courts— Kirk Session, Presbytery, Synod, and General Assembly — have their counterpart in the Himalayas, in Central PAMHAVAr. rudimental form it may be. The Kirk Session is indicated in the congregational Panchaxat or committee of each Church, com- posed, however, ot all heads of families, as well as the elders. As the Churches grow, the necessity ot limiting the numbers becomes apparent. Before the PaucJiayat all matters bearing on the membership of the congrega- THE CARE OE THE CHURCHES 141 tion lirst emerge ; and these are, if necessary, referred to the central Panchayat, which is also theoretically composed of the heads of all the families of all the congregations, though in practice it is chiefly confined to the catechists and any elders who may accompany them when they come to Kalim- pong the first week of every month. At that time not only are questions of Church membership and discipline and extension dealt with in the Church Court proper, but the catechists (and less frequently the teachers also) are regularly taught for a couple of days on Bible and other subjects by the mission- ary, and vari- ous meetings are held bear- ing on the work o of the Church. This central Panchayat cor- responds partly to the Presly- TERV, thouQ^h Teaciiing 'iiiK Catechists in Memorial Church. there is also a regularly con- stituted Presbyterial body, which at present, in the absence of any ordained natives, is con- fined to the seven Scottish male missionaries 14 = THREE CLOSED LANDS of the three divisions of the Mission. These also form the Eastern Himalayan Mission Council for the discussion of the less purely ecclesiastical affairs. The Presbytery might, when the different divisions have thoroughly developed, be the nucleus of a Synod. And The MibsiuN Cuu.\cii..' Dr. Ponder, ATr. Kilgour, Mr. Macara, Mr. Graham, Mr. Turnbull, Mr. Sulherland. when a General Assemi'.lv is possible, it will, we trust, represent a wider area and other brethren than those of the present Eastern Himalayan Mission District. There is even now, though not in an ecclesiastical sense, a peneral assembling of ' ]\Ii-. Mackenzie (sec ]>. 48) is also a memlier. THE CARE OE THE CHURCHES 143 the people at the annual Christian Mela, or gathering of Christians from the whole district for a few days each autumn. It is a time ot common worship and conference and rejoicing. The mobilisation of the whole forces encourages the several battalions, and is, moreover, a valuable demonstration in the eyes of Christians and non-Christians. Of late a new development has come in connec- tion with it in the shape of a I5ible School.' Most of the Christians are crofters, whose time is more or less at their own disposal, and they can thus, at a slack time, arrange for one or two of a household to stay on at Kalimpong for ten days' systematic instruc- tion. These gatherings for Bible study and the deepening of spiritual life are specially helpful for a people many of the elder of whom are illiterate. An important departure has been the establishment of Guilds, naturally suggested by the support of the Mission by the Home Guilds. There is but one Woman's Guild, that at Kalimpong, but several of the parishes have branches of the Church of Scotland Young Men's Guild. The branch at Kalimpong, with its meetings for Bible study and general knowledge, has proved itself to be one of the best factors in the Mission work. Some of the natives are ' See photograph of ]!ible School on |i. T31. 144 THREE CLOSED LANDS good talkers and keen debaters at the Guikl meetings, and from their consideration of various subjects valuable suggestions have arisen and many advances made. Young Men's Guild, Members of Fikst Co.mmitiee. THE GUILD MISSION, KALIMPONG A FEW FIGURES As AT \ST January 1897 European Alissionaries — Men 3, Wives 3, Nurse i Indian Agents — Evangelists 12, Colporteur Assistants, 7 . Teachers — Male 41, Female 3 Medical 20 44 Native Cliristian Covununiiy Seholars in 32 Schools 64 1386 792 Note. — In the whole (threefold) Eastern Himala) an Mission of the Church of Scotland there were at the same date — 7 male European missionaries (6 of them married) ; 4 European lady missionaries ; 30 catechists ; 96 teachers ; 40 congregations ; 81 schools ; 2396 native Christians ; 2406 scholars. The growth of the native Christian community is indicated by the following table ; — 1870 Mission liegun 1874 • First Baptism 1880 130 Native Christians 1885 599 1890 . 1192 1897 ■ 2396 CHAPTER XII HANDING ON THE TORCH A Christian, it has been said, needs two conversions — the one to God for his own salvation, and the second to care for the salvation of others. The statement, thouQ-h perhaps open to objection, suggests a truth which is abundantly evident in the history of the Church as in the experience of the individual. In both cases periods may be found when the logical outcome of the Redeemer's command is ignored, and the genius of Christianity misunderstood. The second conversion follows a time of religious revival. History, in this respect, will be found to repeat itself, and the little native church at Kalimpong gives one more example of it. How it came about will best be described in the following article contributed by the writer in July 1892 to the Guild Life and ]J\)rl' while the subject was fresh in his mind ; — HANDING ON THE TORCH 147 A CHAPTER IN RECENT CHURCH HISTORY. On the Model of Acts xiii. 1-5. Now tlicrc were in the Cliiireh tliat was at Kalimpfing certain lateehists and teae/iers and other disciples. As they /ninistered to the Lord, the Holy Ghost said. Separate vie Sukhman and Jitman for the work wheretinto I have called them. And when tliey had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on tlieni, they sent them away. So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto Bhutan. And they had also Karnabir to their minister. A feeling of disappointment, if not of resentment, may be in the minds of some who read the above modern adaptation of St. Luke's words. But they are written advisedly, and in the belief that before this chapter ends their use will be justified. The Holy Ghost is now working for the spread of the (lospel as in the beginning. In so far as we disbelieve this or fail to realise it, the coming of the kingdom is hindered. There is a subtle temptation to think that in our time the conditions of work are as far removed in method as in years from those of the Apostles, and that we cannot expect like guidance and success in the work. This seems to be the humble attitude. But it is a false humility, pro- ceeding from an obscuration of the true method of work, and of the real source of power — God's Holy Spirit working through God's people as His instruments. The Holy Ghost said to the "ministering" disciples, " Separate me Barnabas and Saul." This, with the implied ready response to the call and the bare mention of the setting forth, is the mere summary of what would likely be a matter of much and long consideration for the Church at Antioch. How we should like 'to have the details, to read the account of the discussions, to hear the objections against as well as the arguments for the departure, to know how, after deliberation and 148 THREE CLOSED LANDS prayer, the duty of the Church appeared plain to every one, and how the men who had been signally owned of God in that huge city of wickedness were sent off without a murmur. To fill in some of the details regarding the first mission to the people of Independent Bhutan is the object of this chapter. The call of the Holy Ghost has been heard at intervals, and with progressive clearness, for nearly eighteen months. An account of the first resolution of House in Bhutan. the native Church was given in the Guild Life and U'ork for April 1891. Two of the catechists, it was said, " had just been for an evangelistic tour in the Dooars towards Bhutan, and they came back burdened with the thought of the great world lying just beyond as yet untouched by the Gospel. The matter was talked over and made a subject of pra3'er. '"Why should not the native Church here have a Mission to Bhutan ? ' was asked. Every heart seemed prepared to respond, and there and then we determined to do what we could in accordance with the following resolution : — HANDING ON THE TORCH ■49 " \\'e, the undersigned, met together at Kalimpong on the evening of ^Vednesday, 4th February 1891, being of one mind and waiting for the outpouring of God's Holy Spirit, resolved in the spirit of prayer and faith to institute the Kalimpong Foreign Mission to Bhutan, to be supported by the prayers and money of the Christians within the Guild Mission District. We do this because we take it to be the will for us of our Lord and Master, and in the belief that to hand on the light of the Gospel to others will, at the same time, bring blessing upon our own congregations. We, as in (iod's presence, resolve, by all means in our power, to forward the interests of this Foreign Mission." Funds were collected, and it was resolved to support a Bhutia student in the Training School with a view to his being eventually sent to ]3hutan as missionary. But the Bhutia grew tired and left the school. In the Guild Life' and Jl'orA- for June 1S92 was told the story of the next stage in the development of the Mission. " Some of the brethren were getting rather down-hearted, but help came from an unexpected quarter." Sukhman,' the first catechist of the i^ ./^^fe 'J^iafc;...^sa* Mission, who went to r? ^^^^^^^^^« Kalimpong sixteen years ago, " now feels the call to pioneer Independent Bhutan. ... In a quiet way, in his own clear, terse, and eloquent style, he told of his conversion, baptism, and subsequent work, and how of late he heard the voice summon- ing him forward. . . . His offer was accepted with acclamation, and as the various ^ For .Sukhman's photogr.-iph, see p. 58. BHUTANliSE F.\Mn.Y. ISO THREE CLOSED LANDS speakers gave vent to the feelings of the meeting, there were not a few tears shed. . . . Now Sukhman is to visit every Christian household in the district, and to make a personal offer of his services to each, and it is hoped he will go off on his journey — one fraught with no little danger — in July, leaving his wife and family to the care of his brethren and to God." So had it seemed good to us, but it was not to be the leading of the Holy Spirit. Instead of going round the Churches to get the alms and probably the praise of the Christians, Sukhman was kept in his own house for the next three months, to be tried and so strengthened. For six weeks his wife was at death's door, his family also fell sick, and then he himself, worn out with watch- ing over them, became very ill. Temptations assailed himself from within and without. For example, his father-in-law, a heathen Headman of Kalimpong, came with a message from the Lamas that one of them had had a dream, and that if Sukhman did not put up a votive flag to the Evil Spirit his wife would die. The sight of the sick wife and family naturally made him think of what it might be when he was not present to help them. His own illness suggested his possible state in a strange land. Of late his face looked a little sad, and the fear crossed our minds that he might be repent- ing of his offer. The catechists and teachers assembled for the monthly Panchayat on 12th July. Our portion for Bible study in the ordinary course was Acts ix. 16, and in the Prayer Meeting on the 13th our subject was the First Foreign Mission Meeting at Antioch. At our Foreign Mission Meeting that evening the speakers were on fire, and we continued much in prayer. It was laid on our hearts to suggest that a companion should be sent with Sukhman, even though he should only go as an attendant, like John Mark. Immediately Naiman, HANDING ON THE TORCH 151 the Dooars' catechist, got up to say that Jitman of Nagrakata had been asking when Sukhman was comhig, as he wanted to go with him, but that he (Naiman) had not considered the sending of a second missionary feasible, and so had not previously mentioned the offer. Here, we said, is Barnabas, not Mark — a man known to be full of the Holy Ghost and of good works. How we did praise God ! But the cloud was still on Sukh- man's face. " I'll do what the brethren decide," said he, " but now there is great danger from the swollen rivers." "Jitman told me to tell Sukhman he could show him the good roads into Bhutan," rejoined Naiman. And then our thought was, \Vho is to be the John Mark of the band ? We felt that one would be found. A committee was appointed to consider ways and means. The cloud on Sukhman's face had lifted by the morn- ing. At our monthly " Love Feast " (breakfast) he said he had to confess his faults to his brethren. The Devil had been trying to put obstacles in the way, but these had been wonderfully removed. He had had some mercenary thoughts in the prospect of raising funds here and there, but he had been kept in a house of sickness, and these had been destroyed. The swollen rivers and his own weak state was the final suggestion of the Evil One. Jitman had been sent to remove these excuses. And now he was eager to go at once, and that forenoon with what joyful interest did we trace in the Acts of the Apostles the history of that first great missionary journey to the Gentiles. Never had it appeared in the same light. Next morning at half-past six we met to bid Sukh- man God-speed, and to remember Jitman. ^Ve partook of Communion together ; and, after the pattern of the Antioch Church, the catechists and ministers (Mr. Kilgour and the Guild Missionary), as representing the '52 THREE CLOSED LANDS whole body of the people, laid their bands on Sukh- man's head, and accepted the responsibility of sending him as our ambassador for Christ. Several of the younger brethren seemed willing to go in tiie ro/e of John Mark. But it is an old man, Kar- nabir, who has been called. He went to Sukhman and asked to be taken as attendant. But there was the objection that he was as yet a Hindu. He had, however, for- years known of Christ from a Christian brother and son, and he asked for baptism before leav- ing. This was granted to him on the 13th, the evening before Sukhman and he set off to Bhutan, V via Nagrakata where they expect to be joined by Jitman. The Committee of ways and means resolved that a sum should be given monthly to Sukh- man's wife and four children ; that, if need be, the same should be done for Jitman's wife; and that whatever might be over — much or little — should be sent to the front as occasion offered. The missionaries get no stated pa)', and they go forth content to be in want or to abound, and in no case to accept for themselves anything but their food and clothing. Sukhman was the best paid man in the Mission service, and Jitman a most valued employee of a tea-planter, who is a good friend to the Mission. Kakn.^bu-! and Jitm.an. HANDING ON THE TORCH 153 The exact analogy between Antioch and Kalimpong- was not long maintained, and again we quote from a letter to the Guild Life and Work written a month later than the preceding — To last month's letter I could only add from Dar- jeeling a postscript telling the mere fact of Sukliman's tragic deatli. My idea was that he had started for Bhutan, but he had not. Everything was ready on the Thursday morning, but a heavy fall of rain made the party delay for an hour or two, during which time Sukhman's wife was suddenly seized with a violent choleraic attack. He waited till she recovered on Saturday, and then planned to leave on Monday. ]!ut on Sunday morning he too was attacked with cholera. When his brother, Megbar Singh, was going off at seven o'clock to conduct service in a neiglibouring village, Sukhman called after him not to go, as he felt he would not survive the day. And his prophecy was true; for within twelve hours of the first seizure his spirit had gone. Sukhman died as he lived, a witness to the power of the Gospel. He talked freely with his friends of his departure, and spoke fit words of counsel and consola- tion. Of two subjects especially he talked — his family and the work in Bhutan. Both, he knew, were in God's hands, and would be ciyed for. It was a great comfort to him that his brethren had already undertaken for the support of his family. On the previous day, in talking with his wife of his children, he told her to be suie to send them regularly to school during his absence, and said if he did not return from Bhutan he would still see them from above. \Vhen he could no longer speak, he, in answer to questions, indicated by his expression that his faith was (^rmly fixed on his Saviour's love. 154 THREE CLOSED LANDS Sukhman's death cast a gloom over our last Pan- chayat. IJut it was not a gloom which damped the missionary ardour. The death was rather felt as a louder call for going forward. The standard of the Cross, if not actually raised on the soil of Bhutan, had been taken there in spirit by their brother, and it must be borne onward. Arrangements were made to provide for Sukhman's widow and five children. Karnabir (Mark) was asked to join Jitman, and it was left to them in the meantime to do as the Spirit led them. One of the oldest Catechists expressed his desire to take part in the work, and we believe that a great impetus has been given to the missionary movement among us. After Sukhman's death Karnabir and Jitman carried on the work. Latterly they were stationed at Rungamutti on the southern frontier of Bhutan. The native Church contributed not only to their support but have also accumulated a balance in the Savings Bank to be ready for the time when a successor to Sukhman would be found. As yet, little result in the shape of baptisms can be reported, and the native Church has lately sustained another heavy loss in the death of Jitman and his wife from the same dread cholera. Of the orioinal band Kar- nabir alone is left. Bhutan needs the Gospel. William Carey felt it laid on his heart and made an ineffectual attempt to reach it by missionaries. Few countries, indeed, present soil less likely to HANDING ON THE TORCH 155 produce immediate results than this sadly distracted land of freebooters and raiders, ever on the defensive against each other. Our Indian Government keeps them in check by stopping, if need be, the yearly payment made in lieu of the Dooars district taken from them, but really given more as a "guarantee of their good behaviour." The I'lIADONG BUDDIST MONASTEKY IN SiKKIM. Bhutanese have an unenviable notoriety among the other hill -peoples. When a mother wants to threaten her child into silence, she says, " A Bhutia is coming." The Nepalese and Lepchas, settled in Western Bhutan, have two doors to their houses, an unusual thing for them. The second is to provide a means of escape should the Bhutanese enter by the other. Might is right. Polyandry abounds. The people are W!' HANDING ON THE TORCH 157 under the power of the Lamas whom a British envoy to Bhutan before the war of 1865 described as "the most immoral of the most immoral people on earth." A natural result is that the population is decreasing. Large Prayer-wheel from Bhutan.^ In closing his scholarly book on The Btiddliisin of Tibet, or Ldinaism, now the standard work on the subject, Dr. Waddell writes ; — J The cylinder within is made to revolve by pulling the rope which is attached to a crank. Each revolution is marked by the ringing of the bell. 158 THREE CLOSED LANDS Prayers ever hang on the people's lips. The prayers are chiefly directed to the devils, imploring them for freedom or release from their cruel inflictions, or they are plain naive requests for aid towards obtaining the good things of this life, the loaves and the fishes. At all spare times, day and night, the people ply their prayer- wheels and tell their beads and mutter the mystic six syllables — Om ma-ni pad-nie Hum ! " Om ! the Jewel in the Lotus, Hum ! " — the sentence which gains them their great goal, the ^*\^-*^'%^^&S^ik glorious heaven of eternal bliss, the paradise of the fabu- lous Buddha of boundless light — Amitabha. Still, with all their strivings and the costly services of their priests, the Tibetans never attain peace of mind. They have fallen under the double ban of menacing demons and despotic priests. So it will be a happy day indeed for Tibet when its sturdy, over - credulous people are freed from the in- tolerable tyranny of the Lamas, and delivered from tlie devils whose ferocity and exacting worship weigh like a nightmare upon all. Prayer-house, containing Prayer- wheel Driven by Water-power. The state of Bhutan is worse than that of Tibet, but the grace of God is sufficient even for the Bhutanese. One day the writer was walking along the frontier, and, looking eastward towards Bhutan, he saw the dark HANDING ON THE TORCH 159 Storm-clouds overspread the whole country. But in front, stretching from north to south, appeared a perfect rainbow of marvellous brilliance. The scene seemed typical of the thick spiritual darkness brooding over the land with the bow of promise through the approach of the Sun of Righteousness. And that bow seemed to be God's finger beckon- ing His people on to do what they could to stem the flood of iniquity by telling the Bhutanese of the New Covenant between God and man. And it seemed also to be a reminder of that sure promise " Lo, I am with you alway." CHAPTER XIII HOLDING THE ROPES A AasiT to a great Arsenal or to the strate- gist's room in a war office revolutionises for most of us the conception of warfare. There we have it impressed upon us that to the soldiers at the seat of operations belongs not the whole victory. And so it is in the fight of faith. The missionaries go not on their own responsibility alone, but are sent forth by the Church, whose societies and com- mittees and members provide the necessary faith and prayer and means which are the sinews of war. It was Dr. Carey who, one hundred years ago, gave classical expression to this thought before the first British Protest- ant Missionary Society. Andrew P^uller had said, "There is a gold mine in India, but it seems almost as deep as the centre of the earth. Who will venture to explore it ? " " I will venture to go down," replied Carey, 1 62 THREE CLOSED LANDS " but REMEMBER THAT YOU MUST HOLD THE ROPES." It was after a scene of memorable mission- ary enthusiasm at the Young Men's Guild Conference held in Kirkcaldy in 1888, when the first Guild Missionary was set apart, that he impressed this thought upon the delegates by quoting Carey's words. Their promise in response, made through their chairman the Rev. W. Robertson, they have loyally kept. As will have been evident, the foundations of the Mission had been laid and much Avork already done in the Kalimpong district by Mr. Macfarlane, Mr. Sutherland, and their fellow-labourers. The hearty co-operation of the Guilds, however, led to much expansion in various departments. The Young Men's Guild itself is but a recent development in the life of the Church of Scotland, having been founded in 1881. Its success proves that it has met a want in the Church's organisation, and already there are 681 branches, with a membership of 25,871. Its motto is, "We seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness," and its object is stated to be to unite " societies which have for their object to serve the Lord Jesus Christ, by promoting the spiritual and intellectual life of young men, and by encouraging them to undertake works of Christian usefulness." VOUNG ME.N'.s (.LlLli lJM-lCli.-l.>EA"REK^. Top Roiv.—lslr. G. M'Al].ine, Secretary; Rev. Dr. :\r'MiirtriL-, Convener of Church's Foreign Mi^Muii Committee; Rev. Duncan Campbell, I!.T>., \'ice-Chairman of Guild. Middle Row.—'islr. Ninian Hill ; Rev. Wm. Robertson, iM.A., Guild Chairman ; Mr. [. W. Dou'^las. Editor of Guild Li/c and II 'ork. Bottom Roiv. — Mr. James Craig; iNIr. M. O. Thorburn, Chairman of Missionary" Council ■ Mi- W H. Mill, Mission Treasurer. Photo of Professor Charteris, the Founder and Honorary President uf the Guild, at p. 70. 1 64 THREE CLOSED LANDS An active Society with this aim was bound, sooner or later, to reaHse the binding character of the Master's last command, and have laid upon it the burden of heathendom. The care of the Kalimpong Mission gives it not only an opportunity of discharging this duty, but also binds together the members by objectifying their common aim of service, and otherwise proves through its reflex influ- ence a great blessing to the home branches in their Bible study, literary pursuits, and other work. The crrowincf interest m the Mission is shown by the steadily increasing amount of gifts, which were in 1SS9 .^^379 ; 1S90, ^^467 ; 1891, ^651 ; 1S92, ^662 ; 1893, ^769; 1S94, £7T2; 1S95, -^890; 1S96, The Woman's Guild (founded 1S8S) took up the Medical part of the ^Mission in 1891, built the Charteris Hospital and sent out Dr. Ponder in 1S93, ^^^d Miss Ponder as nurse in 1S95. ^^^ members consist of women " who are engaged in the service of Christ in con- nection with the Church, or desire to give help to any practical Christian work in the parish, as well as all Avho are receiving Christian teaching and looking forward to Christian service." The Woman's Guild finds in the Charteris Hospital an out- let for but a small part of the missionary enthusiasm of its 380 branches with 26,401 W'liMAN '^ IjLlLIJ Ol'JICE-UKAKEK.^. Iloiiorarv F7xsiih}it. — The T)ou-agei--Countes.s of Aberdeen. JJii:.ioii Sccrctarv ,iii,i'Trcasiircr.—M'm .M'lnroy ; Gcnci-al Secretary.— M\- /'ri:w\/i7if.~Mn. Charteri^. Johnston. 1 66 THREE CLOSED LANDS members, but the work at Kalimpong gives, as in the case of the Young Men's Guild, an object for focussing its united interest and a stimulus to its wider diffu- sion. The Church of Scotland's scheme for the organisation of Woman's Work, of which the Guild is a part, has its highest development in the order of Deaconesses, the first established by any branch of the Reformed Church as such ; and some of the Deaconesses have a valuable sphere in stimulating the members Hannah, First Indian Delegate to a Wo- man's Guild Confer- ence {Edinhirgh, 1897). of the Guild by visiting them. Kalimpong and its Mission are immeasu - ably stronger from the prayerful interest of the womanhood and manhood of the Church of Scotland, and in the missionary vigour and devotion of the Guilds we see high hope, and rich promises of the coming of the Lord's Kingdom in that part of the Himalayas, and thence — across the threshold — into those THREE CIREAT CLOSED LANDS.