Sunshine and shadow on the Tibetan border

Preface

A GREAT man might write this preface and tell you a lot of great and good things about this little book ; then you would be bitterly disappointed when you turned the pages and found only real things; things that happen every day; hard things, prosaic things, suffering and pain ; suffering and death with no hope of a hereafter, pain without cessation and relief. Such things as these are in the book, but also the wish goes through and through it that the tiny golden thread of love, of the Infinite Love that prompts all good, may shine for you and teach a greater meaning to living and the greater usefulness of a life spent in the service of the Nazarene. Flora Beai, Shei/ton.

Contents

PAGE

Foreword, - 11

How Our Workers Came to Go to Tibet, - IS What and Where Is Tibet, - - - -22

Foreword

OUR PIONEER MISSIONARY.

"Go Ye."

Away to the north traveled a man with a woman up the Han River for days and days, then in woodenwheeled carts drawn by oxen over the rutty roads of China, on and on to the north until they arrived at the Monastery of Kumbum. The man was a linguist, the woman a doctor. For a few years they studied, taught, and healed the people there, but it was not enough. They had gone to that portion of China with one aim, to reach the city of Lassa; with one hope, to take the Christ to the Tibetans ; with one ideal, to plant a mission in that land. After a time the little son was born, and when he was a year and a half old it was thought they might go out. Medicines, food, bedding, and all they possessed were loaded upon the pack animal and the long journey begun. Over mountains in cold and snow and hardships that can not be known, for days the little caravan wandered, slowly, slowly, yet preaching, doctoring ; "in perils oft," until finally most of the friends who had known and started with them had turned back and they were among strangers, in a strange land. One day, high upon a range of mountains, the little lad

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FOREWORD

sickened. It was too great, that journey for him, and he died. With sad hearts and trembling hands the box that held the little store of medicines was emptied, and the father and mother laid him to sleep on the mountain-side alone, and they went on. Days and days more of travel until they had lost all they had and were left footsore and weary, alone and walking, as they could get no help from the Tibetans, who feared them. One afternoon they neared a village and the man said to the woman, "Wait here and I'll wade the river and get help from the village on the other side." The woman waited until the shadows grew long, but he did not return. Often she said to me, as we saw a mountain-side, grass-covered and brown, "That looks just like the mountain-side where he left me alone that day and never returned." The rivers are swift in that land among the snows. The woman waited, and then saw that she must help herself and find some help or shelter for the night. She found a few to aid her, and finally, with the help of a friendly Chinese trader, came to safety and arrived at Tachienlu, where an English mission family took her in and cared for her. In a few months she came home to Canada and America with the ideal still not forgotten, and though broken in health, weak in body, with a zeal, heaven-inspired, interested people in the land of Tibet. In a short time — a space of a few years — she was ready to return, sent back again to establish the mission of which she and the man had so long dreamed. It was not as she had planned, but God's ways are not always ours. Not long did she

FOREWORD

stay with the mission, for her work was done. The little station was established, and she saw the two families there before she left it. Then she was permitted to come home to Canada to die. Widely separated are the three last resting places, but there — over there, there is no separation and no darkness. Dr. Susie Rijnhart is the woman of which I write.

CHAPTER I How Our Workers Came to Go to Tibet

"The dice of God are always loaded."

Emerson was right when he used the words at the head of this chapter. In spite of all forces and all human plans the one great plan is always carried through. The Foreign Christian Missionary Society, when appointing Dr. Shelton to go to Nankin, China, to relieve Dr. Macklin, did not dream of a mission station in Tibet — nor did we who afterward went to that far field.

It was in the year 1899 that the Disciples in America first heard of the country of Tibet and its need of help, and began to demand that a mission be opened in that country. Dr. Susie Rijnhart had come out from that land alone, having lost her husband and baby there, and for four years had been speaking and pleading for workers for this remote field. Her own health was not of the best, but a determination to plant a mission among Tibetans never left her and she planned better than she knew.

IS

In 1902 she spoke at the Iowa State Convention of the Disciples of Christ, held in Des Moines, and raised six hundred dollars, with which she bought medical instruments for use among the Tibetans. At this time Dr. Rijnhart had been under appointment by the Foreign Christian Missionary Society for more than a year, waiting and asking for some one to go with her. She wished to go at once to Tachienlu, West China, and wanted a doctor and his wife to accompany her, as she believed that the Gospel might be preached to the Tibetans more easily through the medium of medical work.

The Secretary of the Foreign Society wrote and asked Dr. Shelton if he would consider going to Tibet, as another man could be more easily found for Nankin. As a matter of fact, Tachienlu sounded little farther than Nankin to us, and we telegraphed we would go. On September 27th we arrived in San Francisco and met Dr. Rijnhart for the first time. As there was no minister in the party Dr. Shelton was ordained by W. M. White, J. Durham, and E. W. Darst of the First Christian Church in the city. Dr. Rigdon presented us with some medical books and a number of instruments before we sailed.

As the steamship China left the pier and we realized that we were out in that big, big water and America was fading away, it seemed very lonely, indeed, and we, that is, I, was dreadfully homesick, but it soon changed to another kind of sickness which kept us fully occupied for a while. During the days of seasickness, and afterwards throughout the long sea voy-

"Johnny," formerly our cook, now a most efficient medical assistant, who has made eight trips entirely across China in the interests of the mission.

HOW OUR WORKERS CAME TO GO TO TIBET

age, we were greatly comforted and cheered by a dear old lady and gentleman who were going back to China to end their days as missionaries among their chosen people.

When we reached Nankin one of our Chinese young men, a Christian, a graduate of Christian College, a Chinese scholar as well, who spoke English, volunteered to go to Tachienlu with us. He was a most valuable man, and it meant much for him to leave his work and his people and go with us. His preaching was the finest that had ever been heard in Nankin, and great crowds came to hear him.

Last, but not least of our party was "Johnny," an English-speaking Chinese cook and the most useful man of all.

We reached Tachienlu, March 15, 1904, after a long, difficult journey overland of nearly three months. We arrived in the midst of a snowstorm, and it seemed pretty cold to the two southern-bred Chinamen. Mr. Moyes, of the China Inland Mission, met us with the mail and we had letters from home. He had kindly fixed up some rooms in a Tibetan inn for our accommodation, and papered the walls with Chinese paper, but they would not let him scrub the floors, as the landlady said it never had been scrubbed and she could n't let it be done. So we put matting on the floor to keep the dirt from getting between our toes and lived there until in May, when we got a house of our own.

Dr. Rijnhart at once opened a dispensary, and Dr. Shelton and I began to study Chinese.

In the fall of 1904, when we wanted to study

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Tibetan, all the printed helps we had were a small primer by Mr. Amundsen and the New Testament, written in the classical Tibetan, which was not at all like the spoken language. The boys in the mission school had nothing at all. Their first lessons must be written by a Tibetan teacher and committed. So the Society was asked to send a man, especially for literary work, and we were glad, indeed, to hear that Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Ogden, of Kentucky University, were appointed May 12, 1905, and were to sail early in September for China.

As Dr. Rijnhart was engaged to Mr. Moyes, and it was only a matter of a few months until she would be leaving the mission, we rejoiced greatly to hear of the new people coming.

In September Dr. Shelton and Johnny left Tachienlu for Shanghai to escort the new people to the border. Mr. Moyes and Dr. Rijnhart went to Chentu and were married in October, 1905. Mrs. Moyes resigned from the mission in December, 1906. After the return of Dr. Shelton with the Ogdens, Mr. Yang, the Chinese evangelist, left for Nankin to care for his wife and mother, so the mission was only a small band at this time — four of us, besides our baby Dorris and Johnny.

In September, 1906, Mr. Ogden and Dr. Shelton started for Batang, five hundred miles from Tachienlu, on the Tibetan border. There was a cessation in the fighting; the country was practically tranquil and once more under Chinese control. General Joa had just captured Shangchen and was still

HOW OUR WORKERS CAME TO GO TO TIBET

stationed there. When the two men arrived in Batang they were most kindly received and found many old friends and acquaintances who had been to the Tachienlu dispensary.

They stayed four days, examining the country and studying the conditions of the place and people, one day going down the Yangtse River, on another going up the valley to see the country in that direction. They found the population of the city to be wholly Tibetan, outside of the officials and soldiers, and that all the inhabitants in the surrounding country were Tibetans except a few Chinese, who had lived there for thirty or forty years and had even forgotten their own language.

So close to the border of Tibet was the city of Batang that they believed more Tibetan work could be done and more Tibetans reached than at Tachienlu, and though travelers were not permitted to cross the line at that time, they believed that in a few years they could safely go into the country, and would be invited to do so, which has proved to be true.

During the spring of 1907 a suggestion came from the Society to close Tibetan work and join the China Mission, on the plains in East China, as it was so difficult to get men and supplies to such a distant station. Dr. Shelton and Mr. Ogden both wrote, unconditionally refusing to leave their beloved Tibetans and sacrifice the years of study and the friends they had made.

Then a letter came from the President of the Society saying he had been praying that the answer would be as they had sent it, and granting them permission to go eighteen days farther inland to the city of Batang and there establish the mission permanently. That meant some preparation. So the two men went to Chungking to purchase two years' supplies of soap, sugar, candles, etc., and buy saws and tools for the cutting of timber and building of houses ; for in the new land they must become hewers of wood, drawers of water, brick-makers, lumber-cutters, tilemakers, furniture-builders, teaching the Chinese carpenters how to build even a wash tub before a good bath could be taken.

Mr. Ogden brought the supplies up river and came through Chentu, hiring three Chinese carpenters to help in the proposed building.

Boxes holding seventy- five or eighty pounds must be made and packed with household goods, medicine, instruments, books, bedding, pictures, and dishes. The boxes were covered with wet skin which soon dries and becomes very hard and keeps all dampness from the contents. This covering also prevents the boxes from bursting to pieces if a carrier yak should get on a stampede.

We left Tachienlu July 7, 1908, and reached Batang July 24th. Johnny had already been there and had cleaned two rooms in half of a Tibetan mudhouse for us to occupy. Mr. and Mrs. Ogden prepared to go with us, but decided to wait for Dr. Loftis, a new medical missionary under appointment. Their plans were again changed, however, and they came on to Batang, arriving October 31st. We were all together once more and looking for the new doctor's coming.

HOW OUR WORKERS CAME TO GO TO TIBET

Pioneers are very necessary, but I like to read about them much better than I like to be one, and we were the pioneers of our Mission and of all Missions to Tibet, with the exception of Mr. Muir and wife of the China Inland Mission, who were six days ahead of us in arriving at Batang, and who were joined some two years later by Mr. J. Huston Edgar and wife, with little Elsie and Chalmers, also of the same mission. Mail comes once a month, a man is hired to make the trip to Tachienlu and return, and it takes about thirty days, unless he is a very fast walker. The city is Oriental and has everything that goes with that word : dirt, heat, flies, mangy dogs, naked babies, halfclothed men and women, no rain for months, and the chaff from the wheat threshing flying everywhere. But our trials are few ; they might be more. So long as we are all well I do not mind. Then there are the babies — bless them! — they never allow us to get lonesome.

The first great event that happened at Batang was the birth of little Ruth Ogden, the first foreign baby born in that city. There are three babies now in the mission — Dorris, Dorothy, and Ruth. They do n't at all mind the dirt, and the heat, and what we call discomfort. It does n't matter to them if the streets and roads are feet deep in dry dust, or whether it is warm, or whether it is cold, they are always happy and make the sun shine for us.

CHAPTER II. What and Where Is Tibet?

"And whether crowned or crownless when I fall, It matters not, so God's work is done."

"Tibet is a high tableland entirely surrounded by mountains, inhabited by nomad tribes," is what the geography used to say, and that is about right as far as it goes. There might be a few additions, for and against, but it answers very well for this unknown land which most travelers are compelled to see around the edges with little dips inside, while very few have been permitted to get in at all, let alone stay in for any length of time.

The country of Tibet is a great tableland with very few valleys below ten thousand feet, and many mountain ranges traversing it that are much higher than that, and in them, perhaps, will be found the culminating point of the world, though as yet no traveler has proved that true.

Surrounding this plateau is China on the east, with her dislike of foreign customs and people, India and Nepaul on the south, Nepaul being a Chinese province by conquest, a large army capturing it about one hundred and thirty years ago. Nepaul pays tribute every thirteen or fourteen years to China, its people marching the long, weary way from that country to

Pekin, taking two or three years to make the journey because China demands it, that they may see her vastness and power. The journey could be made by sea in six months. Their representatives have traveled this long journey heretofore with hundreds of men and animals carrying their loads of coral-shelled cocoanuts, jewels, and elephant tusks as tribute to the emperor.

India has forbidden the entrance to Tibet of even the Moravian missionaries, who have camped on the southern borders for more than fifty years awaiting a chance to enter. Persia and Turkestan, with their exclusive heathendom, are on the west. Russia is on the north, in her inaccessible sullenness. So it is well named the "Hermit Nation," for all forces, natural and physical, have tended and helped to make it so.

Yet early in the fourteenth century a Jesuit Father is supposed to have reached Lassa, the sacred capital. Then in two or three centuries more Catholics entered the country, and later an Englishman or two came close to the Sacred City. In 1844 and 1846 Hue and Babet, French missionaries, reached Lassa from China, but were soon sent out again.

The Tibetans have been very jealous for their country, as in their sacred books the lamas warn the people that the foreigner must not be allowed to settle in their land, for if they do, their own religion is doomed. But of late years a native of India, Nain Singh, who studied the language in that country, went to Lassa disguised as a lama and added much to the knowledge of that forbidden land before he was discovered and deported. Also oar own Rockhill, writing of his travels on the eastern border, has given much knowledge to the world. And the Swedish traveler Sven Hedin, who has been in from the west, discovered the sources of the three rivers, the Indus, the Sutlej, and the Brahmaputra, has written much on his travels, and his books are of inestimable value in giving to the world knowledge of Tibet.

The country, being so high, is cold, though to the south the valleys are warm and sunny, and barley, wheat, and buckwheat are raised by the people who live there. However, the higher portions are cold, so cold that the punishment often given to criminals is to send them to a warm region, just as the Chinese send theirs from the plains where there is plenty of rice and sunshine into the bitter cold of the mountains. Where it is impossible to raise grain the people live in black tents of yak hair and tend their cattle, and sheep, and goats ; eating butter, cheese, and milk, and raw meat, clad in their skin gowns, hardy and wild as their own yak and native land.

The source of the Yangtse is still to be discovered. It extends away into mountains beyond Batang perhaps a thousand miles.

The population of Tibet is estimated from three to six million, and the many lamaseries, or monasteries, of Buddhist priests contain perhaps one-seventh of the population.

Gold has been found along the eastern border and a little lead and iron, but no coal or silver as yet. A caravan route of trade has been established for two or

A nomad tent in a valley among the mountains.

Chair travel on the road to Batang.

three hundred years from Tachienlu to Lassa, the Chinese tea and cloth being traded for the Tibetan furs, musk, yak-tails, and borax. Among the larger lamaseries is the one at Litang, containing thirtyseven hundred lamas. The one at Batang had almost three thousand, but was entirely destroyed at the time of the Chinese invasion and will never be rebuilt. The ruins of the lamasery, as they stand now, cover nine acres, while a little distance below is a steep cliff, above a sharp bend in the river, where no Chinamen dared go in those days when it was in the height of its power, or they were unceremoniously dumped over the cliff into the river.

There are still many small monasteries around on the mountains, but no large ones, and it is the policy of the Chinese Government to keep the number of priests below one hundred in each one, so that they can never grow strong and rebel against the Chinese again.

Perhaps a bit of Batang history would not be uninteresting, as our mission is so closely connected with the country, and the political events as they occur have more or less influence on the station. In the winter of 1904 and 1905 there was trouble at Tyling, some five days' journey to the north and west of Tachienlu, over the mining of gold. The Chinese demanded the opening of the mines and sent men to dig the metal. The Tibetans did not want the mineral dug, as they said the Chinese would take all the seed away and there would n't be any more gold. So government troops were sent in, and some fighting occurred, with a few killed on each side, with this result, that the Tyling lamas sent emissaries to the other monasteries and among the people in the west, asking aid to help them throw off the Chinese yoke.

For a hundred years or more China has been fighting in this part of her dominion, sending in a few soldiers and advancing one step at a time, holding the conquered territory. At this time Chinese Commissioner Fong was stationed at Batang, and the Tibetans refused to believe that he was the real representative of the emperor, either knowingly or unknowingly taking that position. His policy was to limit the number of priests in the lamaseries; so he announced the fact that three hundred lamas were enough for any city the size of Batang, and asked the rest, about twenty-five hundred, to take unto themselves wives and go to work.

That sounds all right in theory, but the lamas do not yield to that kind of advice very readily, as they are supposed to abjure all women, do no work, and lead holy lives of meditation and prayer. So these priests went among the people up and down the river valleys and in the vicinity of Batang, rousing them, inciting them to fight against the Chinese, so that in April, 1905, relations between the Chinese and Tibetans were getting very much strained. Commissioner Fong was afraid to go and afraid to stay. He had a bodyguard of about sixty soldiers and a great show of foreign guns, but not a single round of ammunition. Finally he decided to flee, and one morning he started. The people knew he was afraid. He had gone only a little way from the city when the Tibetans completely surrounded him, coming down from the mountains and up the valleys, from behind him and in front of him, all shouting and firing from every place, at one time, so it seemed. His chair-bearers were instantly killed, then all of his soldiers, as they were neither able to run or fire a single shot. Fong got out of his chair, turned his face toward Pekin, worshiped the emperor, whose relation he was, and so "kotowing," died. These men, all but the commissioner, are buried where they fell, close together, a tablet marking the immense tomb, which is built of stone and the carved slabs from a "mani" pile. This occurrence greatly encouraged the rebellious Tyling lamas and all the Tibetans.

In Tachienlu, where the mission was located at this time, excitement ran high, rumors came that the Tibetans were coming to sack the city, coming clothed in skin gowns, but would return in silk garments. Many people took their valuables and fled the city. Pekin ran over with excitement all at once, and sent several thousand men, with General Ma commanding, to fully subdue that corner of Tibet. He at once destroyed the lamasery, but the lamas, knowing that they were in for it, had fled before his arrival, taking their most valuable possessions with them. Now he revenged the death of Fong mightily. Several hundred men were beheaded. Many homes were left desolate. Heads fell so thick and fast there was no one to bury the bodies, and no one cared. Their friends were afraid to come and get them. The hungry dogs had feasted every day, even the Chinese soldiers eating their dead enemies' hearts and livers. The heads of the chief men, when severed, were placed on trays and presented before Fong's coffin as an offering to him.

In the city General Ma beheaded both of the Tibetan governors, though they had tried to prevent the killing of the commissioner. This is the Chinese custom, however. If a man can't govern his people he must pay the price, and it is usually his head.

Two Catholic priests were killed before General Ma arrived, their buildings destroyed, and all their followers who would not retract were shot. The land and houses of all those who helped in the rebellion, or those supposed to have helped, were confiscated by the Chinese Government. The Catholics were afterwards given the second governor's house and grounds as part compensation for damage done to them, as well as a hundred and twenty thousand taels, which the French Government demanded besides.

General Ma now left and General Joa took command in 1906. He besieged the city of Shangchen for three or four months. Shangchen is seven days to the south of Batang. All the people had shut themselves in the lamasery and could neither be dislodged nor starved out, but finally, after three or four months' siege, the source of the water supply was found cut off. Then they decided to open the doors and run, but as they left the building men, women, children, and lamas were hacked to pieces, some six hundred being slain.

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The big monastery, with its valuable books, paintings, and scrolls, fell into the hands of the Chinese. The brass and bronze idols were broken in pieces and carried to Chentu, the capital of Szechuan, on men's backs and by yak loads and coined into Chinese half cent copper pieces. The big painted idol of the Buddha was captured, and the general told the people they could have it for three thousand rupees, which was promptly paid.

For this great victory General Joa was created imperial commissioner for the defense of the western frontier of China. During these years, up to 191 1, he has been fighting and conquering city after city and tribe after tribe in this part of Tibet. Eighteen days beyond Batang, at Chamdo, he has placed a garrison of Chinese soldiers ; the telegraph line is being extended toward Lassa. During the fall of 1910 the Chinese soldiers he had stationed at Shangchen, to the number of about two hundred, rebelled against the Chinese Government. Eighteen of them, their major, and two of the captains were recaptured, and General Joa meted out their punishment, which was a severe one.

Many years ago what was called the border of Tibet was the top of a mountain-pass between Tachienlu and Yachow. Years later the border was moved again, as the Chinese crowded more and more into the western part of the province. It was then placed at a little stone bridge just beyond Tachienlu. Some two hundred and fifty years more of fighting and conquest and trying to people the valleys with Chinese farmers, resulted in the line being placed just beyond Batang. The Tibetan population, however, extends westward to the old border. Though Tibet has been called a part of the Chinese Empire, it has been practically independent. But after the English expedition under Colonel Younghusband to Lassa, in 1905, the Chinese awoke to the fact that something must be done.

Russia, on the north, was jealously watching England, while England, on the south, was busy guessing what Russia meant to do; so they both stood off and gave China her opportunity. At present all cities of the least importance for strategic purposes are manned by a garrison of Chinese soldiers. The ruling officials everywhere are Chinese, so that now after the last year's fighting Tibet is practically all under Chinese control, while the Dalai lama has fled the country and his people, and is now a guest in India.

In the summer of 191 1 General Joa was created viceroy of the Province of Szechuan, and with his conquering army has left Tibetan country for a residence in the capital city, Chentu.

The future history of the country, as well as the ease or hardship that the mission may have to endure, depends much on his successor. At present the land is leased for the hospital building and the way seems opening for a greater work.

Chapter III

"Raise the stone and thou shalt find Me, Cleave the wood and there am I."

"Going to Tibet," so said the letter, and the news fell as a thunderbolt out of a clear sky. "Why, the man is wild; he has just finished his medical course and must make a name for himself; he had better be buried alive than to go to that country." So thought all the friends of the young doctor and his wife when they had decided to go to this distant station.