Mission and Revolution in Central Asia - Svenska Missionskyrkan

I. Eastern Turkestan –
An Isolated Country and Yet a Meeting Place
The following surveys contain very basic information. The country, its peoples, its history and
religion etc., all this is of great interest, but the rich material has had to be extremely
restricted. On the whole only matters having had a direct importance for the Mission have
been included. Primarily, it is the observations made by the missionaries themselves that are
accounted for. This was not possible to do in a chronological order; missionaries are for
instance often quoted as if they were already there, however they will not arrive there until
Chapter 2. These surveys, though not exhaustive, constitute an attempt to give parts of the
background of the mission work, but they also touch upon conditions that remained during the
entire mission period. This may add to the general understanding of the situation and the work
of the missionaries.
1. A Geographical Survey
Eastern Turkestan means “The land of the Turks”, which is what the Persians originally called
the area inhabited by Turk nomads to the north and north-east of Iran, between the Caspian
Sea and Mongolia. It is the most westerly province of China, today called Sinkiang, “the new
territory”, and it makes up about one sixth of the total territory of China.
Eastern Turkestan is bounded to the north-west by Russia, where West Turkestan is to be
found. In order to separate the two provinces, Sinkiang was formerly called “Chinese
Turkestan”.
Eastern Turkestan is made up of highlands with an altitude above sea-level of 1000 - 1500
metres. The town of Kashgar for example is situated at 1300 metres above the sea.
On three sides the country is demarcated by high mountains; the ranges of the Kunlun
Shan to the south and the Pamirs to the west. To the north, the Tian Shan mountain ranges
which on their eastern side divide the province into two parts, the Dzungarian Basin and the
Tarim Basin, in the western part of which the mission field was situated. The British named it
“Kashgaria”. From the mission stations in Kashgar and Jengi-Hissar, one could see the high,
snow-capped mountains. The missionaries say that when the sunlight fell on the distant white
mountains they gleamed so much that it was hard to look at them without sunglasses. 1 The
eastern border is made up of the enormous Gobi Desert, a branch of which, the Taklamakan
Desert, stretches into Eastern Turkestan.
All the rivers had their sources in the mountains and on their way through the desert they
gave life and fertility to large areas. What looked like a cold, sterile mountain range was, in
fact, the “mother” of the lush vegetation of the river-basins. Many smaller rivers were lost in
the desert sand where they “drowned”. A strange phenomenon was the continuous change of
the river channels, moving their course to the right. As a result of this, the towns, which were
nearly always built by the water course, came to find themselves on their left side. 2 The
British archaeologist Aurel Stein was responsible for the mapping of these areas during the
Mission period. He confirms what the missionaries themselves had been observing namely
1 Andersson, 1948, p. 105. Lady Macartney is in raptures over the view from the Consulate, built by Högberg,
from where one could see the magnificent mountains of Pamir, with eternal snow. (Macartney, 1931, p. 202.)
And Hermann Francke tells about Högberg’s enthusiasm when, from Jengi-Hessar, he could se Mustagh-Ata,
well-known through Hedin’s travels. (Francke, 1921, p. 72.) Raquette quotes Aurel Stein saying that it is wrong
to call the country to the south of Tienshan Kashgaria.. (Raquette, 1928, note p. 151 f. and Stein, Ancient
Khotan, 1907.)
2 Lundahl, 1917, p. 8 f.
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