—~ | = ESCA Lick rn on oa No to Sa ELUES ® Che Gospel Among the Garos A Descriptive and Historical Sketch of the Garo Mission of Assam tikes» AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONARY UNION BOSTON, MASS. _ ACKNOWLEDGMENT OR the material upon which this sketch is based we are indebted to Mrs. W. C. Mason and Rev. E. G. Phillips, D.D., of our mission at Tura. For the illustrations we acknowledge our obliga- tion to the missionaries who furnished the photo- graphs from which they were made. TYPICAL GARO HOMES THE GOSPEL AMONG THE GAROS ais HE Garo Hills form a small district of the new province of British India named Eastern Bengal and Assam, and cover a territory about as large as the state of Rhode Island. These hills are the eastern end of the range. of mountains be- tween Assam and Bengal, around which the Brahmaputra sweeps as it turns south towards the Ganges and the ocean. The whole district is rugged and hilly, and travel, except on the few government roads, is very difficult, most of the roads being mere footpaths through the forests or thick jungle growth. These paths run over steep, high hills, and often along the beds of streams, and are in many places almost impassable for ponies. Although the district lies just outside the tropics, the cli- mate is tropical. During the rainy season, June to September, the average annual rainfall is about 125 inches. The footpaths become densely overgrown, the mountain streams become tor- rents and work outside the station is difficult. This season is de- voted to school and literary work in the station and the super- vision of district work by correspondence. The dry, delightful cool season, is spent in work in the villages. The climate can hardly be called salubrious. The population suffer much from malaria. With great care the missionaries escape this disease most of the time, The Garos number about 164,000, of whom 110,000 are in their own hills. Most of the remainder are on the adjacent plains of Assam and Bengal, while some are scattered afar. They belong to a general race family of whom the Nagas, 4 THE GOSPEL AMONG THE GAROS Singphos and other tribes form a _ part. There is a tradition that they came originally from Tibet, and they have certain facial characteristics that are distinctly Mon- golian. They are short and_ stocky, with small black eyes, dark skin, and broad, flat noses. They are very muscular, for they are great hill climbers. In religion they are ani- mists, worshiping not idols, but evil spirits, called mutes, which, they be- lieve, live in rocks, trees and bam- boos, and whose anger causes all their ills. They have no temples nor pagodas, but on simple shrines of bamboo offer sacrifices of domestic beasts and fowls. Before Christian- ity was brought to them they were utterly illiterate ; civilization had hardly touched them,—their highest ambition was eating and drinking. Yet they were free from caste, the curse of India; women were respected and not secluded; family life was honored; truthfulness was guarded by severe penalties; and the tribe had been kept from the deg- radation to which many savages had fallen. By intertribal warfare and frequent raids against their outside neighbors they had rightly won the title of “head-hunters,” yet they were, as a people, rich virgin soil for the planting of truth, A STRONG GARO FACE First Garo Converts The first effective move towards light and towards Christ, so far as we can trace it, was made when, in 1847, the Indian Government, in its effort to gain control of this troublesome tribe, opened a school for Garo boys at Goalpara, on the Brah- maputra River, about eight miles outside the borders of the Garo territory, with the purpose of educating a few young men and sending them back to civilize their tribe. While God was moving the government of India to take this step, he had prepared about twelve young men to desire the advantages of this school, a number of whom were among the first laborers in the Garo corner of the world vineyard. THE GOSPEL AMONG THE GAROS UL Among these were Omed and Ramkhe, uncle and nephew, afterwards the first two converts from the tribe. Ramkhe, then only a boy, had a bright mind, and already had deep long- ings after something better than what the spirit-worship and the crude myths of his people could give him. He was eager at once to enter the school, but was refused permission by his parents until, in the providence of God, he fell irom sa” tiee and broke his arm. Being, in consequence, of little value in farming, he was permitted to go to school. With intellectual enlightenment came an intense restlessness, and a con- viction that there must be one great God over all. He first thought that he had found him in one of the Hindu deities, of whom he read. Soon, however, a little tract left by a touring missionary from Bengal revealed to him the true God. After a few years, the school was discontinued, but Omed and Ramkhe, unwilling to go back to their benighted people, settled among the inhabitants of the plains, where they joined the police service. The environment of this work was far from helpful morally, and the spiritual enlightenment which Ramkhe had received became dimmed. Years later, in Gauhati, their old longings were revived. They sought in- struction from a native evangelist there, and soon accepted Christ. ibhen, and t hen only, were they ready to go back to their own peo- ple. The darkness and savagery which had _ once HEATHEN GARO WOMEN Le pe lled them Notice the earrings which are characteristic of the Garo now drew them. women. They are of brass, a quarter of an inch thick and from three to six inches in diameter. Thirty are ay es They were | of worn on each ear, weighing all together five pounds. tized in 1863 by Rev. Miles Bronson, D.D., then our missionary in Nowgong, resigned their government positions, and under Dr. Bronson’s supervision, were soon among their own people, Omed as an 6 THE GOSPEL AMONG THE GAROS evangelist and Ramkhe as a Christian schoolteacher. God richly rewarded their labors, and after four years Dr. Bronson was called to baptize forty-seven converts, and to organize the first Garo church. During this year, 1867, Rev. and Mrs. I. J. Stoddard took charge of the Garo field at Goalpara, and Rev. M. B. Comfort began Garo work at Gauhati. Some years later work among the Garos on the plains of Mymensing was commenced by the English Baptist Mission. The work was afterwards made over to the Australian Bape They now have a prosperous Garo Mission. During the same year in which Mr. and Mrs. Stoddard took up work at Goalpara, the government, hoping to control the Garos, stationed a few officers with a military force at Tura, in the heart of the hills. In 1870, proposals were made to the missionaries in Goalpara that Tura be occupied as a mission station and that a medical missionary be sent there, the goy- ernment to give a grant towards his support; the station was not opened, however. After a bloody raid for heads against the people of the plains in 1872, a military force was despatched into the inter- ior, and the tribe was quickly brought under British control. The government urged at once the prosecution of educational work, and again recommended the placing of a missionary in the center of the hills, at Tura. Rev. M. C. Mason, D.D., and Rey. E. G. Phillips, D.D., with their wives, joined the mission at Goalpara in 1874, and two years later Mr. and Mrs. Phil- lips occupied Tura, Mr. and Mrs. Mason following in 1878. Educational Work As soon as the tribe was taken over in 1873, the Indian Government, as it is wont to do in such circumstances, made preparations to educate the new charge. The officials realized, as the chief commissioner of Assam put it, that “It is difficult to convince a Garo or a Khasi... of the advantage of learning. The only lever that has been found effective is that of religion.” In other words, the government considered that a Christian education was the kind needed for the Garos, and that the missionaries were the ones to give it; consequently grants-in-aid were given to the mission schools. There are now over 125 of these schools, all taught by THE GOSPEL AMONG THE GAROS i Christian men, whose support comes, in part, from the peo- ple they serve. In many cases the conversion of the commun- ity has begun in the school, and often the desire for religious instruction has been the motive for seeking the teacher. The school taught by Ramkhe, into which he strove to in- stil his own devout spirit, was soon developed into a training school for teachers, evangelists and pastors. For a part of the time a similar, though smaller, school has been conducted in Gauhati. One is also conducted by the Australian Mission. STARTING ON TOUR Touring is quite an undertaking in Assam. The missionary must carry tent, bedding, chair and table, food and books, requiring the services of many Catriers, The cost of these, however, is small. The original one, early removed to Tura, has advanced to the grade of a middle English school, with an attendance of about 250 pupils. Already some of the best of the young men are asking for a high school. The problem of the support of pupils was at first met by stipends; but this practise has now been discontinued, and the mission strives to supply opportunities whereby pupils, by about four hours’ manual labor each day, may earn enough to meet their necessary expenses. In addition to employment about mission premises and buildings, a cotton-ginning plant is being developed, where a machine run by foot power is prov- ing very useful in ginning the short staple cotton, grown exten- 8 THE GOSPEL AMONG THE GAROS sively in the hills. With funds specially contributed by friends in America, a kerosene engine has been procured, to be used in place of foot power, and a permanent ginning plant is being built. The proceeds will usually meet the running expenses of the ginning, but. it is hardly anticipated that the industry will soon become a paying business financially. Never- theless, it is firmly believed that it is a profitable investment of missionary energy and funds. It is believed that the pupil who SCHOOLBOYS AT TURA The results of education are strikingly evident in this picture. Moreover, it is a Christian education, fitting the young men and women receiving it for real service to their people. works his way through school leaves with a stronger character than one carried through by funds not his own. Experience is confirming this belief. Character is what is sought. The religious teaching, which is a regular feature in these training schools, is supplemented to a small degree on the Tura field by workers’ institutes, held for a few days in the cold season at a convenient time and place. The missionaries, however, feel strongly that the special prepa ration for pastoral and evangelistic work has been very inadequately done. A special school for Christian workers, a theological school, is urgently demanded. THE GOSPEL AMONG THE GAROS 9 Literature With the evolution of a Christian community among a people where the’ medium of teaching is a language at first unwritten and without books, the development of a Christian literature is imperative. To neglect this is to produce spirit- ually undeveloped weaklings. At present the output of liter- ature is painfully insufficient. The New Testament and Gene- sis have been translated, and parts of them several times re- vised. A hymn book and a tune book, a few religious tracts and catechisms and several text-books have been published, also a monthly periodical, The Garo’s Friend. More of the Bible is needed, more text-books, more books of a general char- acter, and the working force should be strong enough to allow some of the missionaries to give time to the preparation of this needed literature. The demand by the Garos for literature and school sup- plies has developed a fund, by the aid of which it is hoped that this department may be, aside from missionary labor, largely self-supporting. The work has been hampered hitherto by want of suitable housing and conveniences. This need has now been met by the erection of the Lucy Smith Memorial Library, a generous gift of Dr. Stephen Smith of New York, the father of Mrs. W. C. Mason, of Tura, in memory of her mother. It is proposed that this shall not only accommodate a library and reading-room developed in keeping with the needs of the native community, but shall also house the book department. Medical Work Up to 18099, the medical work for the mission in Tura was done by the general missionaries, aided at times by the govern- ment medical department in Tura. In that year Rev. G. G. Crozier, M.D., joined the mission. There have been obstacles to overcome in winning the way for foreign medical treat- ment, and in Tura the work was hampered by want of. suit- able hospital appliances; but people learned that Dr. Crozier’s medicines were better than sacrificing to demons, and so large has become the demand for his help and so ready are the people. to pay for what they get, that the work, aside from buildings and his salary, has become self-supporting. A part of his task consists in training natives in medicine, and with them doing much medical evangelistic work throughout the IO THE GOSPEL AMONG THE GAROS district. With the completion of a fine hospital at Tura, the outlook for medical work is full of promise. Religious and Church Life It would probably be impossible to find a community whose entire life is ideally religious. It was so when the Christiana church was young, and is so in Garo land. While we shall not find per- fection in the re- ligious life of these just out of savagery, there is much that shows the power of the gospel of Christ to transform and to save. Throughout the large and grow- i ing Garo Christian A CHRISTIAN GARO FAMILY community, the wor- The Christian homes are the hope ofthe Garos. These ship of God and centers of influence are rapidly increasing throughout Christ has taken the eee place of fear- prompted sacrifice to demons; total abstinence from intoxicants has supplanted drunkenness; society is being transformed; the clouds of heathen darkness have lifted and the floods of God’s light give them clearing visions of the unspeakably grand in- heritance that lies before the people of God. The churches have been developed in independence, both in matters of discipline and in the support and conduct of the work, The missionaries have regarded themselves as helpers of churches, rather than as helped by them, and counted those they employ as “workers” rather than “helpers.” The Garo Christians have shown an encouraging degree of initia- tive ability, in educational affairs, church activity and the or- ganization of work in general. Examinations for baptism and membership and the discipline of members is conducted inde- pendently of the missionary, and much care is exercised. Thus far there has been, on the Tura and Gauhati fields, THE GOSPEL AMONG THE GAROS II a reluctance on the part of the native Christians to organize many small churches. The 4,500 and more communicants in the Tura mission are organized into sixteen churches. These are sub-divided into branches in the different villages. These branches unite in choosing and supporting the pastor and in deciding other matters pertaining to the whole church, while in questions that belong only to their branch they have a degree of independence. The churches support their pastors and meet all the church expenses, besides contributing, in nearly all the villages, towards the support of the day schools. In some of the smaller churches, the schoolteacher is pastor, and as such is in part paid by the community he serves, Mission funds pay for no pastoral work, and for no buildings for any purpose, church or school, save at the mission station. All the churches are organized into an association, which meets annually, for the consideration of important matters of interest to the whole body. At this meeting the whole field is reviewed; the location of schoolteachers and the appoint- ment of associational evangelists for the coming year is thor- oughly discussed; and Sunday school, foreign missionary work and other matters of importance are considered. Hundreds attend these meetings, some ’delegates walking more than one hundred miles each way. As. the heathen Garo women have been accustomed to interest themselves in public matters, so the Christian women are ready to take a lively interest in the things of the King- dom. They have their women’s meetings, officered and well conducted by women, where papers are presented on topics of special interest to women. In many villages weekly wo- men’s meetings are held. The women also contribute directly to evangelistic work, many laying aside each meal-time a hand- ful of rice for this purpose. In this way as many as ten evan- gelists have at one time been maintained. In the greater part of the village schools, and in the Tura training school, coeducation is successfully practised, and a good number of girls have completed the full course. Young men have annual meetings in conjunction with as- sociation meetings, and in many places have weekly young men’s meetings. Connected with the Tura training school is a Young Men’s Christian Association. The young men are col- lecting funds for some special work, not yet determined. [2 THE GOSPEL AMONG THE GAROS The evangelistic spirit among the churches manifests it- self both in efforts to reach the unevangelized in their own tribe, and to carry the gospel to other tribes. For several years the churches on the Tura field maintained a Garo mis- sionary to the Daphlas, in upper Assam, and also have done mission work for the Rabhas, a neighboring tribe. Serious obstacles are hindering the Daphla work, but the purpose of the Garos to prosecute foreign mission work has not been abandoned. Wide fields are open to the Garos. If they can be ade- quately instructed, and rightly led, there are splendid possi- bilities before them. They néed to be filled with the Spirit. and then God not only will make of them, from a tribe of head-hunters, a tribe Christianized, cleansed, civilized, a bright trophy of his grace in Christ, but will use them for his glory in establishing his kingdom in central southern Asia. A VILLAGE CHAPEL Not particularly attractive in appearance, yet prized by the congrega- tions, houses of worship like this are to be found, in increasing numbers, in the villages of the Garos. 740-1 Ed-5 M-July, 1908, Price, 5 cents; 50 cents a dozen