Mission and Revolution in Central Asia - Svenska Missionskyrkan

However, when the missionaries had become more acquainted with the language, they
realized that Avataranian’s translation was not totally satisfactory. Surely they wholeheartedly
appreciated his endeavours, but at the same time they found serious shortcomings. (See more
about this in Chapter III). When the Swedish missionaries suggested a revision he was
however strongly against it. The different opinions concerning Avetaranian’s translation led
to animosity and bitterness poisoning Avteranian’s last years in Kashgar. Periodically
Högberg and Avetaranian lived in such tension that they did not talk to each other but they
“carried on a strange correspondence”. 54 In 1895 Högberg writes a letter to MCCS President
Ekman, expressing serious complaints about Avataranian. He had been “extremely
troublesome”. Among other things he had “been gossiping” to the authorities about the
conditions at the mission station. Without further notice he had also left his work in Kashgar
and accompanied Sven Hedin as an interpreter. 55 Hedin was not content with him either.
When Hedin’s expedition was ready to enter Taklamakan, he abandoned it. Hedin writes,
“With all his imagined piety he totally lacked the courage of someone who unhesitatingly
entrusts himself to God.” He was pathologically religious, says Hedin “and always seemed to
be bored”. 56 From Hedin’s expedition he then returned to the Mission and continued his work
there. In 1897, however, he left Kashgar for good and settled down in Bulgaria.
His intention was to go back to the mission field, but this never came about. In Bulgaria he
took up mission work among the Muslims of that country. Among other things he edited two
different newspapers for Muslims. 57 His bitterness towards the missionaries of Kashgar
persisted, and during the first years of the 20 th century, which will be described later on, a
forceful “Bible dispute” developed between Avataranian and the Swedish missionaries.
In 1894 the first Swedish missionaries arrived in Kashgar in the persons of Lars-Erik
Högberg and his wife Sigrid, Anna Nyström and the Persian doctor Mirza Josef Mässrur.
Apart from Mrs Högberg, they had all previously been missionaries to Persia, working in the
MCCS mission field there.
L.E. Högberg came to be the undisputed leader of the Mission up to 1916 when he left the
mission field. But also after that, up to his death in 1924, he was a leading figure within the
Mission during these years as a permanent advisor for the Mission Board in Sweden.
Initially, Högberg was against the move to Eastern Turkestan. In a letter to the Mission
Board he writes,
“Going to Kashgar in order to convert Muslims would be like giving oneself a lot of unnecessary trouble,
as long as we have millions of Muslims right outside our door, here in Persia, who have not heard the
Gospel. My suggestion would be, in short, like this: Let the mission work in Caucasus and in Persia carry
on, like it does for the moment.” 58
Högberg was not the only person to be hesitant concerning the dismantling of the mission
work in Persia. E. John Larson, who also was a missionary to Persia writes, “When after 24
years one looks back upon what happened, one still feels uncertain whether the decision was a
good one.” 59 The Christians were dismayed at the closing down of the Mission. They sent two
petitions with 200 signatures (members of the congregation and friends of the Mission) to the
MCCS Mission Board with an urgent request that the Mission be allowed to stay on. The
MCCS however did not find it possible to go on working in Persia considering the mission
work that was planned to start in Kashgar. E. John Larson was transferred to Tiflis in
54 th
Törnquist to Sjöholm, August 28 , 1909.
55 th th
Högberg to Ekman, February 2nd, March 15th, May 1st, May 25th, June 4 and August 14 1895.
56
Hedin, 1898, p. 429.
57
The Svenska Morgonbladet, December, 1912.
58 rd
Högberg to Ekman July 23 , 1891.
59
Larson, 1919, p. 52.
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