Altruistic World Online Library

Posted: **Sun Jan 12, 2020 12:02 am**

Silacara [John Frederick S. McKechnie]
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 10/17/19

NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

Sīlācāra Bhikkhu
Silacara, Rangoon, 1907
Title Bhikkhu
Personal
Born John Frederick S. McKechnie
October 22, 1871
Hull, Yorkshire, England
Died January 27, 1951 (aged 79)
Chichester, West Sussex, UK
Religion Theravada
Nationality United KingdomBritish
Occupation monk; translator; writer
Senior posting
Based in Burma

Sīlācāra Bhikkhu, October 22, 1871, Hull, Yorkshire, England — January 27, 1951, Chichester, West Sussex, UK), born and died as John Frederick S. McKechnie.[1] He became a Buddhist monk in 1906 and was one of the earliest westerners in modern times to do so.

Life

There are two main sources about Sīlācāra's life. The first is the biography in a Sri Lankan edition of A Young People's Life of the Buddha, by an anonymous author, whose information about McKechnie's early life needs verification; the second is the autobiography of Nyanatiloka Thera, who mentions him several times.

According to the biography, McKechnie's father was the baritone singer Sir Charles Santley and his mother was Caroline Mavis, however, Charles Santley's two wives were called Gertrude Kemble and Elizabeth Mary Rose-Innes, and being a child of Charles Santley would have given him the surname Santley not McKechnie. So, unless he was an extramarital child, this information is incorrect.

According to the same biography, he worked as apprentice stock-cutter in a clothing factory until the age of 21, then he emigrated to America to work for four years on a fruit and dairy farm. Whilst back in Glasgow, he had read about Buddhism in a copy of the magazine Buddhism: An Illustrated Review, which he had found in the public library, and answered the advertisement of the magazine's editor Bhikkhu Ānanda Metteyya (Charles Henry Allan Bennett) who asked for an editorial assistant in Rangoon. After going to Burma, he first taught for a year in the Buddhist boys' school of Mme Hlā Oung, a rich Burmese Buddhist philanthropist.[2] It seems unlikely, however, that McKechnie, having been an apprentice in a clothes factory and a farm worker, was accepted as an editorial assistant for a magazine, taught at a school, and, after having become a Buddhist monk, translated and wrote books on Buddhism. So this information about his earlier employment might also be incorrect, and it seems more probable that he had received some kind of higher education during which he learnt German.

The Buddhist Boy school owned by Commissioner U Hla Aung and his wife Daw Mya May, and an English art teacher called Ward teaching there, is mentioned in other sources.[3]

In 1906 Nyanatiloka accepted McKechnie as novice (samanera) with the name Sāsanavaṃsa. He then stayed with Nyanatiloka and Ānanda Metteya at Kyundaw Kyaung, Kemmendine, Rangoon—a monastic residence in a quiet area that Mrs Hlā Oung had built for Ānanda Metteya and Nyanatiloka.[4]

In 1906 or 1907, he was admitted as bhikkhu into the Sangha by the Sayadaw U Kumāra, who had also ordained Nyanatiloka, and was given the new name Sīlācāra.[5][6] While a novice, he translated Bhikkhu Ñāṇatiloka’s The Word of the Buddha, from German into English. It was published in Rangoon in 1907.

In 1910 Sīlācāra intended to come to the Buddhist monastery Nyanatiloka planned to found near Novaggio, Lugano, Switzerland.[7]

In 1914 he stayed in Tumlong, Sikkim, near the Tibetan border. Alexandra David-Néel was also staying there when Nyanatiloka visited Tumlong.[8] One report states that Sīlācāra was in Sikkim on the invitation of the Maharaja to teach Buddhism.[9] A picture of Sīlācāra sitting on a yak, next to Sidkeong Tulku (the future Maharaja of Sikkim) and Alexandra David-Néel can be seen on the website of the Alexandra David-Néel Cultural Centre.

During World War I he probably stayed in Burma, as Nyanatiloka wrote a letter to him there in 1917.[10]

When Sīlācāra's health broke down due to asthma complicated with heart trouble, he disrobed on the advice of the German Buddhist Dr. Paul Dahlke and returned to England late in 1925. He assisted Anagarika Dharmapala at the Mahabodhi Society's British branch, lecturing and editing the British Buddhist. Due to health problems, he left London in 1932 for Wisborough Green, West Sussex to share the house ('The Kiln Bungalow') of Esther Lydia Shiel (née Furley) (1872-1942), the estranged wife of author M.P. Shiel and formerly the wife of William Arthur Jewson (1856-1914) (famous violinist and conductor). During this period, Sīlācāra was known simply as 'Fra'. He continued to write for Buddhist magazines in the UK, Sri Lanka, Burma, Germany, etc. Upon Esther Lydia's death (February 16, 1942) her house in Wisborough Green was sold, and Sīlācāra entered an old persons' home (Bury House) at Bury, West Sussex, where he stayed until his death in 1951.[11]

Work

Sīlācāra was a prolific writer and translator, especially as a Buddhist monk, and his books and essays were reprinted in different editions. His articles were published in the Buddhism: An Illustrated Quarterly Review, The British Buddhist, Buddhist Annual of Ceylon, Maha-Bodhi, United Buddhist World, etc. He also translated from German works by Paul Dahlke and Nyanatiloka. At least one of his works was translated into German.

In his writings, Sīlācāra stresses the rational and scientific aspects of Buddhism.[12]

Writings

• ‘Buddhism and Pessimism’, Buddhism, II, 1, Rangoon, October 1905, pp. 33–47.
• The Word of the Buddha. An outline of the ethic-philosophical system of Buddha in words of Pali canon by Nyanatiloka. Translated from the German by Sāsanavaṃsa (= Sīlācāra). Rangoon: International Buddhist Society, 1907
• Lotus Blossoms, London: The Buddhist Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 1914. Third and Revised Edition, London: The Buddhist Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 1917? ((See p. 30 The Fruit of Homelessness 1917.) Adyar, Madras: Theosophical Publishing House, 1914, 1968. Mentioned as being read in 1907, Christmas Humphreys, Sixty years of Buddhism in England (1907-1967) p. 3, London: Buddhist Society, 1968. Middle Way, Volume 74, p. 102.)
• Panchasila: The Five Precepts, Adyar, Madras: Theosophical Publishing House, 1913. Mentioned as published as The Bhikkhu, Pancha Sila, The Five Precepts in Rangoon in 1911, in The Buddhist Review, Volumes 3-4, 1911, p. 79, Buddhist Society of Great Britain and Ireland, London. Published in 1911 as Panchasila: The Five Precepts and To Those Who Mourn by Bhikkhu Silacara and C.W. Leadbeater, Rangoon, 1911.
• The Four Noble Truths, Adyar, Madras: Theosophical Publishing House, 1922. Stated as already published by The Review of Reviews, Volume 48, 1913. [2]
• Die funf Gelübde. Ein Vortrag über Buddhismus von Bhikkhu Silacara. Translation of Panchasila: The Five Precepts by Vangiso. Breslau: W. Markgraf, 1912.
• The First Fifty Discourses of Gotama the Buddha, Breslau-London: Walter Markgraf, 1912–13, Munich 1924, Delhi 2005
• Buddhism and Science, Author Paul Dahlke. Translation from the German by Bhikkhu Silacara. 1913
• The Dhammapada, or Way of Truth, London: The Buddhist Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 1915
• The Noble Eightfold Path, Colombo: The Bauddha Sahitya Sabha, 1955. Originally published in The Theosophist, Volume 37, p. 14f. Adyar, Madras: Theosophical Society, 1916.
• The Fruit of Homelessness: The Sāmaññaphala Sutta, London: Buddhist Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 1917. [3]
• Dhaniya: A Pali Poem. Translated from the Sutta Nipata”, in Buddhist Review Vol. II., No. 2, London: The Buddhist Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 1917
• A Young People's Life of the Buddha, Colombo: W.E. Bastian and Co, 1927. Reprinted, 1953, 1995. [4]
• Kamma, Calcutta : Maha-Bodhi Society of India, 1950. Already mentioned in The Mahabodhi, Vol. 47, p.130, 1939.
• Buddhist View of Religion, Bauddha Sahitya Sabha, Colombo, 1946.
• Right understanding, Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, Sri Lanka, 1968, 1979. Reprinted from the Maha Bodhi, Oct.-Nov. 1967.
• An Actual Religion, Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, Sri Lanka, 1971
• Buddhism for the Beginner, Calcutta : Mahabodhi Society of India, 1952. Reprinted in The Path of Buddhism, Colombo 1955.

Notes

1. His probate records state the following: "McKechnie, John Frederick - Of Bury House, Bury, near Pulborough, Sussex, died 27 January 1951 in St. Richards Hospital, Chichester. Probate: London, 3 April [1951] to Gerald Arthur Jewson, stamp dealer. Effects: 274 pounds 18s 11d." See: https://probatesearch.service.gov.uk (Click on "Wills and Probate, 1858-1996, then follow the prompts) - The information given above on John Frederick McKechnie appears on page 879 of the probate records for 1951.
2. Anonymous, A Biography
3. 'Hla Aung and Mya May arranged for the teachers and students to stay at their residence. They also allowed Ward to teach art at the Boys Buddhist School, which was owned by them.' See Wikipedia article Burma Art Club. Cf 'Generations of Myanmar Women Artists' by Daw Khin Mya Zin. [1](Retrieved 31.7.2011)
4. Bhikkhu Nyanatusita & Hellmuth Hecker, p. 29.
5. Bhikkhu Nyanatusita & Hellmuth Hecker, p. 29.
6. Anonymous, A Biography
7. Bhikkhu Nyanatusita & Hellmuth Hecker, p. 209.
8. Bhikkhu Nyanatusita & Hellmuth Hecker, p. 41-42.
9. Anonymous, A Biography
10. Bhikkhu Nyanatusita & Hellmuth Hecker, p. 230.
11. Anonymous, A Biography
12. Elizabeth June Harris, Theravada Buddhism and the British encounter : religious, missionary and colonial experience in nineteenth-century Sri Lanka, Oxon, 2006

Sources

• Anonymous, A Biography, in Bhikkhu Silacara, A Young People's Life of the Buddha, Colombo 1953.
• Bhikkhu Nyanatusita and Hellmuth Hecker, The Life of Nyanatiloka: The Biography of a Western Buddhist Pioneer Kandy, 2009.

External links

• Works by or about Sīlācāra at Internet Archive

Posted: **Sun Jan 12, 2020 5:13 am**

Use of Shambhala in Russian & Japanese Schemes in Tibet
by Dr. Alexander Berzin

NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

Table of Contents:

• Badmaev’s Proposals for Russian Annexation of Tibet
• Dorjiev and Czar Nicholas II
• Intrigues between Japan, Russia, Britain, and China, and Their Effect on Tibet
• Events Following the Chinese Nationalist Revolution of 1911
• Tibet Receives Japanese Military Guidance
• Efforts to Win Communist Tolerance of Buddhism in Russia and Mongolia
• Communist Persecution of Buddhism and the Rise of Japan as a Buddhist Patron
• Chinese Efforts to Gain Tibet and British Ineffectiveness in Offering Protection
• Renewed Tibetan Interest in Japan and Contact with Nazi Germany
• The Nazi Expedition to Tibet
• Developments Subsequent to the Schäffer Expedition

Badmaev’s Proposals for Russian Annexation of Tibet

The Manchu Qing Dynasty of China (1644-1911) declined during the nineteenth century. Many countries sought to take advantage of its weakness to gain either trade or territorial concessions. They included not only Britain, France, Germany, and Portugal, but also Russia and Japan.

For example, in 1893, the Buryat Mongol physician Piotr Badmaev submitted a plan to Czar Alexander III for bringing parts of the Qing Empire under Russian sway, including Outer and Inner Mongolia and Tibet. He proposed extending the Trans-Siberian Railway from the Buryat homeland at Lake Baikal through Outer and Inner Mongolia to Gansu, China, next to the Tibetan border. When completed, he would organize, with Buryat help, an uprising in Tibet that would allow Russia to annex the country. Badmaev also proposed establishing a Russian trading company in Asia. Count Sergei Yulgevich Witte, Russian Finance Minister from 1882 to 1903, supported Badmaev’s two plans, but Czar Alexander accepted neither of them.

The Trans-Siberian railway in the early 20th century

Upon the death of Alexander, Badmaev became the personal physician of his successor, Czar Nicholas II (r. 1894-1917). Soon, the new Czar approved the founding of a trading company. Its focus, however, was the Pacific coast, where Russia and Japan competed for control of Port Arthur, an ice-free port at the southern tip of Manchuria. At first Japan gained Port Arthur, but soon Russia took over. The Czar extended the Trans-Siberian Railroad through northern Manchuria to Vladivostok and connected it to Port Arthur. Nicholas, however, did not take up Badmaev’s proposals concerning Tibet.

[For more detail, see: Use of the Shambala Legend for Control of Mongolia]

Dorjiev and Czar Nicholas II

The Buryat Mongol monk Agvan Dorjiev (1854-1938) studied in Lhasa Tibet from 1880 and eventually became one of the Master Debate Partners (Assistant Tutors) of the Thirteenth Dalai Lama. He also became the Dalai Lama’s most trusted political advisor.

The Anglo-Chinese Convention of 1890 had established Sikkim as a British protectorate. The Tibetans did not acknowledge the convention, and were uncomfortable with both British and Chinese designs on their country. Thus, in 1899, Dorjiev visited Russia to see if he could secure help to counter these threats. Dorjiev was a friend of Badmaev and hoped that Russia’s expansionist policy in Northeast Asia at the expense of China would extend to the Himalayan region. Count Witte received him on this and his next several visits. On behalf of the Buryat and Kalmyk Mongols living in St. Petersburg, Dorjiev also petitioned permission for building a Kalachakra temple there. Although the Russian authorities were not interested in either proposal, Dorjiev sent a letter to the Dalai Lama reporting that the prospects for assistance looked hopeful.

At first, the Dalai Lama and his ministers were hesitant but, on his return to Lhasa, Dorjiev convinced the Dalai Lama to turn to Russia for protection. He argued that Russia was the Northern Kingdom of Shambhala, the legendary land that safeguarded the Kalachakra teachings, and that Czar Nicholas II was the incarnation of Tsongkhapa, the founder of the Gelug tradition. As evidence, he pointed to the Czar’s protection of the Gelug tradition among the Buryats, Kalmyks, Tuvinian Turks in the Russian Empire. Swayed by his argument, the Dalai Lama dispatched him back to Russia in 1900.

At that time, Prince Esper Ukhtomski was the head of the Russian Department of Foreign Creeds. The Prince was deeply interested in “Lamaist” culture and later wrote several books about it. He invited Dorjiev to meet the Czar, which was the first of several audiences that Dorjiev had on behalf of the Dalai Lama. In the following years, Dorjiev traveled back and forth several times between the Czar and the Dalai Lama. He was never able, however, to secure Russian military support for Tibet.

In Sturm über Asien (Storm over Asia) (1924), the German secret agent Wilhelm Filchner wrote that between 1900 and 1902 there was a large drive in St. Petersburg to secure Tibet for Russia. This drive, however, seems to have been restricted to the efforts of Dorjiev, with the support of Badmaev and Witte. The Swedish explorer Sven Hedin, an ardent admirer of Germany, had an audience with Czar Nicholas II on route back to Europe from his Second Tibetan Expedition (1899-1902). Later, he wrote that he had the impression that Prince Ukhtomski was pushing the Czar to make Tibet a Russian protectorate. The Prince’s writings, however, reveal no such interest.

Intrigues between Japan, Russia, Britain, and China, and Their Effect on Tibet

The Japanese Zen priest Ekai Kawaguchi visited Tibet from 1900 to 1902 to collect Sanskrit and Tibetan Buddhist texts. On his return through British India, he falsely reported a Russian military presence in Tibet to Sarat Chandra Das, an Indian spy for the British who had visited Tibet in 1879 and 1881. Japan, at the time, was preparing for war with Russia over Manchuria. It had recently signed with Britain the Anglo-Japanese Alliance (1902-1907), under which both sides agreed to remain neutral if the other were at war. By fomenting discord between England and Russia, it seems as though the Japanese priest was trying to insure that Britain would not support Russia in the upcoming war. He probably also was hoping that British protests over Tibet would distract Russia’s attention from Manchuria.

In his book, Three Years in Tibet, published in Benaras by the Theosophical Society in 1909, Kawaguchi reported that he had heard of Dorjiev’s pamphlet in Tibetan, Mongolian and Russian claiming that Russia was Shambhala and the Czar was the incarnation of Tsongkhapa. He, however, had never personally seen it. Kawaguchi also spoke of a Japanese-Tibetan Buddhist Coalition, but neither side ever drew plans to implement it.

Kawaguchi’s report and later his book became well known among the British authorities in India. Sir Charles Bell, British Political Officer in Sikkim, for example, cited it in Tibet Past and Present (1924). He wrote that Dorjiev had swayed the Dalai Lama to Russia’s side by telling him how Russia controlled and protected part of Mongolia (Buryatia), how increasingly more Russians were embracing Tibetan Buddhism, and how the Czar was likely to embrace it too.

Lord Curzon, the British Viceroy of India at the time of Kawaguchi’s report, was extremely paranoid of the Russians. Fearing a Russian takeover and monopoly of the Tibetan trade, he ordered the British invasion of Tibet with the Younghusband Expedition (1903-1904). Together with Dorjiev, the Dalai Lama fled to Urga (Ulaan Baatar), the capital of Mongolia. After suffering defeat, the Tibetan Regent signed the Lhasa Convention in 1904, acknowledging British control of Sikkim and granting the British trade relations and the stationing of troops and officials in Lhasa to protect the trade commission.

A few months later, the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) broke out in Manchuria, in which the Japanese defeated the Czar’s forces. The Dalai Lama stayed on in Mongolia, since in 1906 the British and Chinese signed a convention reaffirming Chinese suzerainty over Tibet. The Convention quickly prompted a Chinese attempt to annex Tibet. The Dalai Lama sent Dorjiev once more to the Russian court to seek military aid.

In 1907, Dorjiev submitted a report to P. P. Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky, the Vice-President of the Russian Geographic Society, entitled “On a Rapprochement between Russia, Mongolia and Tibet.” In it, he called for the unification of the three states to create a great Buddhist confederacy. The Russian authorities flatly rejected it.

In the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907, Britain and Russia agreed to stay out of Tibet’s internal affairs and deal only through China. Undaunted, Dorjiev petitioned the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1908 at least to build a Kalachakra temple in St. Petersburg, which the authorities had rejected when he first had proposed it in 1899. This time, however, the Czar approved the plan. That was in 1909.

The Dalai Lama returned briefly to Lhasa at the end of 1909, but Chinese troops soon arrived. In early 1910, the Dalai Lama fled to India, where he stayed in Darjeeling, just south of Sikkim, under British protection. There, he befriended Sir Charles Bell, who influenced him about modernization.

Events Following the Chinese Nationalist Revolution of 1911

In 1911-1912, the Manchu Qing dynasty of China fell. The new president of the Chinese Nationalist Republic, Yüan Shih-k’ai (Yuan Shikai), continued the Manchu expansionist policy toward Tibet and welcomed the Dalai Lama to join “the Motherland.” The Dalai Lama refused and cut off all ties with China. He created a War Department to lead an armed rebellion against the Chinese. Due primarily to the chaotic situation in China, the Chinese troops soon surrendered. As soon as the soldiers left Tibet in early 1913, the Dalai Lama returned to Lhasa.

Later in 1913, the first public ceremony took place at the St. Petersburg Buddhist Temple – a long-life prayer to celebrate the 300 th anniversary of the House of Romanov. The Dalai Lama sent congratulatory gifts and a rumor spread that he had recognized Alexis, the Heir Apparent, as a bodhisattva who would enlighten the non-Buddhists of the North. Still, however, no military aid was forthcoming from the Romanovs.

After driving back the Chinese forces from some sections of Kham (southeastern Tibet), the Tibetans negotiated the Simla Convention of 1914 with the British. Since the British would not support the complete independence of Tibet, the Dalai Lama compromised. The British guaranteed Tibetan autonomy under only nominal Chinese suzerainty. The British also agreed that they would not annex Tibet and would not allow China to do so either.

The Chinese never signed the convention and, in continuing border skirmishes with the Chinese in Kham, the British never came to the aid of the Tibetans. The Dalai Lama began to look elsewhere for support.

Tibet Receives Japanese Military Guidance

The Japanese victory in the Russo-Japanese War had impressed the Dalai Lama. He now became interested in the Meiji Restoration and modernization of Japan as a model for the modernization of Tibet within a Buddhist framework. Therefore, in the face of a continuing Chinese military threat and lack of Russian or British support, Tibet turned to Japan to update the Tibetan army. Especially keen on establishing a close connection with Japan was Tsarong, the head of the Tibetan mint and armory and the Dalai Lama’s favorite.

Yajima Yasujiro, a veteran of the Russo-Japanese War, came to Lhasa and, from 1913 to 1919, trained troops and advised on defense against the Chinese. Aoki Bunkyo, a Japanese Buddhist priest, translated Japanese army manuals into Tibetan. He also helped design the Tibetan National Flag by adding to traditional Tibetan symbols a rising sun surrounded by rays. This motif comprised the Japanese cavalry and infantry flags of the day and later became the design for the Japanese Navy and Army Flag during World War II.

Japanese Navy and Army Flag

Tibetan National Flag

The Dalai Lama was unsuccessful, however, in securing further Japanese military support. In 1919, the Japanese army became deeply engaged in suppressing an independence movement in Korea, which Japan had annexed in 1910. Then, in the 1920s, Japan turned its attention more toward Manchuria and Mongolia and remained interested in Tibet only for Buddhist scholarly studies. The last Japanese left Tibet in 1923, when the Great Kanto Earthquake destroyed Tokyo and Yokohama.

The next year, the British established a police force in Lhasa. A clash occurred between the police and the Tibetan military, resulting in the death of one policeman. Tsarong severely punished the murderer, but the anti-modernization faction in the Tibetan government used this as a pretext to turn the Dalai Lama against him. They pointed out that Tsarong had acted without the Dalai Lama’s consent and they accused the military of plotting to take over the government. The Dalai Lama demoted Tsarong in 1925 from his position as commander-in-chief of the army and dismissed him from the cabinet in 1930. Thus, the main Tibetan proponent of Japanese alliance was silenced.

In December 1933, the Dalai Lama passed away. Tibet did not resume contact with Japan until 1938, when Tsarong reemerged to play a role in dealing with an official expedition from Japan’s allies against the spread of international Communism, the Germans.

Efforts to Win Communist Tolerance of Buddhism in Russia and Mongolia

The Russian Revolution of 1917 established the Soviet Union. Lenin, at first, did not enforce the Communist antireligion policy. In the face of widespread civil war, consolidating his power had greater priority. Even when Communist rule became stable, the state lacked the infrastructure in the 1920s to replace the educational and medical systems that the Buddhist monasteries were providing in Buryatia, Kalmykia, and Tuva. Therefore, the Communist Party tolerated Buddhism during this period.

At the end of 1919, several Mongol princes renounced the autonomous status of Outer Mongolia and submitted themselves to Chinese rule. Chinese troops entered Mongolia on the pretext of protecting it from the Soviets. In late 1920, the fanatical anti-Bolshevik Baron von Ungern-Sternberg invaded Mongolia from Buryatia, overthrew the Chinese, and reinstated the traditional Buddhist leader, the Eighth Jebtsundampa, as head of state. He proceeded to slaughter indiscriminately any remaining Chinese and suspected Mongol collaborators he could find.

In 1921, the Mongolian revolutionary Sukhe Batur established the Mongolian Communist Provisional Government in Buryatia. The Kalachakra teachings had a long history of popularity in Mongolia. Taking advantage of the Mongols’ faith in them, Sukhe Batur twisted its teachings and told his followers they would be reborn in the army of Shambhala if they fought to free Mongolia from oppression.

With the help of the Soviet Red Army, Sukhe Batur drove Ungern from Mongolia later in 1921. He limited the powers of the Jebtsundampa and allowed the Soviet Army to keep control. The Russians used the pretext that the Soviet Union was guaranteeing the independence of Mongolia and protecting it from further Chinese aggression. The Soviet Army remained until the Jebtsundampa’s death in 1924 and the declaration of the People’s Republic of Mongolia shortly thereafter.

During this period, Barchenko, a Russian scholar of parapsychology with connections to the Soviet Politburo, spent several months in Mongolia. There, he learned something about Kalachakra. He became convinced that its emphasis on material particles and its discussion of historical cycles and the battle between the Shambhala army and the invader forces foreshadowed the Communist teachings of dialectical materialism. He wanted to introduce this to the higher Bolshevik functionaries and so, upon his return to Moscow, organized a Kalachakra study group among some of its members. Most influential among the participants was Gleb Bokii, the Georgian head of a special department of the Soviet Military Intelligence Service (the OGPU, forerunner of the KGB). Bokii was the chief cryptographer of the Service and employed deciphering techniques connected with paranormal phenomena.

Other Russians also felt that Communism and Buddhism could accommodate each other. Nikolai Roerich (1874 – 1947), for example, was a Russian Theosophist who traveled through Tibet, Mongolia, and the Altai region of Central Asia between 1925 and 1928 in search of Shambhala. He conceived of the legendary home of the Kalachakra teachings as a land of universal peace. Due to his connections with Barchenko and their shared interest in Kalachakra, Roerich broke his journey in 1926 and visited Moscow. There he dispatched a letter, through the Soviet Foreign Minister Chicherin, to the Soviet people. Reminiscent of Blavatsky’s letters from mahatmas in the Himalayas, Roerich said the letter was also from the Himalayan mahatmas. The letter praised the Revolution for eliminating, among other things, “the misery of private property,” and it offered “help in forging the unity of Asia.” As a gift, he delivered from the mahatmas a handful of Tibetan soil to sprinkle on the grave of “our brother, Mahatma Lenin.” Although there is no mention of Shambhala in this letter, it continued the theosophical myth of benevolent help from the masters of Central Asia to establish world peace, this time in accord with the messianic mission of Lenin.

[See: Mistaken Foreign Myths about Shambhala]

Through Bokii’s influence, the OGPU wanted to sponsor Roerich to return to Central Asia to continue his contacts, but they were overruled by Chicherin. The OGPU did, however, sponsor two expeditions to Lhasa, later in 1926 and in 1928, led by Kalmyk Mongol officers in the guise of pilgrims. Its main purpose was to gather information and explore the possibilities for further spreading international Communism in Central Asia and for extending the sphere of power of the Soviet Union. Thus, the Kalmyk officers proposed to the Thirteenth Dalai Lama that, in return for his alliance, the Soviet Union would guarantee Tibet’s independence and protect the country from the Chinese.

During this period, Buddhist leaders in the Soviet Union and Mongolia also tried to accommodate Buddhism to Communism by showing similarities between the two systems of belief. From 1922, the Leningrad (St. Petersburg) Buddhist Temple became the center of the Revival of Faith Movement. Led by Dorjiev, the movement was an attempt to reform Buddhism to adopt to Soviet reality by communalizing the lifestyle of the monks in accordance with early Buddhism. At the First All-Union Council of the Buddhists of the USSR in 1927, Dorjiev further emphasized the similarity of Buddhist and Communist thought in working for the people’s welfare. Thus, as a follow-up to the first OGPU expedition to Lhasa, Dorjiev sent a letter to the Thirteenth Dalai Lama praising Soviet policy toward its minority nationalities. It said that Buddha was actually the founder of Communism, that Lenin had held a high opinion of Buddha, and that the spirit of Buddhism had lived on in Lenin. Dorjiev was once more trying to use his influence to convince the Dalai Lama to turn to the Soviet Union, as he had previously tried by associating Russia with Shambhala and Czar Nicholas with Tsongkhapa.

Dorjiev’s main concern, however, was undoubtedly the protection of Buddhism in the Soviet Union and the Peoples’ Republic of Mongolia. Buddhist leaders in Mongolia, such as Darva Bandida and the Buryat Jamsaranov, were following Dorjiev’s lead in also trying to reconcile Buddhism with Communism. Thus, Dorjiev created a Mongol-Tibetan Mission at the Leningrad Temple in 1928, in conjunction with his aim of safeguarding Buddhism. In the same year, OGPU sent its second expedition to Lhasa.

Communist Persecution of Buddhism and the Rise of Japan as a Buddhist Patron

By the end of 1928, Stalin consolidated his control over the Soviet Union. He began his collectivization and antireligion program in 1929, extending it to his Buddhist population as well. Mongolia soon followed suit, but implemented Stalin’s policy in an even more fanatic and aggressive manner. Dorjiev informed the Dalai Lama of all that took place, convincing him not to trust the Soviets. Many monks in Mongolia rebelled against the persecution and instigated the so-called Shambhala War of 1930-1932. Stalin sent in the Soviet army in 1932 to put down the rebellion and to temper the “leftist deviation” of the Mongolian Communist Party.

The Japanese conquest of Manchuria and eastern Inner Mongolia earlier that year and the establishment there of the Puppet State of Manchukuo also prompted Stalin’s decision. He was worried that Japan would try to rally the Buddhists of Buryatia and Outer Mongolia to its side as parts of a Buddhist empire. Moreover, Stalin needed Mongolia as a buffer state between the Soviet Union and the growing Japanese Empire. Thus, for the next two years Stalin ordered the Mongolians to relax their antireligion program so as not to drive their Buddhist population into the Japanese camp. Under the New Turn Policy, the Mongolian Communist Party even permitted the reopening of several monasteries. Armed with propaganda from this official sanctioning of Buddhism, the OGPU planned another expedition to Tibet in the winter of 1933 – 1934. The expedition, however, never took place because Stalin soon changed his mind and gradually took a more severe position toward Buddhism.

In 1933, Japan expanded Manchukuo by annexing Jehol (Chengde) to the south. Jehol had been the summer capital of the Manchus, who had tried to make it the center for Tibetan and Mongolian Buddhism under the rule of their Qing Dynasty. At the end of that year, Stalin closed the St. Petersburg Buddhist Temple for public ceremonies. Stalin began his persecution in earnest, however, in both the Soviet Union and Mongolia, when his second-in-command, Kirov, was assassinated in 1934. This marked the start of the Great Purges.

When border skirmishes between Japanese Manchukuo and Outer Mongolia broke out in 1935, Stalin made his first arrests of Buddhist monks in Leningrad. In 1937, Japan captured the rest of Inner Mongolia and northern China. To gain Mongol allegiance, the Japanese proposed to reinstate the Ninth Jebtsundampa, the traditional political and religious head of the Mongols, and to establish a pan-Mongol state that would include Inner and Outer Mongolia and Buryatia. In their effort to win the Mongols to their side, they even claimed that Japan was Shambhala. Faced with Communist oppression, many monks in Mongolia and Buryatia spread the Japanese propaganda.

The Soviet Communist Party newspaper Izvestiya blamed the tactic on Dorjiev and accused him of being a Japanese spy. Stalin had Dorjiev arrested later in 1937, all the remaining monks at the Leningrad Temple shot, and the Mongol-Tibetan Mission there closed. Dorjiev died in early 1938.

Chinese Efforts to Gain Tibet and British Ineffectiveness in Offering Protection

Kept informed by Dorjiev, the Tibetans watched on warily during this period of Communist oppression of Buddhism in the Soviet Union and Mongolia. They were also worried about Chinese designs on their land. When the Chinese Nationalist Government of Chiang Kai-shek was inaugurated in late 1928, it continued to claim Tibet and Mongolia as parts of China. One of its first acts was to establish the Commission for Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs. It also supported the Ninth Panchen Lama’s position in his dispute with the Tibetan Government. The Panchen Lama had been living in China since 1924. He was insisting on relative autonomy from Lhasa, exemption from taxes, the right to have his own armed forces, and permission to be escorted back to Tibet by the soldiers the Chinese Government had provided him. The Dalai Lama did not accept his demands.

Between 1930 and 1932, the Tibetans and Chinese fought for control of parts of Kham. The Dalai Lama asked the British to petition China for a cease-fire and Britain made overtures to Chiang Kai-shek with no result. Only when Japan conquered Manchuria and eastern Inner Mongolia and established Manchukuo did China declare a truce in Kham, so as to turn its attention to the northeastern front. Once more, the British proved themselves ineffective protectors of Tibet, despite the Simla Convention of 1914.

The Thirteenth Dalai Lama died in December 1933 and Reting Rinpoche became the regent. The Chinese sent a delegation with lavish offerings to see if Tibet was now willing to join the Chinese Republic. The Tibetan Government declined the offer and reasserted Tibetan independence. One of the Tibetan ministers recommended seeking Japanese military assistance to keep the Chinese at bay, but the National Assembly ignored the suggestion for the time being.

The Reting Regent was willing to compromise on some of the Panchen Lama’s demands, but refused to allow the Chinese escort. When he asked the British for military help in case the Chinese forces came anyway, the British declined. They would only request the Chinese to withdraw the troops, and Chiang Kai-shek refused.

Early in 1936, the Panchen Lama left for Tibet with his Chinese military escort. Fighting between the Nationalist forces and the Chinese Communists insurgents during their Long March prevented his progress through Kham. During the ensuing months, complex negotiations took place between the Tibetan, Chinese, and British Governments over the Panchen Lama’s case. In the end, Reting agreed to allow the Chinese escort provided that the British guaranteed that the Chinese troops would leave through India immediately after their arrival. China objected strongly to the idea of a foreign guarantee and the British hesitated. A stalemate ensued.

In 1937, Japan captured the rest of Inner Mongolia and northern China. Fully engaged now in war with Japan, China suggested that the Panchen Lama wait in Chinese-held territory, which he did. At the end of that year, the Panchen Lama fell ill and died, thus ending the incident. Its continuing legacy on the Tibetan Government, however, was deep distrust of the Chinese and conviction that Britain was a totally unreliable source of support.

Renewed Tibetan Interest in Japan and Contact with Nazi Germany

Hitler became chancellor of Germany in 1933, the same year as the death of the Thirteenth Dalai Lama. In the face of border skirmishes between Manchukuo and Outer Mongolia and the stationing of Soviet troops in the latter, Japan signed the Anti-Commintern Pact with Germany in November 1936. The Pact declared their mutual hostility toward the spread of international Communism. They agreed that neither would make a political treaty with the Soviet Union and, if the Soviets attacked either, they would consult on what measures to take to safeguard their interests.

In 1937, Japan took the western half of Inner Mongolia and northern China. Germany annexed Austria and part of Czechoslovakia in the same year. With Stalin’s purges at their height, Chinese intentions of a military presence in Tibet as a prelude to annexation, and British diffidence to offer substantial help, Tibet once more looked elsewhere for military assistance and protection. The most reasonable alternative was Japan. Thus, in 1938, the Tibetan Government, controlled now solely by the Reting Regent, resumed contacts.

Many Tibetans admired Japan as a Buddhist nation that had become a world power and new patron of Buddhism, especially in Inner Mongolia. Moreover, the Japanese had helped to train the Tibetan army twenty years earlier; the Tibetan army manuals were translations from the Japanese. Japan, in turn, had a strategic interest in Tibet. As it expanded its Greater East Asian Coprosperity Sphere, it saw Tibet as a useful and necessary buffer against British India. This fit well with the Tibetan wish to remain independent from China.

The Nazi Expedition to Tibet

Because of the Japanese-German Anti-Commintern Pact, Tibet also thought to make official contact with the German Government. The decision had nothing to do with support for Nazi ideology or policy, but was due to practical necessity and the vicissitudes of the times. The conservative Tibetan government, however, proceeded cautiously. It invited an exploratory delegation from the Nazi Government to visit Tibet for the Losar (New Year) celebration, which led to the Third Tibet Expedition of Ernst Schäffer in 1938-1939. The British objected, but the Tibetans ignored the protest.

Schäffer was a hunter and biologist. His two previous expeditions to Tibet, 1931 – 1932 and 1934 – 1 936, had been for sport and zoological research. This third expedition, however, was sent by the Ahnenerbe (Bureau for the Study of Ancestral Heritage). The Germans were not interested in offering military assistance or protection to Tibet. This is obvious from the choice of the members of the delegation. In addition to Schäffer, the team included an anthropologist, a geophysicist, a filmmaker, and a technical leader. Its primary mission seems to have been measuring the skulls of Tibetans in order to establish them as ancestors of the Aryans and therefore acceptable as an intermediary race between the Germans and the Japanese.

According to Nazi occult sources, the expedition was also seeking support for the Nazi cause from the masters of Shambhala who were the guardians of secret psychic powers. Shambhala refused to help, but the occult masters of the underground kingdom of Agharti agreed and thousands of Tibetans went to Germany. These claims do not, however, seem to be fact. Although the Germans brought back with them numerous skulls for further study, none of their reports indicates that any Tibetans accompanied them to Germany. Moreover, no further German expeditions followed.

[See: The Nazi Connection with Shambhala and Tibet]

Developments Subsequent to the Schäffer Expedition

Within a few months of the Schäffer Expedition, the political and military landscapes changed dramatically. In May 1939, Japan invaded Outer Mongolia, where it faced stiff resistance from the Soviet army. While the battle was still raging in Mongolia, Hitler broke the Anti-Commintern Pact with Japan in August 1939 and signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact to avoid war on two European fronts. The next month, he invaded Poland, at about the same time as Japan was defeated in Mongolia. The events demonstrated to the Tibetans that neither Japan nor Germany was a reliable source of protection against the Soviets. Moreover, because Japan was making little headway in conquering the rest of China, it turned its attention instead to Indochina and the Pacific. Japan did not appear anymore as a protector against the Chinese. Thus, Tibet was left no choice but the British and the weak protection that the Simla Convention afforded her.

In September 1940, Germany, Japan, and Italy signed a military and economic alliance. In June 1941, Hitler broke his pact with Stalin and attacked the Soviet Union. Neither event, however, swayed the Tibetans to reconsider seeking protection from the Axis Powers. Tibet remained neutral during the Second World War.

Japan’s interest in Tibet, however, continued and grew even stronger after its invasion of Burma at the start of 1942. Planning to enter Tibet through Upper Burma, the Japanese Imperial Government organized a Greater Asian Bureau. As its advisor for Tibetan affairs, the Government appointed Aoki Bunkyo, who twenty years earlier had translated Japanese army manuals into Tibetan. Under his guidance, the Japanese prepared maps and Tibetan-Japanese dictionaries. They even printed Tibetan money in anticipation of including Tibet in its Coprosperity Sphere. With Japan’s defeat in 1945, however, the Japanese were never able to implement their plans for Tibet.

Posted: **Sun Jan 12, 2020 5:24 am**

Alexandra David-Néel
by David Guy
Tricycle
Fall, 1995

NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

Alexandra David-Néel in Tibetan traveling dress.

Alexandra David-Néel lived 100 years. She was born in France in 1868, the period of la belle epoque, and died there in 1969, soon after the student riots in Paris. In between she spent fourteen years studying Buddhism in Asia and, at the age of 55, became the first Western woman to enter the Tibetan city of Lhasa. It is tempting to think that she was born too soon, but so free and bold a female spirit would have encountered obstacles anywhere, at any time. At the age of 16 she was already running away from home for jaunts across Europe, and she traveled to India at 21. Her early adulthood was taken up by a career as an opera singer—ample accomplishment for an ordinary life, but almost overlooked in hers.

It was not until middle age that she married Philippe Néel, the French engineer who supported her through her subsequent adventures, but with whom she almost never lived. Niel did not understand his wife’s interest in Buddhism and the East, but in 1910 he offered her a “long voyage”—he meant something like a year—to “get it out of her system.” She was gone for fourteen years, traveling and living in India, Sikkim, Nepal, Bhutan, China, Japan, making forays into the forbidden kingdom of Tibet. On her return to Europe, she was celebrated as an adventuress and lived another 45 years as a lecturer and writer. She left four projects unfinished when she died just short of her 101st birthday.

In an age when even those sympathetic to the East were mostly dabblers or lovers of the occult, Alexandra David-Néel distinguished herself both as a scholar and a practitioner. The style of her day was to examine things dispassionately and objectively, but David-Néel experienced them personally and, in such books as My Journey to Lhasa and Magic and Mystery in Tibet, wrote about them the same way.

Alexandra’s father, Louis David, was a French Protestant, a Huguenot, a socialist and a Freemason. He opposed the monarchy of Louis Philippe, participated in the Revolution of 1848, and fled to Belgium with his friend and compatriot, the novelist Victor Hugo. There he fell in love with Alexandrine Borghmans, a devout Roman Catholic who supported the Belgian monarchy and who in many ways was his opposite. They married and eventually moved back to France, and 13 years passed before they had their first child. Mme David was bitterly disappointed that Alexandra was not a boy, and paid almost no attention to her.

“Ever since I was five years old,” David-Néel wrote in My Journey to Lhasa, “I wished to move out of the narrow limits in which, like all children of my age, I was then kept. I craved to go beyond the garden gate, to follow the road that passed it by, and to set out for the Unknown. But strangely enough, this ‘Unknown’ fancied by my baby mind always turned out to be a solitary spot where I could sit alone, with no one near.”

At the age of 16—in an era when such behavior was scandalous for a girl—she ran away from her family home in Brussels several times, once to Holland and England, once to Italy, then later through France and Spain. She had taken an interest in religion from an early age, and a schoolgirl friend gave her a review entitled Gnose Supreme (supreme knowledge) published by an English occult society. When she determined at the age of 18 to study English in London, she contacted a Mrs. Morgan at the Society of the Gnose Supreme and arranged to stay there. She spent long hours in the Society’s library, poring over translations of Chinese and Indian texts.

When David-Néel decided to continue her studies in Paris, Mrs. Morgan arranged for her to stay at the Paris branch of the Theosophical Society. Though she found the Theosophical Society not to her taste, she discovered its excellent library, where she first read about Tibetan Buddhism. She also discovered the Musée Guimet, whose Asian collection—renowned to this day—intensified her attraction to the East. One day, believing herself to be alone in the museum, she bowed to a large Japanese statue of the Buddha, and a voice said, “May the blessing of Buddha be with you, Mademoiselle.” That voice turned out to belong to the Comtesse de Breant, who introduced her to other Parisians with an interest in the occult.

By the age of 21 David-Néel had become a devoted linguist, and when she decided to spend a legacy from her godmother on a trip to India, it was in order to pursue her study of Sanskrit. When she returned to Europe penniless, however, she ran head-on into the limitations of her gender. She had begun writing and had published articles on her travels and studies, but they paid little, and a career as a professor was not open to her. She had always shown talent in music—a field that was available to women—so she studied seriously and began a career as an opera singer, returning to the East for a while as the première cantatrice in the Opera Company of Hanoi. During some of this period she lived openly with the Belgian composer Jean Haustont, a fact of which her freethinking father was apparently aware.

David-Néel’s relationship to men was enigmatic throughout her life. Her biographers have variously said that she was repulsed by sex because she didn’t receive enough physical affection as a child and that she detested all things masculine. It is an undeniable fact that when she finally married she spent almost no time with her husband. Yet it is also true that all her spiritual teachers were male, and that the closest thing she ever found to a lifetime companion was a young lama, thought by some to be her lover (although there is no concrete evidence of this), whom she eventually adopted as a son.

It seems possible that she was repelled not by sex or men but by the sexual mores of her culture, in which women functioned as decorative appendages for men, and in which men raised families with their wives but found sexual gratification elsewhere. What David-Néel may really have wanted—even before she knew it—was a spiritual connection with a man, which she didn’t find until she traveled to the East. Her acceptance of marriage before that may have been an attempt to find the financial stability that she needed for her studies. In any case, at the age of 36, she married Philippe Néel, a well-off engineer who, despite his reputation as a philanderer, was considered quite a catch.

The early months of marriage—during which she was often apart from her husband, pursuing her writing career—were difficult. Her letters and journal entries reflect considerable torment about her husband’s wayward past and ambivalence about her role as wife. She was also becoming more and more interested in Buddhism, writing in her diary of “the delicious hour of perfect detachment and intimate joy” when she meditated. Néel, who was somewhat sympathetic to her feelings, offered her the “long voyage” to the East.

Alexandra David-Néel disguised as a Tibetan beggar on the way to Lhasa.

Alexandra David-Néel was determined to study religion. At first she returned to India, where she mostly encountered Hindus. She interviewed Sri Aurobindo and the widow of Sri Ramakrishna, and met a Brahman who engaged her in long discussions about religion. She was generally entertained by the wealthy and prominent in India, but disliked the caste system and the misery it engendered. She was interested in the philosophy of Hinduism but never drawn to it as a practice.

It was when she moved to Sikkim that she met three people who were to influence her life profoundly: Sidkeong Tulku, the maharajah of Sikkim; His Holiness the thirteenth Dalai Lama; and the Gomchen (“great meditator”) of Lachen. It was considered unusual – and somewhat bad form – for a Westerner to enter into personal relationships with “natives,” but David-Néel didn’t hesitate, becoming intimate friends with Sidkeong and eventually a disciple of the Gomchen.

This was the beginning of the most important and fulfilling period of David-Néel’s life. She actually underwent a physical transformation, the “neurasthenic,” somewhat unhealthy woman suddenly growing well and looking years younger. Her best biographer in English, Ruth Middleton, speculates that her residence in the Himalayas had much to do with these changes—”Her state of health improved enormously above a certain altitude”—but it also seems significant that David-Néel, who until then had been isolated from other Buddhists, was suddenly living in a place where she received support for her practice. When the Dalai Lama asked her how she could have become a Buddhist without a teacher, she said, “When I adopted the principles of Buddhism, I knew not a single Buddhist, and was perhaps the only Buddhist in Paris.” During their first conversation, the Gomchen of Lachen remarked, “You have seen the ultimate and supreme light. It isn’t in a year or two of meditation that one arrives at the concepts you express.”

In 1912 she wrote a letter to Néel—whom she addressed affectionately as Mouchy—describing her progress: “Each day I find myself further from the illusions and agitations (of the world). A great repose, a great illumination enters into me, or rather, I enter into them. . . . You have a wife who carries your name with dignity. . . . With your support and aid I shall become an author of renown.” Moving to Benares, she spent long hours studying Sanskrit, meditating, and studying with a Vedantist. She had been gone two years and was beginning to see a real conflict between her marriage and her spiritual ideals. Mouchy—understandably—wanted a conventional wife and sexual partner, while she desired a spiritual relationship that he probably wouldn’t even have understood. In fact, though Sidkeong was committed to marrying another woman, she could probably have had that kind of relationship with him, and it would not have been entirely unusual for her to live at the palace in Sikkhim as his friend. Still, the longer she was away from Néel, the more she appreciated his support. “I believe you are the only person in the world for whom I have a feeling of attachment,” she wrote him, “but I am not made for married life.” Increasingly she came to think of solitude as the only way to deepen her practice of Buddhism.

In 1914 she made the decision to move to the summer retreat of the Gomchen of Lachen. This was the famous hermitage at 13,000 feet that she described in Magic and Mystery in Tibet. There she was attended by the 14-year-old Aphur Yongden, who would be her companion for the next 40 years. But during the early months of her retreat she heard of the death of Sidkeong, who had finally taken the throne in Sikkim and may have been poisoned by rivals. She was devastated, as was the Gomchen, who had seen Sidkeong as the only hope for religious reform in Sikkim. The Gomchen had been planning to begin a three-year retreat, but took David-Néel on as a student instead. He told her she must remain “at his complete disposition” for a year, and for once she thought it worthwhile to give up her independence to a man. She spent two years with him in all, studying tantric mysteries and the Tibetan language.

Alexandra David-Néel with the Gomchen of Lachen in Sikkim (North), 1914.

By that time the First World War was raging, and she couldn’t have returned to Néel if she had wanted to (though it is not at all clear that she did). She traveled to Japan in 1917, hoping vaguely that he might join her there and also interested in learning about Zen Buddhism. As the author of Le Bouddhisme du Bouddha (The Buddhism of Buddha), she was welcomed as a celebrity, first in Japan, then in Korea and China. Yongden accompanied her, which effectively meant that his family would disown him and that he had devoted himself to her. It was in China that she met a Westerner who had made the forbidden journey to Lhasa and who told her of his adventures. But civil war broke out in China, forcing her to flee to Mongolia, where she lived in the monastery of Kumbum, the birthplace of the famous Tibetan teacher Tsong-khapa.

David-Néel devotes an entire chapter to Kumbum inMagic and Mystery in Tibet; it was another place—like her mountain hermitage—where she led the life of study and contemplation that she loved. There were some 3,800 lamas there, and she describes the remarkable spectacle of their silent progress to the meditation hall before dawn for the morning chanting. She meditated a great deal at Kumbum and studied in the library, copying the works of Nagarjuna and translating the Prajnaparamita Sutra. She had been away from Europe for ten years, and was beginning to realize that she didn’t want to return until she really explored Tibet. In particular, she wanted to be the first Western woman to enter Lhasa.

It is this more than any other accomplishment that made David-Néel a famous person, and My Journey to Lhasa is probably her best-known book, read by many people with no interest in Buddhism at all. She and Yongden traveled alone, posing as a lama and his aging mother. She was fluent in Tibetan, familiar with the city they were claiming to have come from, and disguised herself carefully. “She had blackened her brown hair with Chinese ink and ‘lengthened’ it with the aid of a yak’s tail,” Ruth Middleton tells us. “Her already bronzed face and hands she darkened with soot wiped from the bottom of the caldron.”

They journeyed on foot, often at night. There were countless occasions when they barely escaped detection. Once she became stuck halfway across a raging river, suspended by a rope. Twice she and Yongden were accosted by robbers, and she had to fire her pistol to scare them away. They took a treacherous route between two mountain passes, where an untimely snowfall might have left them to starve. As it was, at one point they traveled for days without solid food. By contrast, their arrival in Lhasa, followed by a two-month stay, was anticlimactic. The journey itself was the triumph.

David-Néel’s return to Europe, once that the war was over, was as strange as the rest of her life. The 60-year-old Néel was actually hoping to resume his marriage to Alexandra, but couldn’t understand why she had Yongden in tow, and certainly didn’t see him as an adopted son. Even now that she was back, she couldn’t manage to get together with her husband, so she and Yongden moved to Provence, where she lived as a writer and lecturer, renowned for her exploits. Whatever the nature of her relationship to Yongden, it seems significant that she finally settled down with someone who would be no threat to her independence. Nevertheless, she continued to hope that Néel would join them. When he died finally in 1941, she wrote, “I’ve lost the best of husbands and my only friend”—an odd and rather dubious testimony to her devotion. Even more devastating was Yongden’s death of uremic poisoning in 1955. Fortunately, in 1959 she found Marie-Madeleine Peyronnet, a wonderful secretary who was her companion during the last decade of her life and who maintained a museum in her honor after her death.

To the Tibetans, it seemed perfectly logical for Alexandra David-Néel to have traveled to Lhasa: she was returning to the site of a previous incarnation. From a Western perspective, it seems incredible that she even took an interest in Buddhism in her day, much less that she traveled to the East to study it firsthand. It is further remarkable that she spent so many years as an independent scholar with no institutional support whatsoever.

David-Néel was famous as an adventuress, but that description doesn’t seem adequate to her real accomplishments. She left behind voluminous writings, many of which have not been translated into English, and these are authentic not just because of her scholarship, but because of her lifelong practice. A woman who spent years in a mountain hermitage, who sat in meditation halls with thousands of lamas, who studied languages and scoured libraries for original teachings, who traveled for many years and for thousands of miles to immerse herself in a culture which few people had ever even heard of, writes with far more insight than someone who has only read about such experiences. It is her devotion to Buddhism and her willingness to trace it to its source that are finally most impressive about her life.

Posted: **Sun Jan 12, 2020 6:56 am**

Homer Lea
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 1/11/20

NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

Homer Lea
Born November 17, 1876
Denver, Colorado, U.S
Died November 11, 1912 (aged 35)
California, U.S.
Nationality American
Alma mater Stanford University

Homer Lea (November 17, 1876 – November 1, 1912) was an American adventurer, author and geopolitical strategist. He is today best known for his involvement with Chinese reform and revolutionary movements in the early twentieth century and as a close advisor to Dr. Sun Yat-sen during the 1911 Chinese Republican revolution that overthrew the Qing Dynasty, and for his writings about China and geopolitics.

Early life

Homer Lea was born in Denver, Colorado, to Alfred E. (1845–1909) and Hersa A. (1846–1879; née Coberly) Lea. He had two younger sisters, Ermal and Hersa. Alfred, a Tennessee native, had a successful real estate, abstract and brokerage business in Boulder, Colorado. After his wife Hersa died from an unexpected illness in 1879, he married Emma R. Wilson in 1890 and moved his family to Los Angeles, California four years later.[1]

Homer came from a pioneering family. His grandfather, Dr. Pleasant John Graves Lea (1807-1862), helped establish the town of Cleveland, Tennessee, in 1837, before moving his family to Jackson County, Missouri, in the late 1840s in search of new opportunities. He is the namesake for Lee's Summit, Missouri. The town was named after him in 1868 when the Missouri Pacific Railroad established a station near his property, which was the highest point of its St. Louis-Omaha line, but misspelled his name. In 1884, Alfred Lea was involved in the establishment of Steamboat Springs, Colorado, and the following year helped his brother Joseph establish the town of Roswell, New Mexico, by surveying and drawing the first plat of the Roswell town site. In 1917, Joseph C. Lea (1841-1905), Alfred's brother, became the namesake for Lea County, New Mexico.[2] [3]

Homer was born seemingly healthy, but after suffering a drop as a baby, he became a hunchback, eventually standing five feet in height and weighing approximately 100 pounds. At about age 12 he went to the National Surgical Institute in Indianapolis, Indiana, where he received medical treatment that helped improve his stature. His health began deteriorating further from a degenerative kidney ailment known as Bright's disease and he suffered chronic headaches and vision problems that may have stemmed from a diabetic condition.[4]

Homer attended Boulder Central School (1886–1887), East Denver High School (1892–1893), the University of the Pacific college preparatory academy in San Jose, California (1893–1894), and Los Angeles High School (1894–1896). He planned on going to Harvard University and becoming a lawyer, but financial setbacks altered his plans and he attended Occidental College in Los Angeles (1897–1898) for his freshman college year and Stanford University (1898–1899) for his sophomore and junior years, before dropping out of school for health reasons.[5]

Homer was an avid reader, a charismatic debater, and an accomplished outdoorsman who refused to be bound by the limitations of his disabilities. He loved reading military history and particularly admired Napoleon, in part because he considered that the Emperor's slight stature (now, incidentally, known to be a myth) was an example of greatness unaffected by physical size. He excelled as a debater and developed effective skills in influencing others. He became president of the Los Angeles High School debating society and later president of the local Lyceum League national debating society chapter. He loved adventure and the outdoors and often went on rugged camping trips where he always carried his own weight.[6]

Chinese affairs

Lea developed an interest in China after his family moved to Los Angeles, seeing in China an opportunity to attain military glory. He often visited nearby Chinatown and also befriended the Reverend Ng Poon Chew, a local Chinese missionary friend of his parents. He met other Chinese through Ng Poon Chew and soon began learning Cantonese. In 1899, while recuperating from a bout of smallpox, he learned of a recently organized Chinese society called the Bao Huang Hui (Protect the Emperor Society; also known as the Chinese Empire Reform Association), which Kang Youwei, a former adviser to the Chinese emperor, helped establish to restore the Guangxu Emperor to his throne. The emperor had been deposed in 1898 by Empress Dowager Cixi for instituting Western reforms.[7]

Lea saw an opportunity for adventure in China with the Bao Huang Hui rather than returning to Stanford. He convinced local Bao Huang Hui leaders that he was a military expert who could greatly benefit their cause, in part, by falsely claiming Confederate army general Robert E. Lee as a relative. Chinese officials were also impressed by his extensive Stanford education. The Bao Huang Hui welcomed him into their ranks with promises of becoming a general in their upcoming military campaign to restore the emperor to power. He traveled to China in 1900, while the Boxer Uprising was underway, with high hopes of playing a major role in the military campaign. He became a lieutenant general in the Bao Huang Hui's makeshift military forces, but had a relatively unimportant assignment that involved training rural volunteers away from any active military operations. After the Bao Huang Hui's main military forces were defeated by the imperial army, his military adventures in China came to a virtual end.[8]

Lea returned to California in 1901 and continued working with the Bao Huang Hui. He became the architect of a plan to train a Bao Huang Hui military cadre in America whose goal was to return to China and help restore the emperor to power. In 1904, he began establishing a network of military schools nationwide to covertly train his soldiers. His soldiers wore uniforms similar to those of the U.S. Army, with the exception of having a dragon replacing the national eagle on buttons and hats, and he recruited U.S. Army veterans as drill instructors. While his training scheme received popular attention in the press, it also resulted in a series of unwanted federal, state and local investigations, which subsequently led Kang Youwei to disavow Lea and his training scheme.[9]

After breaking with the Bao Huang Hui, Lea again turned his ambitions to China. In 1908, he unsuccessfully sought to become a U.S. trade representative to China for the Roosevelt administration; and in 1909, he unsuccessfully sought to become the U.S. Minister to China for the Taft administration. In 1908, he also contrived a bold and audacious military venture in China called the "Red Dragon Plan" that called for organizing a revolutionary conspiracy to conquer the two southern Guang provinces. He conspired with a handful of American businessmen and Yung Wing, a prominent former Chinese diplomat and scholar living in America. Through Yung Wing, he planned to solicit a united front of various southern Chinese factions and secret societies to organize an army that he would command for the revolution. If successful, Yung Wing was slated to head a coalition government of revolutionary forces while Lea and his fellow conspirators hoped to receive wide-ranging economic concessions from the new government.[10]

When Chinese revolutionary leader Dr. Sun Yat-sen came to America in late 1909 on a fund-raising trip, he met with Yung Wing, who convinced him that Lea and the Red Dragon conspirators could benefit his revolutionary movement. The Red Dragon conspirators joined Sun Yat-sen's movement to topple the Manchu Dynasty and Lea became one of Sun Yat-sen's most trusted advisors. Ultimately, the Red Dragon conspirators could not obtain the necessary financial backing for their plans and dissolved the conspiracy after a failed revolutionary attempt by Sun Yat-sen's followers in March 1911. Lea, however, remained loyal to Sun Yat-sen.[11]

In October 1911, Sun Yat-sen's forces succeeded in their revolution to depose the Manchu Dynasty. Sun Yat-sen was in America on a fundraising trip when he received word that he was to be the president of the new Chinese provisional government. He immediately contacted Lea to help arrange American and British governmental support for the revolutionary cause. Sun Yat-sen and Lea believed in forming an Anglo-Saxon alliance with China that would grant the United States and Great Britain special status for their support. Lea, who was in Wiesbaden, Germany, receiving medical treatment for his failing eyesight, met Sun Yat-sen in London, but they failed to obtain the desired Anglo-American support.[12]

As Sun Yat-sen and Lea sailed together for China, Lea's influence on Sun Yat-sen appeared to be growing. As their ship made several port calls along the way, Sun Yat-sen announced plans to make Lea the chief of staff of China's Republican army with authority to negotiate an end to hostilities with the imperial government. Shortly after arriving in Shanghai, China, in late December 1911, however, Lea suffered a major reversal of fortunes. He received word from the U.S. State Department that he could not be the chief of staff of China's Republican army since U.S. legal restrictions prevented him from aiding revolutionary movements. At the same time, Chinese revolutionary leaders wary of his influence over Sun Yat-sen, considered him an interloper and wanted nothing to do with him, which further marginalized his position. He remained Sun Yat-sen's close unofficial adviser until early February 1912, when he suffered a near fatal stroke that left him partially paralyzed and signaled an end to his stay in China.[13]

Writings

Homer Lea's principal writings included three books, The Vermilion Pencil (1908), The Valor of Ignorance (1909), and The Day of the Saxon (1912). His first book, The Vermilion Pencil, a romance novel, received critical acclaim. The novel painted a colorful picture of Chinese rural life with a fast moving plot that centered on the relationship and romance of a French missionary and the young wife of a Chinese Viceroy. Lea originally entitled it, The Ling Chee, (or lingchi in the present romanization) in reference to a type of Chinese execution by dismemberment. His publisher, McClure's, insisted on the change. Lea collaborated with Oliver Morosco, the proprietor of the Burbank Theater in Los Angeles, to produce a dramatized version of The Ling Chee in the fall of 1907, but nothing came of the venture. Lea subsequently wrote a dramatized version of his novel that he renamed The Crimson Spider. In 1922, Japanese-born Sessue Hayakawa, a leading Hollywood film star and movie producer, adapted The Vermilion Pencil to the screen.[14]

Lea's second book, The Valor of Ignorance, examined American defense and in part prophesied a war between America and Japan. It created controversy and instantly elevated his reputation as a credible geo-political spokesman. Two retired U.S. Army generals, including former Army Chief-of-Staff Adna R. Chaffee, wrote glowing introductions to the book, which also contained a striking frontispiece photograph of Lea in his lieutenant general's uniform. The book contained maps of a hypothetical Japanese invasion of California and the Philippines and was very popular among American military officers, particularly those stationed in the Philippines over the next generation. General Douglas MacArthur and his staff, for example, paid close attention to the book in planning the defense of the Philippines. The Japanese military also paid close attention to the book, which was translated into Japanese.[15] Carey McWilliams attributed to this book's depiction of a local fifth column the instigation of the modern anti-Japanese sentiment in the United States that would eventually lead to the internment of Japanese Americans.[16]

Lea's final book, The Day of the Saxon, repeated the prophecy of war between America and Japan. Japan, it said, must gain control of the Pacific before extending her sovereignty on the Asian continent. Japan's maritime frontiers must extend eastward of the Hawaiian Islands and southward of the Philippines. "Because of this Japan draws near to her next war—a war with America—by which she expects to lay the true foundation of her greatness." (1912: 92). Lea criticized the United States for its "indifference," party politics, and the lack of militarism which increase the chance of victory for Japan (1912: 92-93). The Day of the Saxon examined British imperial defense and predicted the break-up of the British Empire. It too generated controversy and received most of its critical attention in Europe. In The Day of the Saxon Lea believed the entire Anglo-Saxon race faced a threat from German (Teuton), Russian (Slav), and Japanese expansionism: The "fatal" relationship of Russia, Japan, and Germany "has now assumed through the urgency of natural forces a coalition directed against the survival of Saxon supremacy." It is "a dreadful Dreibund." (1912: 122) Lea believed that while Japan moved against Far East and Russia against India, the Germans would strike at England, the center of the British Empire. He thought the Anglo-Saxons faced certain disaster from their militant opponents.[17] Two Pacts—Non-Aggression between Germany and Russia in 1939 and Neutrality between Russia and Japan in April 1941—much approached Lea's prophecy, but the German decision to attack Russia in June 1941 prevented the prophecy from coming true. Lea considered the possibility of war between Germany and Russia but did not believe that this war will take place before the defeat of the British Empire because the German-Russian war would be mutually disastrous for both (1912: 124-125).

In The Valor of Ignorance and The Day of the Saxon, Lea viewed American and British struggles for global competition and survival as part of a larger Anglo-Saxon social Darwinist contest between the "survival of the fittest" races. He sought to make all English-speaking peoples see that they were in a global competition for supremacy against the Teutonic, Slavic, and Asian races. He believed that once awakened, they would embrace his militant doctrines and prepare for the coming global onslaught. China figured prominently in his world-view as a key ally with the Anglo-Saxons in counterbalancing other regional and global competitors. He had plans for a third volume to complete a trilogy with The Valor of Ignorance and The Day of the Saxon, in which he sought to advance his social Darwinist beliefs by discussing the spread of democracy among nations, but he died before beginning the volume.[18]

Later life and death

Homer Lea's grave

Lea returned to California in May 1912 to recover his health. He had hopes of rejoining Sun Yat-sen, but he suffered another stroke in late October 1912, which proved fatal. His final wishes were to be buried in China, but his cremated ashes remained with his family until they arranged for the Republic of China to receive them. In 1969, his ashes and those of his wife Ethel (née Bryant) were interred at Wuzhi Mountain Military Cemetery in Yangmingshan National Park in Taipei, Taiwan. President Chiang Kai-shek, Sun Yat-sen's brother-in-law, took a personal interest in the arrangements. He believed the interment of the Lea's ashes in Taiwan should only be temporary until they could be transferred to Nanking and interred by Sun Yat-sen's mausoleum, when Taiwan and mainland China were finally reunited.[19]

In popular culture

Homer Lea is portrayed by Michael Lacidonia in the film 1911, released in 2011.

Bibliography

Major Works by

• 1908 The Vermilion Pencil; a Romance of China. New York: McClure. 1908. Internet Archive 30756368
Reprinted 2003. - Stirling: Read Around Asia. - ISBN 978-0-9545450-0-0
Reprinted 2017. - Special Revised Edition Edited by Lawrence M. Kaplan: Amazon/Createspace.com - ISBN 978-1979429610
• 1909: The Crimson Spider. - Unpublished
Reprinted 2017. - Edited by Lawrence M. Kaplan: Amazon/Createspace.com - ISBN 978-1547091829
• 1909: The Valor of Ignorance. - New York & London: Harper and Brothers. - 1178360
Reprinted 1942. - ISBN 1-931541-66-3
• 1912: The Day of the Saxon. -New York & London: Harper and Brothers. - 250316
Reprinted 1942. ISBN 1-932512-02-0

Major Works about

• Anschel, Eugene, (1984). - Homer Lea, Sun Yat-Sen, and the Chinese Revolution. - Praeger Pubs. ISBN 0-03-000063-7
• Alexander, Tom, (July, 1993). - "The Amazing Prophecies of "General" Homer Lea". - Smithsonian. - p. 102.
• Kaplan, Lawrence (Sept. 15, 2010). - Homer Lea: American Soldier of Fortune (American Warriors Series). - The University Press of Kentucky. - ISBN 0-8131-2616-9
• O'Reilly, Tex and Thomas, Lowell, (). - "Born to Raise Hell". - p. 141-148. - ISBN 1-59048-109-7

Notes

1. Kaplan, Lawrence Homer Lea: American Soldier of Fortune.
2. Kaplan, Homer Lea
3. http://www.leacounty.net/about.html
4. Kaplan, Homer Lea
5. Kaplan, Homer Lea
6. Kaplan, Homer Lea
7. Kaplan, Homer Lea
8. Kaplan, Homer Lea
9. Kaplan, Homer Lea
10. Kaplan, Homer Lea
11. Kaplan, Homer Lea
12. Kaplan, Homer Lea
13. Kaplan, Homer Lea
14. Kaplan, Homer Lea
15. Kaplan, Homer Lea.
16. McWilliams, Carey (1944). Prejudice - Japanese Americans: Symbol of Racial Intolerance. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. pp. 40–45.
17. Kaplan, Homer Lea.
18. Kaplan, Homer Lea.
19. Kaplan, Homer Lea.

External links

• The Homer Lea Research Center – developed by Lea's biographer Dr. Lawrence M. Kaplan
• Homer Lea's remains arriving at Taipei, Songshan Airport (video)
• Homer Lea at Library of Congress Authorities, with 11 catalog records

Posted: **Sun Jan 12, 2020 7:04 am**

Yung Wing
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 1/12/20

NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

This is a Chinese name; the family name is Yung (容).

Yung Wing
容闳/容閎
Róng Hóng
Born 17 November 1828
Qing dynastyNanping, Xiangshan, Guangdong, Qing Empire (in modern-day Xiangzhou District, Zhuhai)
Died 21 April 1912 (aged 83)
Hartford, Connecticut, U.S.
Spouse(s) Mary Kellogg

Yung Wing (simplified Chinese: 容闳; traditional Chinese: 容閎; pinyin: Róng Hóng; Jyutping: Jung4 Wang4; November 17, 1828 – April 21, 1912) was the first Chinese student to graduate from an American university (Yale College in 1854). He was involved in business transactions between China and the United States and brought students from China to study in the United States on the Chinese Educational Mission. He became a naturalized American citizen, but his status was later revoked under the Naturalization Act of 1870.[1]

Early life

The first edition of My Life in China and America by Yung Wing (1909)

Page One

After receiving his early education at a Mission School in Canton,[2] Yung studied at Yale College to become, in 1854, the first-known Chinese student to graduate from an American university. He was a member and librarian of Brothers in Unity, a prominent Yale student literary society. His time at Yale was sponsored by Samuel Robbins Brown (1810–1880).[3] In 1851, at the end of his freshman year, Wing wrote to Albert Booth, a fellow alumnus of Munson Academy and "old Yale, where you have the satisfaction + honor to have gone through." Wing asked for Booth's help in acquiring study materials and stated, "Now you know probably the many disadvantages in which I labor aside from these additional studies."[4] He was a member of the Phi chapter of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity.

After finishing his studies, Yung returned to Qing Dynasty China and worked with western missionaries as an interpreter. He was thought perhaps the first Chinese person to almost entirely master the English language.[2]

Republican activism

In 1859, he accepted an invitation to the court of the Taiping rebels in Nanjing, but his proposals aimed at increasing the efficiency of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom were all eventually refused. In 1863, Yung was dispatched to the United States by Zeng Guofan to buy machinery necessary for opening an arsenal in China capable of producing heavy weapons comparable with those of the western powers. The arsenal later became Jiangnan Shipyard.

He persuaded the Qing Dynasty government to send young Chinese to the United States to study Western science and engineering. With the government's eventual approval, he organized what came to be known as the Chinese Educational Mission, which included 120 young Chinese students, to study in the New England region of the United States beginning in 1872. The Educational Mission was disbanded in 1881, but many of the students later returned to China and made significant contributions to China's civil services, engineering, and the sciences.

Yung was a lifelong supporter of reform in China. He had followed the lead of the Guangxu Emperor, whom Yung described as the great pioneer of reform in China.[5] The coup d'état of 1898 by the Empress Dowager Cixi aborted the reforms, and many of the reformers were decapitated.[5] A price of $70,000 was placed on Yung's head and he fled Shanghai to Hong Kong.

While in Hong Kong, he applied to the US Consul to return to the US. In a 1902 letter from the US Secretary of State John Sherman, Yung was informed that his US citizenship, which he had held for 50 years, had been revoked and he would not be allowed to return to the United States. Through the help of friends, he was able to sneak into the United States in time to see his youngest son, Bartlett, graduate from Yale.

In 1908, Yung joined "General" Homer Lea, the former American military advisor to Kang Youwei, in a bold and audacious military venture in China called the "Red Dragon Plan" that called for organizing a revolutionary conspiracy to conquer Liangguang. Through Yung, Lea planned to solicit a united front of various southern Chinese factions and secret societies to organize an army that he would command for the revolution. If successful, Yung was slated to head a coalition government of revolutionary forces while Lea and his fellow conspirators hoped to receive wide-ranging economic concessions from the new government. The Red Dragon conspiracy subsequently collapsed.[6]

After the Wuchang Uprising in the late fall of 1911, Sun Yat Sen wrote to Yung Wing requesting help to build the newly-founded Republic of China, however Yung was unable to go due to old age and illness. He requested his two sons to go in his place.[7]

Family and legacy

Yung was naturalized as an American citizen on October 30, 1852, and in 1876, he married Mary Kellogg, an American. They had two children: Morrison Brown Yung and Bartlett Golden Yung. At Yale's centennial commencement in 1876, Yung received an honorary Doctor of Laws.[8]

Yung lived his twilight years after the failed 1908 uprising in poverty in Hartford, Connecticut, and died in 1912.[6] His grave is located at Cedar Hill Cemetery outside Hartford.

Yung Wing's family plot at Cedar Hill Cemetery.

P.S. 124, a public elementary school at 40 Division St. in Chinatown in New York City, NY, is named after Yung. Yung had been considered as a possible namesake for one of Yale University's new colleges to be completed in 2017.[9]

In the prefecture city of Zhuhai, Guangdong, Yung Wing's hometown, there is a private school named in honor of Yung Wing, the Yung Wing School -- one of the most elite schools in the city. There is also a Yung Wing International Kindergarten there.

Notes

1. Gold, Martin (2012-07-04). Forbidden Citizens: Chinese Exclusion and the U.S. Congress : a Legislative History. The Capitol Net Inc. pp. 31–. ISBN 9781587332524. Retrieved 10 May 2013.
2. Andrews, Stephen Pearl (1854). Discoveries in Chinese. New York. p. 17.
3. Cornelia E. Brooke (January 1975). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Sand Beach Church". New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Retrieved 2009-11-10.
4. Ravi D. Goel Collection on Yale (RU 1081). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library. (Accession 2008-A-176. Yale letters and memorabilia, Box 1, Folder 10)
5. Yung Wing, My Life in China and America, p.83, Henry Holt Co., New York, 1909
6. Chu, T.K., 150, Years of Chinese Students in America, p.9, Harvard China Review, Spring 2004; Lawrence M. Kaplan, Homer Lea: American Soldier of Fortune (University Press of Kentucky, 2010), 145-157.
7. Lee, Khoon Choy. Pioneers of Modern China: Understanding the Inscrutable Chinese.
8. Schiff, Judith Ann, "When East Met West," old Yale, November/December 2004
9. Peter Perdue (October 17, 2014). "For Wing College". Yale Daily News. Retrieved 2015-06-05.

References

• Edward J.M. Rhoads, Stepping Forth into the World the Chinese Educational Mission to the United States, 1872-81 (Hong Kong: Hong Kong Univ. Pr., 2011).
• Liel Leibovitz, Matthew I. Miller, Fortunate Sons : The 120 Chinese Boys Who Came to America, Went to School, and Revolutionized an Ancient Civilization (New York: W.W. Norton, 2011).

Further reading

• For a comparative perspective on Yung's Sino-American Educational Mission of the 1870s and Prosper Giquel's Sino-European Educational Missions of the same period see Steven A. Leibo's The SINO-EUROPEAN EDUCATIONAL MISSIONS 1875-86 Asia Profile, vol. 16, no. 5 1988.
• Kaplan, Lawrence M. Homer Lea: American Soldier of Fortune. University Press of Kentucky, 2010. ISBN 978-0813126166.
• Yung appears as a fictionalized character in Li Bo's Beyond the Heavenly Kingdom 2017 ISBN 1541232216

External links

• Biography portal
• China portal
• The Yung Wing Project contains the transcribed text of Yung's memoir My Life in China and America.
• My Life In China And America full text of Yung's memoir at the Internet Archive.
• CEM Connections presents basic data and photos of the 120 students of the Chinese Educational Mission.
• The Red Dragon Scheme reveals the last chapter of Yung's life.
• Yale Obituary Record

Posted: **Sun Jan 12, 2020 7:23 am**

Brothers in Unity
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 1/12/20

NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

Brothers in Unity is a four-year secret society at Yale University. It used to be a debating society.

The Society of Brothers in Unity
Motto E parvis oriuntur magna
Formation 1768
Legal status Active
Location
Yale University
Region
New Haven, Connecticut

References to Brothers in Unity can be found throughout Yale's campus, including several within the courtyards of Branford College

Brothers in Unity shares several memorials with the Linonia Society

The Linonia and Brothers in Unity Room in the Sterling Memorial Library at Yale

History

Founding

The Society of Brothers in Unity at Yale College was founded by 21 members of the Yale classes of 1768, 1769, 1770 and 1771.[1] The founders included David Humphreys, who is noted in the society's public 1841 catalogue as the "cornerstone" of the founding class.[1] The society was founded chiefly to combat existing class separation among literary societies; prior to 1768, Yale freshmen were not "received into any Society", and junior society members were forced into the servitude of seniors "under dread of the severest penalties".[2] Humphreys, a freshman of the class of 1771, persuaded two members of the senior class, three junior class members, two sophomores, and 14 freshmen to support the society's founding.

Early activity

Immediately after its conception, the society's unorthodox class composition was allegedly challenged by other literary groups at Yale College.[2] According to its catalogue, Brothers in Unity only became an independent institution after persevering "an incessant war" waged by multiple traditional societies who did not support the concept of a four-year debating community. It is speculated that this struggle initiated the Brothers' near 250-year rivalry with Linonia, which previously did not initiate freshman members. Within a year, however, Brothers in Unity became fully independent, its popularity influencing other societies to reconsider their exclusion of first year students. The Yale College freshman class of 1771 yielded 15 members of Brothers in Unity, while Linonia accepted four; the first noted point in which underclassmen were publicly accepted into a Yale society.[1] The Brothers adopted the motto E parvis oriuntur magna between 1768 and 1769.

1768-1841

Between its founding and 1841, the society is said to have followed the template of other debating societies, although operating under "Masonic secrecy," according to 19th century Yale historian Ebenezer Baldwin.[3] In conjunction with Linonia and the Calliopean Society, Brothers in Unity was noted by Baldwin to discuss "scientific questions" and gravitate towards "literary pursuits." This is substantiated by the Brother's own public documentation, which denotes that the society sought "lofty places in science, literature, and oratory" fields, as well as general "intellectual improvement."[1]

The Brotherhood, between the years of 1768 and 1841, claims membership of 15 Supreme Court Justices (seven of which Chief Justices), 6 United States Governors, 13 Senators, 45 Congressional representatives, 14 presidents of colleges and universities, two United States Attorney Generals, and a United States Vice President. In its catalogue, the Brotherhood also asserts: "Every President of the United States, with the exception of two, has had in his cabinet one of our members, and the governor's chair of our own state has been filled for twenty years with Brothers in Unity."[1] 26 Yale valedictorians after the position's 1798 founding are attributed to the Society.

Membership to the Brothers and the Linonian Society divided the students of Yale College beginning in the turn of the 19th century. Both held expansive literary collections, which they used to compete against each other. Between 1780 and 1841, the Brothers claimed right to more volumes than Linonia, although these assertions are disputed[1][4] The two societies' rivalry extended to their membership. Brothers in Unity claims membership of John C. Calhoun, who was alphabetically assigned to Linonia, but had "undiminished attachment" to the Brothers.[1] However, while publications released by both societies repeatedly assert superiority amongst each other, they also express positive sentiment; denoting each other as "ornaments" of Yale and "generous rivals."[5][6][1]

At the time of the formation of Yale's central library, Linonia and 'Brothers in Unity donated their respective libraries to the university. The donation is commemorated in the Linonia and Brothers Reading Room of Yale's Sterling Memorial Library. The reading room contains the Linonia and Brothers (L&B) collection, a travel collection, a collection devoted to medieval history, and a selection of new books recently added to Sterling’s collections.

Actions as a secret society

Following the transformation of Yale's debating societies into the Yale Union, and later, the Yale Political Union, Brothers in Unity and the Linonian Society ceased function as literary and debating societies. Both societies continued their existence in secrecy, recanting their roles as intellectual colloquiums and instead prioritizing power and social influence as paramount. Linonia morphed into the template of other Yale secret societies, although its current existence is still questioned and its membership is not disclosed to the public as of 2012.[7] While unsubstantiated, Linonia is said to participate in Yale's April "tap night," along with the college's senior societies.

Unlike Linonia, Brothers in Unity refrained from association with the customs of Yale's senior societies. The society is rumored to tap a small cohort of members from each class during the fall semester, a notion in line with the organization's 1768 constitution and 1841 catalogue.[1] Internally, the society is referenced as the "Brotherhood," a community stressing unilateral action amongst members to acquire power in the realms of business, politics, and philanthropy. The society is said to have implemented methods of deterrence stemming from its 1768 constitution that prevent brothers from unearthing the identities of fellow members or disclosing internal actions of the brotherhood. However, public knowledge of specific traditions, discussions, and society regulations of Brothers in Unity ended after its 19th-century turn to secrecy, rendering most modern rumor as conjecture. It is rumored that the society maintains "taplines" into several of Yale's most prestigious senior societies, including Skull and Bones, Scroll and Key, Book and Snake, Myth and Sword, Elihu, and Mace and Chain.

Though the society no longer discloses the names of its members, its presence on campus continued through the 19th and 20th centuries, with reported activity spanning into the turn of the 21st century. It is unknown whether men exclusively fill current membership of the Brothers, due to the integration of women into Yale's societal web.

Prominent members

Note

Note: The society's last public catalogue of members was published in 1841. Since the transition of Brothers in Unity into a fully secretive society, the names of members during the 20th and 21st century are unknown.

List

• John C. Calhoun – Class of 1804 – 7th Vice President of the United States, United States Senator, political theorist
• Samuel Morse – Class of 1810 – Inventor of Morse Code, aided development of telegraphy. Namesake of Morse College at Yale
• Nathan Hale – Class of 1773 – Spy for Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. (Also claimed by Linonia)
• Noah Webster – Class of 1778 – United States Founding Father, Author of Merriam-Webster dictionary.
• Theodore Dwight Woolsey – Class of 1820 – President of Yale College, prolific author and academic.
• David Humphreys (soldier) – Class of 1768 – American Revolutionary War colonel and aide to George Washington. Served as the American minister to Portugal and was an entrepreneur who brought Marino sheep to America.
• Morrison Waite – Class of 1837 – 7th Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, champion of education opportunities for blacks.
• Benjamin Silliman – Class of 1796 – Prolific Chemist and Scientist; the first person to distill petroleum, and a founder of the American Journal of Science, the oldest scientific journal in the United States. Namesake of Silliman College at Yale and the mineral Sillimanite.
• Yung Wing – Class of 1854 – First Chinese student to graduate from an American University, businessman, Brothers in Unity librarian.
• Richard Henry Green – Class of 1874 – First African-American to graduate from Yale College, First African-American to earn a Ph.D., 6th American to earn a Ph.D in the field of physics.
• Alphonso Taft – Class of 1833 – 31st United States Secretary of War, 34th United States Attorney General, advocated against anti-African American voting laws.
• Henry Durant – Class of 1827 – Created the University of California, (Berkeley). Was the 16th mayor of Oakland, California.
• Moses Cleaveland – Class of 1777 – Founded Cleveland, Ohio. Commissioned brigadier general of Connecticut militia, surveyed the Western Reserve.
• Stephen Clark Foster – 1840 – First American Mayor of Los Angeles.
• James Gadsden – Class of 1806 – Namesake of the Gadsden Purchase (the United States purchase of Mexico], and appointed Adjunct General of US army.
• James Burnet – Class of 1798 – First Yale valedictorian.
• John Brown of Pittsfield – 1771 – First to alert George Washington to the defection plot of Benedict Arnold during the Revolutionary War. Founding member of Brothers in Unity.
• Peter Buell Porter – Class of 1791 – Served as the 12th United States Secretary of War under president John Quincy Adams, was the 11th Secretary of State of New York, and was elected to the 14th United States Congress.
• William Strong (Pennsylvania judge) – Class of 1828 – Supreme Court Justice.
• Henry Baldwin (judge) – Class of 1797 – Supreme Court Justice and United States Representative.
• John M. Clayton – Class of 1815 – 18th United States Secretary of State, United States Senator
• George Edmund Badger – Class of 1816 (did not graduate) – 12th United States Secretary of the Navy and United States Senator
• William Channing Woodbridge – Class of 1812 – Geographer and educational reformer.
• Chauncey Goodrich – Class of 1776 – Senator and Representative of Connecticut, 8th Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut.
• Joel Barlow – Class of 1778 – Ambassador to France, drafter of the Treaty of Tripoli in 1796.
• Thomas Hill Hubbard – Class of 1799 – Three time Presidential Elector and two time United States representative.
• Uriah Tracy – Class of 1778 – First respondent to the Lexington Alarm during the early American Revolutionary War. United States Senator and Representative from Connecticut.
• Ray Greene – Class of 1784 – United States Senator and Attorney General from Rhode Island.
• Israel Smith – Class of 1781 – Dominated Vermont politics; Governor of Vermont, Senator, and member of the United States House of Representatives.
• John Davis (Massachusetts governor) – Class of 1812 – Two time Governor of Massachusetts in 1834 and 1841, respectively, United States Senator, and member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
• John Elliott – Class of 1794 – United States Senator from Georgia.
• Henry Meigs – Class of 1799 – United States Senator from New York state.
• William Hull – Class of 1772 – General in the War of 1812, appointed by Thomas Jefferson as Governor of Michigan, soldier in Revolutionary War.
• Oliver Wolcott – Class of 1778 – United States Secretary of the Treasury and 24th Governor of Connecticut.
• William Edmond – Class of 1778 – Successor to James Davenport in the United States House of Representatives from Connecticut, fought in the Revolutionary War in the Revolutionary Army.
• Christopher Ellery – Class of 1787 – United States Senator from Rhode Island.
• Leonard Bacon – Class of 1820 – Influential abolitionist and congregational preacher.
• Jeremiah Evarts – Class of 1802 – Christian missionary, reformer, and activist for the rights of American Indians in the United States, and a leading opponent of the Indian removal policy of the United States government.
• James Lanman – Class of 1788 – Member of 8th United States Senate from Connecticut. Namesake of Lanman-Wright Hall in the Old Campus of Yale University.

References

1. Robinson, W.E. (1841). "Preface". A Catalogue of the Society of Brothers in Unity, Yale College, Founded 1768. New Haven, CT: Hitchcock & Stafford. pp. 1–6. Retrieved 4 June 2015.
2. Quoted remarks are the opinions of the Brothers in Unity Society of 1841, on page 2 of its catalogue
3. History of Yale College: From Its Foundation, A.D. 1700, to the Year 1838. Ebenezer Baldwin, Esq. Page 235.
4. See also: History of Yale College: From Its Foundation, A.D. 1700, to the Year 1838. Ebenezer Baldwin, Esq. Page 235-236
5. The Linonian Society Library of Yale College: The First Years, 1768—1790
6. Kathy M. Umbricht Straka The Yale University Library Gazette, Vol. 54, No. 4 (April 1980), pp. 183-192
7. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-01-11. Retrieved 2014-12-01.

Posted: **Sun Jan 12, 2020 7:32 am**

Samuel Robbins Brown
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 1/12/20

NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

Samuel Robbins Brown
Rev. Samuel Robbins Brown
Born June 16, 1810
East Windsor, Connecticut
Died June 20, 1880 (aged 70)
Stockbridge, Massachusetts
Nationality American
Known for Christian Missionary to China and Japan

Rev. Samuel Robbins Brown D.D. (June 16, 1810 – June 20, 1880) was an American missionary to China and Japan with the Reformed Church in America.

Birth and education

Brown was born in East Windsor, Connecticut. He graduated from Yale College in 1832, studied theology in Columbia, South Carolina and as a member of the first graduating class of Union Theological Seminary, and taught for four years (1834–38) at the New York Institution for the Deaf and Dumb.

China

In 1838 he went to Guangzhou and opened, for the Morrison Education Society, the first Protestant School in the Chinese Empire—a school in which were taught Yung Wing and other pupils who afterward came to the United States. The several annual reports on this school were published in The Chinese Repository for 1840 to 1846, to which he contributed some of his papers on Chinese subjects.

Return to America

After nine years' service, his wife's health failing, Brown returned to the United States and became a pastor at Sand Beach Church and teacher of boys at Owasco Outlet, near Auburn (1851–59). He worked for the formation of a college for women, which was situated first in Auburn and then in Elmira, New York and now known as Elmira College.[1] Brown was responsible for sponsoring Yung Wing (1828-1912); the first Chinese student to graduate from a U.S. university, graduating from Yale College in 1854.[1]

Japan

Guido Verbeck、Samuel Robbins Brown、Duane B. Simmons

When by the Harris Treaty of 1858, Kanagawa and Nagasaki in Japan were opened to trade and residence, Brown sailed for the former, arriving on November 3, 1859.[2] On arrival, Brown shared residential accommodation with the family of the Presbyterian medical missionary Dr. James Curtis Hepburn, then residing at Jobutsuji in Kanagawa, a dilapidated temple formerly occupied by the Dutch consulate.[3]

Brown and Hepburn, both benefiting from the experience of living and working in China, were noted pioneers in the study of the Japanese language. In collaboration with Dr. Hepburn and others, Brown made substantial contributions to the translation of the New Testament into Japanese. Brown was also a gifted teacher, Ernest Satow, then a student interpreter at the British legation, who many years later became British Consul to Japan, described the Japanese language lessons received from Brown to be, "of the greatest value." [4]

Brown began presiding at Christian ecumenical religious services held at the Jobutsuji in Kanagawa from the second Sunday after his arrival in November 1859.[5] In July 1860, at the request of English-speaking merchants in Yokohama, Brown begun to preach regularly at Sunday morning service that attracted 30 to 40 congregants each week.

In 1861 Brown also contributed to drawing up the plans and specifications for the British Anglican Garrison Church built on Lot 105 in the foreign settlement. The Garrison Church, also known as Christ Church, was the forerunner of Christ Church, Yokohama, rebuilt in 1901 on a prominent position on the Bluff overlooking the Port of Yokohama. On Lot 167 in the heart of the Kannai commercial district, Brown was also able to establish a Reformed Church, later named in 1872 as Union Church, Yokohama.[6]

At Yokohama, Brown also opened a school in which hundreds of young men, afterwards leaders in various walks of life, were educated. Brown acted as honorary chaplain to the United States legation, teaching and preaching for over 20 years. He was one of the founders of the Asiatic Society of Japan and a prominent contributor to early Meiji Period higher education.

Following a fire that destroyed much of his home, personal library, manuscripts, and notes, Brown returned to the United States for a two-year furlough in May 1867.[1] In June of the same year he was awarded and honorary Doctorate in Divinity by New York University.

Brown returned to Japan in 1869, arriving at Yokohama on August 26, to take up a new position as principal of a government funded school in Niigata. The Niigata sojourn was only brief; desiring to be close to his fellow New Testament translators, Brown accepted a new teaching post and relocated back to Yokohama in 1870.

Brown, suffering from ill health, left Japan for the United States in the Autumn of 1879.

Death

Brown died during his sleep, while visiting an old friend in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and is buried at Monson, Massachusetts, his boyhood home.

References

1. Cornelia E. Brooke (January 1975). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Sand Beach Church". New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Retrieved November 10, 2009.
2. Griffis, William Elliot (1902). A Maker of the New Orient. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company. p. 147.
3. Ion, Hamish, A. (2009). American Missionaries, Christian oyatoi, and Japan, 1859-73. Vancouver, BC: UBC Press. p. 31. ISBN 978-0-7748-1647-2.
4. Satow, Ernest (1921). A Diplomat in Japan (First ICG Muse Edition, 2000 ed.). New York, Tokyo: ICG Muse, Inc. p. 53. ISBN 4-925080-28-8.
5. Griffis, William Elliot (1902). A Maker of the New Orient. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company. p. 166.
6. Griffis, William Elliot (1902). A Maker of the New Orient. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company. p. 178.

Bibliography

• William Elliot Griffis, A Maker of the New Orient (New York: F.H. Revell, 1902) Google Books Etext

Works

• Colloquial Japanese (1863), a grammar, phrase book, and vocabulary
• Prendergast's Mastery System Adapted to the Japanese
• translation of Arai Hakuseki's Sei Yo Ki Bun: or, Annals of the Western Ocean
• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Gilman, D. C.; Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905). New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead. Missing or empty |title= (help)

External links

• Samuel Robbins Brown at Find a Grave

Posted: **Sun Jan 12, 2020 7:58 am**

Ng Poon Chew
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 1/12/20

NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

This is a Chinese name; the family name is Ng (伍).

Ng Poon Chew, from a 1920 publication.

Ng Poon Chew (Chinese: 伍盤照; pinyin: Wǔ Pánzhào, March 14, 1866 – March 13, 1931) was an author, publisher, and advocate for Chinese American civil rights. He published the first Chinese language daily newspaper to be printed outside of China.[1]

Born in the Toisan district of Guangdong province in Southern China, Ng moved to California in 1881, where he first worked as a domestic servant on a ranch. He became a student of U.S. culture, studying English, adopting Western dress, and converting to Christianity. He joined the seminary[2] and in 1892 became the first Chinese Presbyterian Minister on the American West Coast.[3] He was assigned to a ministry in Los Angeles, but after a fire destroyed his mission, he decided to focus his efforts on establishing a Chinese language newspaper instead. After a year of publishing his L.A.-based weekly, Hua Mei Sun Bo, Ng moved to San Francisco where he wrote the first Chinese language daily outside of China: Chung Sai Yat Pao.[4] His newspaper generally promoted an assimilationist viewpoint, encouraging Chinese American readers to adapt to North American values.[5]

Ng traveled the country speaking out against anti-Chinese legislation,[6] such as the Chinese Exclusion Act. He also published books[7] and pamphlets[8] opposing discrimination against Chinese Americans.

Ng was adviser to the Chinese consulate general in San Francisco from 1906 to 1913 and vice-consul for China from 1913 until 1931.[9]

He was called "an Oriental Mark Twain".[10]

See also

• King Lan Chew, Ng Poon Chew's youngest daughter, a dancer.
• John P. Irish, supported Chinese immigration. Ng Poon Chew was an honorary pallbearer at his funeral.
• Samantha Knox Condit, Presbyterian missionary in San Francisco. Ng Poon Chew was an assisting pastor at her funeral.

Notes

1. Franklin Ng, "Ng Poon Chew," in Kim, Hyung-chan (1999). Distinguished Asian Americans: A Biographical Dictionary. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0313289026. pp. 56-59
2. San Francisco Genealogy sfgenealogy.com
3. Ng Poon Chew Biographical Notes inn-california.com
4. Guide to the Chung Sai Yat Po Newspaper Collection Online Archive of California (oac.cdlib.org)
5. Being Chinese book review historycooperative.org
6. A Historian's Reflections on Chinese American Life in San Francisco calisphere.universityofcalifornia.edu
7. A Statement for Non-Exclusion books.google.com
8. The Treatment of the Exempt Classes of Chinese in the United States calisphere.universityofcalifornia.edu
9. Vice-consul
10. Promotional Flyer sdrcdata.lib.uiowa.edu/libsdrc

Posted: **Sun Jan 12, 2020 8:53 am**

Ernest Mason Satow
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 1/12/20

NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

The Right Honourable
Sir Ernest Mason Satow
GCMG
The young Ernest Mason Satow. Photograph taken in Paris, December 1869.
Personal details
Born: 30 June 1843, Clapton, London, England
Died: 26 August 1929 (aged 86), Ottery St Mary, England
Resting place: Ottery St Mary Parish Churchyard, Ottery St Mary, England
Spouse(s) Takeda Kane (1853–1932)
Children: 1 daughter (1872–1872)
Takeda Eitaro
Takeda Hisayoshi (1883–1972)
Mother: Margaret Mason
Father: Hans David Christoph Satow
Education: Mill Hill School
University College London
Occupation: Diplomat

Sir Ernest Mason Satow, GCMG, PC (30 June 1843 – 26 August 1929), was a British scholar, diplomat and Japanologist.[1]

Satow was born to an ethnically German father (Hans David Christoph Satow, born in Wismar, then under Swedish rule, naturalised British in 1846) and an English mother (Margaret, née Mason) in Clapton, North London. He was educated at Mill Hill School and University College London (UCL).

Satow was an exceptional linguist, an energetic traveller, a writer of travel guidebooks, a dictionary compiler, a mountaineer, a keen botanist (chiefly with F. V. Dickins) and a major collector of Japanese books and manuscripts on all kinds of subjects. He also loved classical music and the works of Dante on which his brother-in-law Henry Fanshawe Tozer was an authority. Satow kept a diary for most of his adult life which amounts to 47 mostly handwritten volumes.

As a celebrity, albeit not a major one, he was the subject of a cartoon portrait by Spy in the British Vanity Fair magazine, 23 April 1903.

Satow caricatured by Spy for Vanity Fair, 1903

General

Satow is better known in Japan than in Britain or the other countries in which he served. He was a key figure in East Asia and Anglo-Japanese relations, particularly in Bakumatsu (1853–1867) and Meiji-period (1868–1912) Japan, and in China after the Boxer Rebellion, 1900–06. He also served in Siam, Uruguay and Morocco, and represented Britain at the Second Hague Peace Conference in 1907. In his retirement he wrote A Guide to Diplomatic Practice, now known as 'Satow's Guide to Diplomatic Practice' – this manual is widely used today, and has been updated several times by distinguished diplomats, notably Lord Gore-Booth. The sixth edition edited by Sir Ivor Roberts was published by Oxford University Press in 2009, and is over 700 pages long.

Satow's diplomatic career

Japan (1862–1883)

The British Legation Yamate, Yokohama, 1865 painting

Ernest Satow is probably best known as the author of the book A Diplomat in Japan (based mainly on his diaries) which describes the years 1862–1869 when Japan was changing from rule by the Tokugawa shogunate to the restoration of Imperial rule. He was recruited by the Foreign Office straight out of university in London. Within a week of his arrival by way of China as a young student interpreter in the British Japan Consular Service, at age 19, the Namamugi Incident (Namamugi Jiken), in which a British merchant was killed on the Tōkaidō, took place on 21 August 1862. Satow was on board one of the British ships which sailed to Kagoshima in August 1863 to obtain the compensation demanded from the Satsuma clan's daimyō, Shimazu Hisamitsu, for the slaying of Charles Lennox Richardson. They were fired on by the Satsuma shore batteries and retaliated, an action that became known in Britain as the Bombardment of Kagoshima.

In 1864, Satow was with the allied force (Britain, France, the Netherlands and the United States) which attacked Shimonoseki to enforce the right of passage of foreign ships through the narrow Kanmon Straits between Honshū and Kyūshū. Satow met Itō Hirobumi and Inoue Kaoru of Chōshū for the first time just before the bombardment of Shimonoseki. He also had links with many other Japanese leaders, including Saigō Takamori of Satsuma (who became a friend), and toured the hinterland of Japan with A. B. Mitford and, the cartoonist and illustrator, Charles Wirgman.

Satow's rise in the consular service was due at first to his competence and zeal as an interpreter at a time when English was virtually unknown in Japan, the Japanese government still communicated with the West in Dutch and available study aids were exceptionally few. Employed as a consular interpreter alongside Russell Robertson, Satow became a student of Rev. Samuel Robbins Brown, and an associate of Dr. James Curtis Hepburn, two noted pioneers in the study of the Japanese language.[2][3] His Japanese language skills quickly became indispensable in the British Minister Sir Harry Parkes's negotiations with the failing Tokugawa shogunate and the powerful Satsuma and Chōshū clans, and the gathering of intelligence. He was promoted to full Interpreter and then Japanese Secretary to the British legation, and, as early as 1864, he started to write translations and newspaper articles on subjects relating to Japan. In 1869, he went home to England on leave, returning to Japan in 1870.

Satow was one of the founding members at Yokohama, in 1872, of the Asiatic Society of Japan whose purpose was to study the Japanese culture, history and language (i.e. Japanology) in detail. He lectured to the Society on several occasions in the 1870s, and the Transactions of the Asiatic Society contain several of his published papers. His 1874 article on Japan covering various aspects including Japanese Literature that appeared in the New American Cyclopædia was one of the first such authentic piece written in any European languages[4]. The Society is still thriving today.[5]

During his time in Japan, Satow devoted much effort to studying Chinese calligraphy under Kōsai Tanzan 高斎単山 (1818–1890), who gave him the artist's name Seizan 静山 in 1873. An example of Satow's calligraphy, signed as Seizan, was acquired by the British Library in 2004.[6]

Poem by the Tang poet Wang Bo 王勃 (650–676) in Satow's calligraphy (British Library Or. 16054)

Siam, Uruguay, Morocco (1884–1895)

Satow served in Siam (1884–1887), during which time he was accorded the rare honour of promotion from the Consular to the Diplomatic service,[7] Uruguay (1889–93) and Morocco (1893–95). (Such promotion was extraordinary because the British Consular and Diplomatic services were segregated until the mid-20th century, and Satow did not come from the aristocratic class to which the Diplomatic Service was restricted.)

Japan (1895–1900)

Satow returned to Japan as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary on 28 July 1895.[8] He stayed in Tokyo for five years (though he was on leave in London for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897 and met her in August at Osborne House, Isle of Wight). On 17 April 1895 the Treaty of Shimonoseki (text here) had been signed, and Satow was able to observe at first hand the steady build-up of the Japanese army and navy to avenge the humiliation by Russia, Germany and France in the Triple Intervention of 23 April 1895. He was also in a position to oversee the transition to the ending of extraterritoriality in Japan which finally ended in 1899, as agreed by the Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Commerce and Navigation signed in London on 16 July 1894.

On Satow's personal recommendation, Hiram Shaw Wilkinson, who had been a student interpreter in Japan 2 years after Satow, was appointed first, Judge of the British Court for Japan in 1897 and in 1900 Chief Justice of the British Supreme Court for China and Corea.[9]

Satow built a house at Lake Chūzenji in 1896 and went there frequently to relax and escape from the pressures of his work in Tokyo.[10]

Satow did not have the good fortune to be named the first British Ambassador to Japan, the honour was bestowed on his successor Sir Claude Maxwell MacDonald in 1905.

China (1900–1906)

Satow served as the British High Commissioner (September 1900 – January 1902) and then Minister in Peking from 1900–1906. He was active as plenipotentiary in the negotiations to conclude the Boxer Protocol which settled the compensation claims of the Powers after the Boxer Rebellion, and he signed the protocol for Britain on 7 September 1901. He received the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG) in the 1902 Coronation Honours list.[11][12] Satow also observed the defeat of Russia in the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905) from his Peking post. He signed the Convention Between Great Britain and China.

Retirement (1906–1929)

In 1906 Satow was made a Privy Councillor. In 1907 he was Britain's second plenipotentiary at the Second Hague Peace Conference.

In retirement (1906–1929) at Ottery St Mary in Devon, England, he wrote mainly on subjects connected with diplomacy and international law. In Britain, he is less well known than in Japan, where he is recognised as perhaps the most important foreign observer in the Bakumatsu and Meiji periods. He gave the Rede lecture at Cambridge University in 1908 on the career of Count Joseph Alexander Hübner. It was titled An Austrian Diplomat in the Fifties. Satow chose this subject with discretion to avoid censure from the British Foreign Office for discussing his own career.

As the years passed, Satow's understanding and appreciation of the Japanese evolved and deepened. For example, one of his diary entries from the early 1860s asserts that the submissive character of the Japanese will make it easy for foreigners to govern them after the "samurai problem" could be resolved; but in retirement, he wrote: "... looking back now in 1919, it seems perfectly ludicrous that such a notion should have been entertained, even as a joke, for a single moment, by anyone who understood the Japanese spirit."[13]

Satow's extensive diaries and letters (the Satow Papers, PRO 30/33 1-23) are kept at the Public Record Office at Kew, West London in accordance with his last will and testament. His letters to Geoffrey Drage, sometime MP, are held in the Library and Archives of Christ Church, Oxford. Many of his rare Japanese books are now part of the Oriental collection of Cambridge University Library and his collection of Japanese prints are in the British Museum.[14]

He died on 26 August 1929 at Ottery St Mary and is buried in the churchyard.

The grave of Sir Ernest Mason Satow in the churchyard of Ottery St Mary

Family

The Japanese wife of Ernest Mason Satow, Takeda Kane, 1870

Satow was never able, as a diplomat serving in Japan, to marry his Japanese common-law wife, Takeda Kane 武田兼 (1853–1932) whom he met at an unknown date. They had an unnamed daughter who was born and died in infancy in 1872, and later two sons in 1880 and 1883, Eitaro and Hisayoshi. "Eitaro was diagnosed with TB in London in 1900, and was advised to go and live in the United States, where he died some time before his father. (1925-29)." [15]

Satow's second son, Takeda Hisayoshi, became a noted botanist, founder of the Japan Natural History Society and from 1948 to 1951 was President of the Japan Alpine Club. He studied at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and at Birmingham University. A memorial hall to him is in the Oze marshlands in Hinoemata, Fukushima Prefecture.

The Takeda family letters, including many of Satow's to and from his family, have been deposited at the Yokohama Archives of History (formerly the British consulate in Yokohama) at the request of Satow's granddaughters.

Selected works

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by expanding it with reliably sourced entries.

• A Handbook for Travellers in Central and Northern Japan, by Ernest Mason Satow and A G S [Albert George Sidney] Hawes
o A Handbook for Travellers in Central and Northern Japan: Being a guide to Tōkiō, Kiōto, Ōzaka and other cities; the most interesting parts of the main island between Kōbe and Awomori, with ascents of the principal mountains, and descriptions of temples, historical notes and legends with maps and plans. Yokohama: Kelly & Co.; Shanghai: Kelly & Walsh; Hong Kong: Kelly & Walsh, 1881.
o A Handbook for Travellers in Central and Northern Japan: Being a guide to Tōkiō, Kiōto, Ōzaka, Hakodate, Nagasaki, and other cities; the most interesting parts of the main island; ascents of the principal mountains; descriptions of temples; and historical notes and legends. London: John Murray, 1884.[n 1]
• A Guide to Diplomatic Practice by Sir E. Satow, (Longmans, Green & Co. London & New York, 1917). A standard reference work used in many embassies across the world, and described by Sir Harold Nicolson in his book Diplomacy as "The standard work on diplomatic practice", and "admirable".[16] Sixth edition, edited by Sir Ivor Roberts (2009, ISBN 978-0-19-955927-5).
• A Diplomat in Japan by Sir E. Satow, first published by Seeley, Service & Co., London, 1921, reprinted in paperback by Tuttle, 2002. (Page numbers are slightly different in the two editions.) ISBN 4-925080-28-8
• The Voyage of John Saris, ed. by Sir E. M. Satow (Hakluyt Society, 1900)
• The Family Chronicle of the English Satows, by Ernest Satow, privately printed, Oxford 1925.
• Collected Works of Ernest Mason Satow Part One: Major Works 1998 (includes two works not published by Satow)
• Collected Works of Ernest Mason Satow Part Two: Collected Papers 2001
• 'British Policy', a series of three untitled articles written by Satow (anonymously) in the Japan Times (ed. Charles Rickerby), dated 16 March, 4 May (? date uncertain) and 19 May 1866 which apparently influenced many Japanese once it was translated and widely distributed under the title Eikoku sakuron (British policy), and probably helped to hasten the Meiji Restoration of 1868. Satow pointed out that the British and other treaties with foreign countries had been made by the Shogun on behalf of Japan, but that the Emperor's existence had not even been mentioned, thus calling into question their validity. Satow accused the Shogun of fraud, and demanded to know who was the 'real head' of Japan and further a revision of the treaties to reflect the political reality. He later admitted in A Diplomat in Japan (p. 155 of the Tuttle reprint edition, p. 159 of the first edition) that writing the articles had been 'altogether contrary to the rules of the service' (i.e. it is inappropriate for a diplomat or consular agent to interfere in the politics of a country in which he/she is serving). [The first and third articles are reproduced on pp. 566–75 of Grace Fox, Britain and Japan 1858–1883, Oxford: Clarendon Press 1969, but the second one has only been located in the Japanese translation. A retranslation from the Japanese back into English has been attempted in I. Ruxton, Bulletin of the Kyūshū Institute of Technology (Humanities, Social Sciences), No. 45, March 1997, pp. 33–41]

Books and articles based on the Satow Papers

• The Diaries and Letters of Sir Ernest Mason Satow (1843–1929), a Scholar-Diplomat in East Asia, edited by Ian C. Ruxton, Edwin Mellen Press, 1998 ISBN 0-7734-8248-2. (Translated into Japanese ISBN 4-8419-0316-X )
• Korea and Manchuria between Russia and Japan 1895–1904: the observations of Sir Ernest Satow, British Minister Plenipotentiary to Japan (1895–1900) and China (1900-1906), Selected and edited with a historical introduction, by George Alexander Lensen. – Sophia University in cooperation with Diplomatic Press, 1966 [No ISBN]
• A Diplomat in Siam by Ernest Satow C.M.G., Introduced and edited by Nigel Brailey (Orchid Press, Bangkok, reprinted 2002) ISBN 974-8304-73-6
• The Satow Siam Papers: The Private Diaries and Correspondence of Ernest Satow, edited by Nigel Brailey (Volume 1, 1884–85), Bangkok: The Historical Society, 1997
• The Rt. Hon. Sir Ernest Mason Satow G.C.M.G.: A Memoir, by Bernard M. Allen (1933)
• Satow, by T.G. Otte in Diplomatic Theory from Machievelli to Kissinger (Palgrave, Basingstoke and New York, 2001)
• "Not Proficient in Table-Thumping": Sir Ernest Satow at Peking, 1900–1906 by T.G. Otte in Diplomacy & Statecraft vol.13 no.2 (June 2002) pp. 161–200
• "A Manual of Diplomacy": The Genesis of Satow's Guide to Diplomatic Practice by T.G. Otte in Diplomacy & Statecraft vol.13 no.2 (June 2002) pp. 229–243

Other

• Early Japanese books in Cambridge University Library: a catalogue of the Aston, Satow, and von Siebold collections, Nozomu Hayashi & Peter Kornicki—Cambridge University Press, 1991. – (University of Cambridge Oriental publications; 40) ISBN 0-521-36496-5
• Diplomacy and Statecraft, Volume 13, Number 2[permanent dead link] includes a special section on Satow by various contributors (June, 2002)
• Entry on Satow in the new Dictionary of National Biography by Dr. Nigel Brailey of Bristol University
The standard author abbreviation Satow is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.[17]

Dramatisation

On September 1992, BBC Two screened a two-part dramatisation of Satow's life, titled A Diplomat in Japan in the Timewatch documentary strand. Written and directed by Christopher Railing, it starred Alan Parnaby as Satow, Benjamin Whitrow as Sir Harry Parkes, Hitomi Tanabe as Takeda Kane, Ken Teraizumi as Ito Hirobumi, Takeshi Iba as Inoue Kaoru, and Christian Burgess as Charles Wirgman.

• A Clash of Cultures (23 September 1992)
• Witness to a Revolution (30 September 1992)

See also

• List of Ambassadors from the United Kingdom to Japan
• Anglo-Japanese relations
• Anglo-Chinese relations
• Asiatic Society of Japan
• Yokohama Archives of History has copies of Satow's diaries and his private letters to his Japanese family.
• Sakoku
• List of Westerners who visited Japan before 1868
• Empress Dowager Cixi
• Chōshū Five

People who knew Satow

• William George Aston
• Thomas Blakiston
• Edward Bickersteth
• Basil Hall Chamberlain
• Ignatius Valentine Chirol
• Frederick Victor Dickins
• John Harington Gubbins
• Nicholas John Hannen
• Maurice Joostens
• Joseph Henry Longford
• George Ernest Morrison
• Harry Smith Parkes
• Edward Hobart Seymour
• Alexander Croft Shaw
• Harold Temperley
• Hiram Parkes Wilkinson
• Hiram Shaw Wilkinson
• William Willis
• Charles Wirgman
• Wu Tingfang

Notes

1. The third and subsequent editions of this handbook were titled A Handbook for Travellers in Japan and were cowritten by B. H. Chamberlain and W. B. Mason.

References

1. Nussbaum, "Satow, Ernest Mason", p. 829., p. 829, at Google Books; Nish, Ian. (2004). British Envoys in Japan 1859–1972, pp. 78–88.
2. Satow, Ernest (1921). A Diplomat in Japan (First ICG Muse Edition, 2000 ed.). New York, Tokyo: ICG Muse, Inc. p. 53. ISBN 4-925080-28-8.
3. Griffis, William Elliot (1902). A Maker of the New Orient. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company. p. 165.
4. The American Cyclopædia
5. Asiatic Society of Japan
6. Todd, Hamish (8 July 2013). "A rare example of Chinese calligraphy by Sir Ernest Satow". Retrieved 28 February 2015.
7. The London Gazette, 27 February 1885
8. The first British Ambassador to Japan was appointed in 1905. Before 1905, the senior British diplomat had different titles: (a) Consul-General and Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, which is a rank just below Ambassador.
9. The Semi-official Letters of British Envoy Sir Ernest Satow from Japan and China (1895–1906), edited by Ian Ruxton, 1997, p73
10. The Diaries of Sir Ernest Satow, British Minister in Tokyo (1895–1900), edited by Ian Ruxton, 2003
11. "The Coronation Honours". The Times (36804). London. 26 June 1902. p. 5.
12. "No. 27456". The London Gazette. 22 July 1902. p. 4669.
13. Cullen, Louis M. (2003). A History of Japan, 1582–1941, p. 188.
14. British Museum Collection: Sir Ernest Mason Satow Collection
15. Schmidt and Stenlund Genealogy: Eitaro Takeda Satow
16. Nicolson, Harold. (1963). Diplomacy, 3rd ed., p. 148.
17. IPNI. Satow.

Bibliography

• Cullen, Louis M. (2003). A History of Japan, 1582-1941: Internal and External Worlds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521821551; ISBN 9780521529181; OCLC 50694793
• Nish, Ian. (2004). British Envoys in Japan 1859-1972. Folkestone, Kent: Global Oriental. ISBN 9781901903515; OCLC 249167170
• Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan Encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5; OCLC 48943301
• SATOW, Rt Hon. Sir Ernest Mason, Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007, accessed 11 Sept 2012

External links

• Portraits of Ernest Mason Satow at the National Portrait Gallery, London
• Works by or about Ernest Mason Satow at Internet Archive
• Asiatic Society of Japan
• Report of a lecture on Satow in Tokyo 1895-1900 given to the Asiatic Society of Japan
• Ian Ruxton's Ernest Satow page
• UK in Japan, Chronology of Heads of Mission
• Works by Ernest Mason Satow at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Ernest Mason Satow at Internet Archive

Posted: **Sun Jan 12, 2020 9:13 am**

Asiatic Society of Japan
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 1/12/20

NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

The Asiatic Society of Japan, Inc.
Trade name
The Asiatic Society of Japan or ASJ
Native name
一般社団法人日本アジア協会
Romanized name
Ippan Shadan Hojin Nihon Ajia Kyokai
Type
NPO
Predecessor The Asiatic Society of Japan (est. 1872)
Founded 1872. Incorporated as a non-profit in 2019 September
Headquarters Tokyo, Japan
Key people
Board of Directors
Dr. Yuichiro Anzai, Chairman
H.E. Ambassador Yoshinori Katori, Representative Director and President
Mr. Morihiko Otaki
Ms Kyoko Mimura
H.E. Dr. Bashir Mohabbat
H.E. Dr. Norbert Palanovics
Mr. Osamu Moriya, Statutory Auditor
Website http://www.asjapan.org

Logo of the Asiatic Society of Japan, with Kanji characters in Seal script. Read top-to-bottom and right-to-left: 日本 / アジア / 協会 (The Society's name, one word per column).

The Asiatic Society of Japan, Inc. (一般社団法人日本アジア協会” or “Ippan Shadan Hojin Nihon Ajia Kyokai”) or "ASJ" is a non-profit organization of Japanology. ASJ serves members of a general audience that have shared interests in Japan.

Founded in 1872[1] as The Asiatic Society of Japan (日本アジア協会, Nihon Ajia Kyōkai, lit. "Japan Asia Society"), ASJ is Japan's oldest learned society. The Honorary Patron is Hisako, Princess Takamado. The Representative Director and President as of September 2019 is H.E. Ambassador Yoshinori Kato.

Overview

The Asiatic Society of Japan's founders set into motion coordinated activities "to collect and publish information on subjects relating to Japan and other Asiatic Countries."[2] They intentionally differentiated ASJ from its affiliated Royal Asiatic societies of the day by having established ASJ as a "Society for scholarly gentlemen" rather than a society of scholars. Nor was "Royal" to be used in ASJ's title, a measure to encourage Japanese people to join. Women also began to join within a few years. ASJ quickly became the first organization of its kind in Japan to promote the sharing of discoveries about Japan to the rest of the world.

ASJ was founded at a meeting held on 8 October 1872 at the Grand Hotel, Yokohama, when Robert Grant Watson of the British Legation was elected the first President, and the first papers were read there on 30 October—Notes on Loochoo by Ernest Mason Satow, then Japanese Secretary at the British Legation, and The Hyalonema Mirabilis, a marine biological study by Henry Hadlow, a Royal Navy surgeon. The opening papers were significant for two reasons: the subjects themselves, and the presence of Dr. James Curtis Hepburn and Satow at the very beginning of the ASJ's life.[3]

ASJ's founders and earliest members were adventurous leaders who became pillars of Japan's modernization and industrialization at the dawn of Meiji Period. Physicians, scientists, teachers, engineers, military officers, lawyers, and diplomats numbered among them. In those days, there were numerous organizations like ASJ, each in their own way serving as focal points for documenting and discussing the discoveries that were being made by the men who were participating in the building of a new Japan. Many members of ASJ were also members of the other organizations.

Japanese members who were central to the Meiji Restoration included: Kanō Jigorō, Baron Naibu Kanda, Tsuda Sen, Nakamura Masanao, and Viscount Mori Arinori.

The 'foreign expert' group was, likewise, a roster of the famous:[3] Dr. James Curtis Hepburn; Henry Hadlow; Josiah Conder; John Milne, Edward Divers, James Main Dixon and Charles Dickinson West, all of the Imperial College of Engineering; Henry Faulds of the Tsukiji Hospital; Robert Maclagan of the Osaka Mint; Basil Hall Chamberlain; and William George Aston and Sir Ernest Mason Satow, diplomats.[1]

ASJ, embracing a core of pioneers with the self-imposed task of interpreting the Japanese and their civilization to the rest of the world, played a highly significant part in transmitting new standards of critical and technical excellence to a whole generation of Japanese teachers and students, which, once adopted, made the 'foreign experts' superfluous.[3] By the 1890s, ASJ's first generation of Japanese and foreign members—leaders of change in Meiji—began to move on. Academicians began to make-up more of the membership. Today, the membership is approximately: academicians (46%); businesspeople (36%); students, fine arts, clergy, retired and other (18%).

ASJ is still active today. Members meet monthly to hear a guest explain discoveries based on original research. The lectures last approximately fifty minutes and are followed by questions and discussion. Topics have come from the full spectrum of fields of knowledge as related to Japan, including culture, history, literature, science, business, politics, and economics.

Publications

The Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan is a journal that contains the full texts of selected papers presented at meetings, as well as other papers submitted for publication. The ASJ also publishes a monthly newsletter known as the Bulletin, which contains a detailed summary of the previous month's lecture, lecturers' profiles, announcements of coming events, and news about the ASJ and its members.

For most of the ASJ's history, there has been no limit to the range of interests covered in the pursuit of the objective.[4] The first ten volumes of the Society's Transactions, 1872-1882, printed 146 papers, of which 25 can be roughly classified as geographical or topographical. They are, however, far outnumbered by the largest subject grouping: the scientific papers during the same period. Hadlow alone submitted 52 such studies, and there were many others. But to take the figures further, during the second decade, 1882-1892, 107 papers were printed, of which only 4 were geographical and 18 scientific, a reflection of the end of the 'exploration' phase of Meiji. The men who contributed to the exploration phase and to the explosive growth of the ASJ during its first 20 years began to wind-up their activities and move to their next opportunities.[3]

On the occasion of the 110th Anniversary of the ASJ, after having completed his historical account of the first one-hundred years of the ASJ, President Douglas Moore Kenrick remarked to Their Imperial Highnesses and members present: "The only requirement of authors, and this is the root of our policy, is that each is expected to tell us something in his or her field that has not been previously published. We ask for something new. The Transactions have covered an extraordinarily wide range of Japanese studies and the papers provide a fascinating conspectus of Western achievements in the field of Japanology over the decades, as well as useful examinations of many subjects that have not been treated elsewhere." [5]

Early Presidents[1]

• 1872–1873: Robert Grant Watson
• 1873–1874: Dr James Curtis Hepburn
• 1874–1876: Samuel Robbins Brown
• 1876–1878: Harry Smith Parkes
• 1878–1879: David Murray
• 1879–1880: Edward W. Syle
• 1880–1881: Edward Divers, FRS
• 1881–1882: J Gordon Kenney
• 1882–1883: Sir Harry Smith Parkes
• 1883–1885: James Curtis Hepburn
• 1885–1888: Nicholas John Hannen
• 1888–1889: William George Aston
• 1889–1890: Rev James Lansing Amerman
• 1890–1891: Nicholas John Hannen
• 1891–1893: Prof. Basil Hall Chamberlain
• 1893–1895: Rev Daniel Crosby Greene
• 1895–1900: Sir Ernest Mason Satow

Notable members[5]

• Masaharu Anesaki
• Mori Arinori
• William George Aston
• Samuel Robbins Brown
• Basil Hall Chamberlain
• Josiah Conder
• Hugh Cortazzi
• Edward Divers
• James Main Dixon
• Henry Faulds
• John Harington Gubbins
• Kanō Jigorō
• Henry Hadlow;
• Lafcadio Hearn
• James Hepburn
• Baron Naibu Kanda
• Donald Keene
• Neal Lawrence
• Robert Maclagan
• John Milne
• Masanao Nakamura
• Edwin O. Reischauer
• Donald Richie
• Ernest Satow
• Edward Seidensticker
• Tsuda Sen
• Charles Dickinson West

References

1. Kenrick, Douglas Moore (1978). A Century of Western Studies of Japan: The First Hundred Years of the Asiatic Society of Japan 1872-1972. Tokyo: The Asiatic Society of Japan. p. 38.
2. Constitution and By-Laws, List of Members, List of Exchanges, List of Thirty-Year subscribers, and Catalogue of Transactions. Yokohama: The Asiatic Society of Japan. 1911. p. 177.
3. Farrington, Anthony. "The Asiatic Society of Japan - It's Formative Years".
4. The Transactions of The Asiatic Society of Japan: Comprehensive Index. Tokyo: The Asiatic Society of Japan. 1958. pp. 62–80.
5. The Transactions of The Asiatic Society of Japan, Third Series, Volume 18. Tokyo: The Asiatic Society of Japan. 1983. p. 155.

External links

• Official website (in English)

Altruistic World Online Library

Freda Bedi, by Wikipedia

Re: Freda Bedi, by Wikipedia

Re: Freda Bedi, by Wikipedia

Re: Freda Bedi, by Wikipedia

Re: Freda Bedi, by Wikipedia

Re: Freda Bedi, by Wikipedia

Re: Freda Bedi, by Wikipedia

Re: Freda Bedi, by Wikipedia

Re: Freda Bedi, by Wikipedia

Re: Freda Bedi, by Wikipedia

Re: Freda Bedi, by Wikipedia