Mission and Revolution in Central Asia - Svenska Missionskyrkan

mountains, the children “lived” each in a wooden box, strapped on to a horse. In those
boxes the children could sit, lie down, stand up and talk to one another. The route at times
went across glaciers where Arell had to carry the children, one by one, for long
distances. 106 At the Sassar pass, the family very nearly succumbed in the snow and the
cold. The caravan men had by then turned back home, leaving the family to their fate. All
alone they very nearly froze to death in the cold and the dark of the night. The following
morning, they managed to walk to a camp place where they could rest some time before
continuing their journey. 107
On some occasions the missionaries were forced to go home during a season when the
route via Leh was impracticable. They then had to take the westerly route from Kashgar
via Pamir and Gilgit. This route was shorter, but it was much more difficult. Trained
caravan men could however make their way here at nearly any time of the year. The route
had been built for communications between Britain’s two spheres of interest here: India
and Kashgar. 108
From Kashgar the route led into the mountains of Pamir with among other passes the
Muztagh pass at nearly 5.000 metres above the sea. The top of the mountain rises some
6.400 metres in its breathtaking might, says Sir Aurel Stein. 109
In the year 1920, a whole group of missionaries travelled by this route. The leader of
the party was Gottfrid Palmberg. In the group there were also several women and
toddlers. Also present in this group was the engineer John Witt and his family. 110 Earlier,
no European woman had travelled along this road. The British Consul of Kashgar called
the whole enterprise “an absurd jeopardy”. Palmberg describes the journey in the book
Över Pamir och Himalaja med östturkestanmissionärer (= Across Pamir and Himalaya
with Eastern Turkestan Missionaries) (Stockholm, 1924). He relates how the situation
several times was very critical. For example, the women were already exhausted at the
outset, having worked for 8 to 10 years in the field. Among the horrors of the journey,
there was the fact that it was nearly impossible to dry the children’s diapers in the terrible
cold. 111 After 42 days the group had passed through the mountainous area and after
another 45 days they were home in Sweden.
The year after, John Törnquist travelled this road all alone after 10 years in the field.
When he came to the Mintaka pass, there were several caravans there, waiting for better
weather. The caravan men from Kashgar refused to accompany him any longer. He
finally managed to get some local porters, and in the company of Afghan tradesmen he
continued across the pass. The path he walked on went “along vertical mountain sides, on
tiny shelves made of poles or on flat rocks, across glaciers where bottom-less crevasses
gaped at me…” 112
106 th
Interview with Arell, October 27th, 1973. Svea Egefors to Hultvall, October 19 , 1977.
107
Törnquist, 1926, p. 50.
108
Teichman, 1937, p. 155 f.
109
Stein, 1933, p. 297.
110
Palmberg to Lundahl, January 1st, 1918. John Witt was a Swedish engineer, son of missionary Witt in
Zululand where the Church of Sweden had mission work. Mr Witt had moved with his family from Russia
to Kashgar in order to become counsellor at the establishment of industries like a match factory, cotton
manufacturing, soap making, spinning mills, etc. There were also plans of building an electricity plant in
Jarkend, where the industries were to be established.
111
Palmberg, 1924, p.10.
112
Törnquist, 1926, p. 45 f., 1928, p. 28.
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