The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1925, Page 114

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114 ~~

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

Reclaiming Christ’s Heritage. .

VIII.
FARTHER INDIA.

Under this heading we bring two India proy-
inces, Assam and Burma. Though forming a part
of the great Indian Empire, they are so different
in many respects that a separate treatment seems
to be called for. We are sure, for one thing, that
very few of our readers have any adequate idea of
the size and. population of Assam and Burma, or
Farther India. If our geographical knowledge of

foreign countries is generally quite hazy, such is

Statue of Buddha.

especially the fact with regard to Asia. For ex-
ample, how many of us, if asked the length of the
Red Sea, would know that the correct answer is
1,500 miles? How many of us realize that in
Farther India there are four rivers which in length
and volume of water carried compare with our own
Mississippi, Arkansas, Columbia, and Rio Grande?
These ‘mighty streams are the Brahmaputra, Ira-

wadi, Salwin, and Mekong. How many of our

readers have an idea as to the size of Farther India?
Assam has an area of 53,015 square miles and is
almost as large as Illinois or Iowa, while Burma,
with its area of 230,839 square miles, is larger than
the whole Empire of Japan and almost as large as
our State of Texas, The combined area of Assam
and Burma is almost equal to the aggregate area of

‘

our three great Pacific States, California, Oregon,
‘and Washington. Or, to use one more comparison,
Farther India. is ‘as large as are the six New
England States, the four Middle Atlantic States
and the States of Maryland, Virginia, and North
Carolina combined. The population of Assam is
7,598,861 and that of Burma, 13,205,564. The
population of T’arther India is therefore a little
greater than the combined population of our two
most populous states, New York and Pennsylvania.

Assam.

As a missionary puts it, Assam lies just below
the great, cold heart of Asia. It is the home of
some of the wildest, most uncivilized, and most
savage tribes the sun has ever looked down upon.
It is a stronghold of Animism, or demon-worship.
While acknowledging a Superior Being, they
searcely accord Him any worship. They admit the
existence of a few benevolent spirits, but by far

. the greatest number of spirits they deem malignant

in character, and they hold that they must be
propitiated by bloody offerings. The worship of
these spirits consists largely of wild dances; little
attention is paid to temples, idols, and priests, but
sorcerers are highly respected and greatly feared.
There is a legend among these wild people, who
possibly number a million, that God was disturbed
by His enemy while He was working at the hills
and consequently He never finished His work in
the wild, jungly highlands where they live. It
may be of interest to our readers to hear that the
hills of Assam are ‘the natural home of the tea-
plant, which there sometimes reaches the size of
a large tree.

The wild hill people of Assam are accepting the
Gospel quite readily. The Lutheran Gossner Mis-
sion had a considerable number of converts among

‘them at the outbreak of the World War, and. the

Baptists are doing successful work among them.

In the plains of Assam, the fertile and densely
populated valley of the Brahmaputra, lives a people
of Mongolian descent, among whom the American

.Baptists have worked with considerable success for

more than seventy-five years. To the south from

this valley are broad highlands, where the American

Baptists and the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists are
working among the Garos, Khasias, and Jains.
The foreign missionary staff in Assam repre-
sents twelve societies and includes 166 laborers,
4mong them fifty-five married and forty-six un-
married women. ‘The native missionary staff con-
sists of 1,664 workers, of whom eighty-five are