Xue Jun Xuan and Nara
Xue Jun Xuan and Nara are qualified researchers.
To read the Chinese version of this article, visit the post at 信心的腳蹤—葉長青生平掠影及西藏高原宣教見證
Mission Round Table 19:3 (Sept-Dec 2024): 36-42
To read articles in this edition, visit this post on Mission Round Table 19:3.
Introduction
In Isaiah 52:7, the prophet Isaiah declares,
How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those
who bring good news,
who proclaim peace,
who bring good tidings,
who proclaim salvation,
who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!”
This verse aptly describes James Huston Edgar, who travelled primarily on foot to share the word of God with lamas residing in monasteries high in the mountains.
Early life and preparation
Edgar was born on 19 August 1872 at Clunie Estate near Harrow, Victoria, Australia.[1] In 1876, at the age of three, he moved with his mother and brother to the foothills of the Southern Alps in Otago, South Island, New Zealand.[2] Growing up on virgin land, and being the oldest of seven siblings, James had to hunt rabbits to help feed the family.[3]
Calling to missionary work
Joining the China Inland Mission
At the age of twenty-six, on 22 October 1898, Edgar arrived in Shanghai, marking the beginning of a thirty-seven-year missionary career, the majority of which he dedicated to the Tibetan Marches of Sichuan.[4] The only exceptions were a five-year Home Assignment—which he openly expressed his dislike for—and brief periods of famine relief in Yingchow, Anhwei (1912) and overseeing women’s work in Yangchow, Jiangsu (1913–14).
Adapting to a new culture
His first task upon arriving in China was to shave the front of his head, attach a pigtail at the back, and don Chinese clothing. He then embarked on a six-month language study program in Anking, Anhwei.[5] However, he never liked formal schooling due to numerous rules and constant instruction.
Edgar felt a calling to Tibet after Edna Bavin and Florence Young of the China Inland Mission (CIM) visited Otago in 1895 and said “they had been on the edge of” the forbidden land of Tibet.[6] Having expressed a desire to go to Tibet upon joining the CIM, Edgar was dismayed when, after his language study, he was sent to Yingchow.[7]
In 1900, when many missionaries were killed during the Boxer Uprising, Edgar chose to assist fellow missionaries fleeing from Honan to Yingchow, delaying his own departure despite being instructed to leave.[8]
Missionary work in Tibet
Journey to Tatsienlu
In 1901, he received orders to go to Tatsienlu (modern-day Kangding), a city hundreds of miles up the Yangtze River. He risked drowning during his boat travels and spent days on foot to reach his destination.[9]
Mission Strategies and Methods[10]
Personal distribution of Scripture
Settled in Tatsienlu with a full view of the mountains, he marveled at the unexplored land and devised strategies to disseminate the Gospels and Acts into the hands of literate Tibetans, especially the lamas. His primary method involved personally delivering Tibetan Bibles through visits to lamaseries located in the Tibetan Marches. This involved miles of travelling on foot while simultaneously exploring cities for potential missionary settlements. Kangding, being a commercial center and a significant tea-exporting hub for Western China, was identified as strategically important.
Establishing a presence in Kangding
To capture a wider audience, Edgar set up a shop in Kangding where travelers—caravaners, pilgrims, trappers, and commercial visitors—could listen to his sermons and purchase the Tibetan Bibles. Even illiterate Tibetans, possessing a superstitious reverence for the Tibetan script and driven by natural curiosity, would bring the Scriptures to the educated ones—most likely the lamas—to read.[11]
Commitment to extensive travel
As a rule, Edgar was committed to traveling at least six months each year into the Tibetan interior.[12] Gifted with a spirit of adventure, he was once questioned whether he travelled for adventure or for God’s work. Edgar would bring as many Bibles as he could carry and sell as many as possible. He would even sell them to bandits whom he frequently encountered on the road. He lived by this motto:
I would always make His work the chief work, and if adventure came, it would be adventure for God and not for self. God first in everything.[13]
He would explore intentionally if it helped spread the good news of Jesus Christ to others; every journey he undertook was for that purpose.
Challenges and hardships
Navigating the Tibetan Plateau
As described by George Kraft, Tibet is like a many-legged table turned upside down, with more than half of the plateau over 15,000 feet above sea level.[14] Travelers needed to pass up and down the “legs”—the mountain ranges with passes of formidable heights—which formed nearly impassable barriers to the outside world.
Qualities for survival and success
What attributes are needed for those venturing into Tibet? Edgar’s life offers some insights. As a teenager, he went off to fend for himself, engaging in farming, cutting giant forest trees as a bushman, setting rabbit traps (rabbiting), and doing various odd jobs. Attending church occasionally, Edgar’s talents were spotted by Rev. William Scorgie, who became his mentor. Scorgie lent him books and tutored him in subjects beyond the common high school curriculum. Edgar read avidly and was attracted to the strange places of the world beyond.[15]
Often without a penny in his pocket, Edgar travelled around Australia, New Zealand, and Tasmania. Yet, he stated in his testimonies that “the Lord has never left me in want, but has always supplied my needs.”[16] These early life experiences molded Edgar’s resilience and ability to cope with loneliness and solitude. Robert Cunningham, his long-time partner in the field, described Edgar as “a bird of passage, being more at home in the saddle and on the highway than in the comforts of a foreign house … nothing confined him more than a house with four walls.”[17]
He roamed the land, often alone, enduring unknown difficulties, including severe weather conditions, impassable mountain ranges, and swollen rivers. In an interview he commented: I prefer being by myself, for various reasons. It is a very rough life which few can stand, and it would often have increased my difficulties to have had another missionary with me.[18]
Encounters on the road
Foot injuries
Generally traveling on foot, and at times on the backs of horses, mules, or yaks when permitted by the government, Edgar covered vast distances.[19] An example is his 1916 journey, during which he wrote: “I have been on the road nine months of the twelve, and traversed more than three thousand miles on foot and about one thousand five hundred on horseback.”[20]
Both modes of travel came with risks such as frostbite, blisters, and frequent changes of unfamiliar, wild Tibetan horses. He endured injured toes, bruised and bleeding feet,[21] and frostbite while negotiating his journeys by foot. Once, an inflamed foot confined him for a week, making him unable to travel more than two to three li (a Chinese unit of distance that ranged from about 500–600 meters) per day for the next twenty-six days.[22] When crossing a 16,000-foot pass, Edgar’s feet became so frostbitten that he considered he might be unable to continue his missionary travels, leading him to contemplate preparing literature, translations, and original works for the Tibetans instead.[23]
Risks of horseback travel
It was not uncommon for Edgar to use many different, unfamiliar mounts. Though the local custom was to provide ponies and porters for travelers, due to the lamas’ dislike of him, they often provided the wildest, unbroken horses for Edgar and his team. On the way to Siangcheng in 1907, both Edgar and his companion Muir met with accidents while riding these animals. Edgar fell with the saddle, his foot caught in the stirrup, and was bruised from head to foot and suffered several cracked ribs. More than twenty days passed before he received medical attention. Then followed an attack of pleurisy.[24] While traveling to Lu Ting Hsien in 1935, both he and his mount fell off a cliff, but he was miraculously unhurt due to God’s protection. “It was a pleasant surprise to find himself reposing unhurt between the skyward extending legs” of his youthful gelding, Bucephalus.[25]
Facing Lawlessness
Lawlessness was prevalent in the land. Brigands were a real danger, and even soldiers were robbed. Only the daring would travel in the region. On one occasion, Edgar walked into a market occupied by a band of five hundred heavily armed Bashi-bazouks—irregular soldiers known for their lack of discipline and often brutal behavior. Undaunted, he began selling his Gospels, demanding payments, then slipped away from the bewildered gang.[26]
Edgar seemed to enjoy the excitement in these encounters and had some thrilling times. Once, a bandit leader, after missing a target—a goat—pointed a rifle at Edgar as a better target. “I dared him,” Edgar later recounted. Only when the bandit’s companion knocked the rifle upward did the “picturesque situation” end.[27] On another occasion, while travelling downstream in a boat, Edgar was fired upon and ordered by bandits to come ashore. After negotiating with the chief, he was allowed to proceed, provided he paid the expense of the bullet, which he gladly did.[28]
Risks from wild animals and natural hazards
Besides dangers from robbers, Edgar faced almost daily encounters with mad dogs—a menace on the plains that he described as “running between his legs.”[29] Once, after being savagely bitten, he was saved by a treatment for rabies—fourteen injections—that had fortunately just arrived from America for the medical missionaries.[30] The same risk existed when entering monasteries where Tibetan dogs were often let loose.[31]
Though the risk from brigands was not as great in the mountains, the traveling team often faced hazards such as landslides. Edgar had experienced a granite boulder whizz past his head with a margin of perhaps six inches.[32]
Overcoming daily inconveniences
Finding suitable accommodation on the road was challenging as inns were typically dirty and infested with vermin.[33] At times, the traveling team opted for open temples, which were usually quieter and less filthy. The cold in the mountains was often intense, especially during snowstorms. The camp bed could become wet and even frost-covered.[34] At one point, Edgar slept for six nights in soaked bedding and wore drenched clothing for eight days.[35] In addition to enduring frostbitten feet and hands, he often faced hunger when food was unobtainable.
Edgar habitually cooked for himself; he had witnessed other travelers dining on dog meat—perhaps that of a watchdog![36] Food was also scarce in the villages due to the frequent ransacking by brigands. Moreover, food-related diseases like cholera and dysentery were common. On one occasion, a Christian invited him to a potluck, but upon arrival, he found the place deserted—the inhabitants had already fled to the mountains due to a cholera outbreak. Without cooking utensils, he prepared what food he could obtain and ate with many prayers. The next day, he heard that nine corpses had been carried out from the surrounding houses.[37]
Cultural reflections and personal adaption
Edgar observed that the Tibetans wore clothes handed down from one generation to the next. Since these garments were rarely washed, they occasionally gave off an unpleasant odor. To cope with this, Edgar usually carried a bottle of eau de cologne.[38] Living among the Tibetans taught Edgar that standards of cleanliness are often influenced by geography. At Tibet’s altitude, people used butter to moisturize themselves instead of washing which often could result in cracked skin.[39] Adapting to local customs, Edgar boasted that during a six-week camping expedition in the mountains, he had not washed his socks even once.[40] He reflected that “Europeans are making too much of a fetish of personal cleanliness.”[41]
Memorable experiences
Visit to a nunnery
With permission from the government, Edgar was able to gain admission to an important nunnery renowned for its strict discipline, where no males—even relatives—were permitted within a three-mile radius.[42]
Upon his arrival, women with solemn expressions, shaven heads, and dressed in priestly robes informed him, “Unauthorized males have no right here, but you have authority, and our gates are open. You may do what seems good to you, still if you are gentlemen, proceed no farther, and on no account enter our dwellings.”[43] Edgar and his team respectfully abided by their strict rules. Following instructions from the matron, 150 females marched past Edgar in single file, each receiving books, tracts, and a catechism. About 60 then sat demurely on the rooftops, listening as Edgar preached on God and his salvation—the message contained in the books they had received!
Encounter with Tibetan customs
As Edgar left the nunnery and reached just outside its walls, he encountered a saucer-like depression, neatly paved with stones. A foul odor hung in the air, and scattered fragments of flesh were visible. Bloodstains marked many of the stones, while large vultures hissed and hopped nearby. When he inquired, the guide explained: “This is the arena where the nuns cut up the bodies of the dead and feed them to the vultures.”[44] Edgar and his team had unknowingly discovered the site where one of the most mysterious customs of Tibet was carried out.
Legacy and contributions
Lifelong commitment to Scripture distribution
For more than thirty years, Edgar dedicated himself to publicizing, selling, and distributing the Scriptures. On every journey, he carried and sold as many Bibles as he could. His ambition was to circulate one million Gospels among the lamas and nomads before retiring from the border regions. Though he may not have achieved this exact number, as Cunningham remarked: “It is now quite difficult to discover, even among Incarnations, anyone who is absolutely ignorant of the Christian Message.”[45]
The impact of the Bible in Tibet
Reverence and misuse
While some books were used as shoe padding or children’s toys among the Chinese,[46] Tibetans highly revered their literature and treated the Scriptures with respect. Some would tear pages to attach to poles as prayer flags. Matthew seemed to be the Gospel most favored—possibly because the list of names in Chapter 1:1–18 served as a substitute for the Sanskrit “Om mani padme hum,” or the “Om ma dre mu ye sa le dug” of the Bön tradition! At times, pages of John 3 were used as charms against demons.[47]
Transformative encounters
But the Bible is no ordinary book; it is God’s message to humanity with unique power. Once, in a preaching hall in Kangding, Edgar noticed a yak driver absorbed in his teaching. He offered the man the book of Psalms, but the yak driver humbly responded that he could not read. Encouraging him to share it with his friends, the driver left happily with the book.
Almost a year later, while seeking shelter in a lamasery, the yak driver offered the book to a Living Buddha. The lama turned the pages and read aloud:
The heavens declare the glory of God …
There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard …
Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world …
O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.
The words of the Hebrew psalmist were so beautiful and true that they moved him deeply, his thick spectacles became misty with emotion. He immediately wrote a letter to the foreign preacher in faraway Kangding:
In reading the 19th Psalm I have seen the truth. Is there any more wisdom like this on earth? If so, I would like to receive a copy.[48]
The letter, carried by a travelling merchant and passed from hand to hand, reached Edgar more than a year later. When the next yak caravan departed from Kangding to the high passes, among the bundles of tea were many copies of the Bible for the Living Buddha and his friends.
Facing ridicule and skepticism
Despite his dedication, Edgar sometimes faced ridicule from both strangers and fellow workers. Crowds often stared at, mocked, or openly insulted him as “the man with the Book.”[49] Some missionaries also questioned the value of the widespread distribution efforts. As Cunningham remarked, “His ministry was extensive more than intensive.”[50] To those who suggested his work was a waste of time, Edgar responded by pointing his critics to the natural world, highlighting “prodigality of the seed provision for the preservation of the species. In the morning sow thy seed, he said in effect, and in the evening withhold not thy hand for thou knowest not which shall prosper whether this or that, or whether both shall be alike good.”[51]
Unwavering conviction and defying restrictions
In addition to the hazardous environment, foreign travelers in Tibet faced many formal and informal restrictions. Although two-thirds of the land might be accessible, much of it was ruled by princes and lamas who viewed foreigners with suspicion and fanaticism. Entering such regions could be extremely dangerous for Europeans, who risked persecution for inciting a breach of the peace.[52]
Despite these dangers, Edgar was deeply convinced that “the Word of God is not bound,” as stated in 2 Timothy 2:9. He believed that “it cannot be prosecuted for being illegally on prohibited territory; it cannot be accused of inciting to a breach of the peace; it cares nothing for blizzards, snows, frosts, or other unfavorable climatic conditions.”[53]
For example, in a 1918 interview, Edgar recounted an incident when he was granted permission to journey westward along the main road for twenty-three days, and no further, as treaties between England, Russia, and China forbade any additional progress. Despite these restrictions, he had on multiple occasions gone beyond the permitted limits—even by hundreds of miles—without interference. On one particular journey, undertaken at the Mission’s special request to explore the possibility of missionary work, he ventured into unexplored territory that was prohibited even to the Chinese, where being found without permission carried the penalty of death.[54]
Seeking encouragement
Though exhibiting tremendous determination and courage, Edgar considered himself sensitive and timid. His yearning for encouragement was evident in his remarks:
Now missionaries are human, so I sometimes wonder if an official “back patter” might not be an asset in the Mission. I know that scores and scores would respond to kind words, and a little attention.[55]
He reminisced that some large factories found that it paid well to employ a man whose sole job was to pat the workers encouragingly on the back.[56]
Contributions beyond missionary work
Contributions to knowledge
As Edgar traveled, he meticulously recorded detailed pictures of the peoples and customs, terrains and streams, clouds and weather, plants and animals. A prolific writer, he published a total of 184 works.[57] Though a fellow of the International Geographical Society, he chose to submit the majority of his work to the Journal of the West China Border Research Society (a less well-known journal), intending to attract a wider circulation for the journal.[58]
Collecting and preserving culture
An avid collector, Edgar gathered objects of interest or with exotic appeal. During his late teens, while residing with the Maori people who had formally adopted him as one of their own, an incident occurred. The Maori discovered in his swag bag a skull with two bullet holes—believed to be related to a Maori war. Enraged by his disrespect, they made Edgar “march with the skull in his hand through a line of serious and silent Maoris to the burying ground.”[59] After the skull was buried, he had to remain all night in the graveyard among the spirits whom the Maori believed he had offended. This offense also resulted in his expulsion from the community.
Nonetheless, his passion for collecting remained during his journeys in Tibet. Edgar contributed about seventy Paleolithic stone tools collected from China-Tibetan borderland to the West China Union University Museum of Archaeology.[60] Edgar was also among the fifty foreign missionaries and a number of Chinese friends who contributed to the development of this museum.[61]
Linguistic endeavors
Additionally, Edgar collected some 4,000 Jahrung words—a language spoken by people living in the mountains between Tibet and China. Though not known as a remarkable linguist, he was always interested in relating one language to another. With the aid of a lama, he translated these words into Tibetan and published the first Jahrung-Tibetan Dictionary.[62]
Despite his linguistic skills, Edgar encountered difficulty explaining “Kong-Chog,” the Tibetan term used for God (still in use today). The term invariably meant “the Buddha, his Law, and the Church.” Throughout his journey, with the help of a simple tract, Edgar had incessantly endeavored to convey to his audience the true meaning of “Who is God?”[63]
Unyielding curiosity
A natural-born explorer with immense curiosity and a penchant for recording information, Edgar seized every opportunity to do so. Even while suffering great pain from an injury, he was determined to find out and record the height of the mountain his team was on. He tried to boil water using his hypsometer, as the temperature at which the water boils can indicate the mountain’s altitude. It gave him great joy to tell his friend later: “I have done it! It boils at 185 degrees!”[64]
Guiding future missionary efforts
During the CIM Forward Movement in 1929—which called for prayers for 200 new workers to China, including the dependent territories of Manchuria, Mongolia, Xinjiang, and Tibet—Edgar’s extensive knowledge provided valuable guidance to the organization. After weighing the relative importance of different centres and prayerfully considering their options, the CIM identified Mowkung as a strategic site.[65] Three young workers were appointed to Mowkung, previously known as one of the Chinese “Five Colonies.”[66]
Events preceding Edgar’s death
In May 1935, Robert Cunningham became seriously ill and needed to journey 2,000 miles to the coast for medical treatment. Mrs. Edgar accompanied the Cunninghams, and together they left for Kiating on 30 May 1935. Edgar was relieved that his wife was out of the immediate danger zone, especially since the army had already reached Luting on the 26th. Being left alone, Edgar was full of emotion. He and his baggage man went to Bogland, 13,000 feet above sea level, and stayed for twenty-five days before returning to Kangding, grateful that the army had not entered the city.[67]
The approach of the Red Army was still imminent. Soon afterwards Edgar suffered a heart attack. Unable to walk any distance and with no reliable person to help him escape, Edgar had no choice but to remain in the house, expecting the Communist soldiers to enter the city at any time.[68] Dr. J. Howard Jeffrey—a physician and one of the three workers assigned to Mowkung—traveled to Kangding in early August 1935 to attend to Edgar and to assist him in leaving.
The Mission hoped that Edgar would return to Chengdu with Dr. Jeffrey in October. This was also Edgar’s desire, but leaving would mean abandoning Mrs. Edgar and the Cunninghams, who had returned to Kangding in late September. As the Red Army was to the north of the city, such a venture would have been the greater of the two evils. Therefore, he determined to stay. The Red Army moved south, threatening Kangding in many places, and the city was cut off from Chengdu for three months.[69]
On 19 March 1936, Mrs. Edgar reported in a letter that Edgar had contracted the flu and was bedridden. Confined to bed, he was “content to stay there for the second time in their married life.”[70] Five days later, at the age of 63, he went to be with the Lord.
Conclusion
Summary of his life and legacy
Having joined CIM in 1898, and excluding the five years he spent on home assignment, Edgar had devoted thirty-two years serving in the borderlands of Tibet and Sichuan. This paper has captured some snapshots of his life in those regions.
During these years, Edgar lived in the harsh and hazardous environment of the highlands, amidst political uprisings with unpredictable outcomes. He suffered from various illnesses, frostbite, and multiple injuries with little access to medical help, and faced frequent attacks from bandits as well as dangerous wild animals. He also endured loneliness and, at times, humiliation from the local people and even more so from his missionary colleagues. Despite all these challenges, he remained a joyful man with a spirit of exploration and a keen sense of curiosity, always ready to discover new things even in adverse situations.
Reflecting on the difficult circumstances of his life and work, Edgar noted in his 1925 annual report that he could personally attest to the joyful exhilaration of such a life. He explained that when a missionary rode a lively pony into mountain villages or moved among busy groups of travelers and camps guarded by big barking dogs, he experienced some of the carefree adventure that drovers or boundary riders felt in the remote areas of Australia known as the Never-Never.[71] That was likely Edgar’s most productive year, as he distributed 173,500 books and tracts, with 71,500 books and 102,000 tracts. Marshall Broomhall, the editorial secretary of the CIM, after reviewing Edgar’s report, observed that these rough and often harsh circumstances were transformed when God was in them, revealing “the manifold grace of God in the midst of manifold trials and temptations, as well as manifold joys.”[72] Indeed, God had prepared Edgar from a young age, sustained him throughout his missionary work, and made his efforts fruitful.
The Marches of the Mantze by James Huston Edgar (London: CIM, 1908) is available at https://archive.org/details/cu31924023218393
This book is a missions survey of the towns and villages in Tibetan borderlands, its Tibetan peoples and their Lamas. From the Preface: “The Marches of the Mantze is the Chinese designation of that large tract of country situated to the west of Szechwan and east of Tibet.”
The Chinese translation of The Land of Mystery, Tibet 異域深處亦有光 (Zenodo, 2024) by James Huston Edgar (translated by Wang Xiao Lu) is available for download from https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10946505
[1] “James Edgar 1811–1872,” https://sites.google.com/site/stemmata/familyedgar/james-edgar-1811-1872 (accessed 1 October 2024).
[2] “Obituary,” The Horsham Times, 1 May 1936, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article73097008 (accessed 1 October 2024).
[3] A. G. Castleton, Rough, Tough and Far Away (London: Edinburgh House Press and Melbourne: The Book Depot, 1944).
[4] The term ‘March’ is defined as “a border region: frontier; especially: a district originally set up to defend a boundary” and usually used in plural (Merriam Webster Dictionary). For further information, see “March (territory),” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=March_(territory)&oldid=1256660453 (accessed 15 November 2024). See also James Huston Edgar, The Marches of the Mantze (London: CIM, 1908), https://archive.org/details/cu31924023218393 (accessed 15 November 2024).
[5] “Stations and Missionaries of the China Inland Mission,” China’s Millions, Australasian edition (1 July 1899): 79.
[6] Castleton, Rough, Tough and Far Away; “KELSO,” Otago Witness, Issue 2150, 9 May 1895, 22, https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/OW18950509.2.91 (accessed 1 October 2024).
[7] “Designations,” China’s Millions, British edition (1899): 130; Castleton, Rough, Tough and Far Away; J. H. Edgar, “Testimonies by Outgoing Missionaries,” China’s Millions, Australasian edition (1 November 1898): 140.
[8] “Survey of Our Present Position in China,” China’s Millions, Australasian edition (December 1900): 154; Castleton, Rough, Tough and Far Away.
[9] Castleton, Rough, Tough and Far Away; China’s Millions, Australasian edition (1 October 1901): 121.
[10] Castleton, Rough, Tough and Far Away; J. Huston Edgar, “Saints in a Buddhist Sense,” West China Missionary News (November 1924): 27.
[11] J. H. Edgar, “The Land of Mystery—Tibet,” China’s Millions, Australasian edition (1 July 1927): 101.
[12] “Queer Race of Pygmies,” Molong Express and Western District Advertiser, 24 March 1928, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article139472525 (accessed 1 October 2024).
[13] Castleton, Rough, Tough and Far Away.
[14] George C. Kraft, Tibet: The Roof of the World (Philadelphia: China Inland Mission, n.d.).
[15] “Obituary,” The Horsham Times; Castleton, Rough, Tough and Far Away.
[16] Edgar, “Testimonies by Outgoing Missionaries.”
[17] Tibetan (Robert Cunningham), “On the Frontier,” West China Missionary News (May 1937): 11.
[18] “Interview with Mr. J. H. Edgar, F.R.G.S. — No. 1,” China’s Millions, Australasian edition (1 June 1918): 43.
[19] “Interview with Mr. J. H. Edgar,” China’s Millions.
[20] J. H. Edgar, “Pioneering among the Kin Ch’wan Hordes,” China’s Millions, British edition (May 1916): 60.
[21] J. H. Edgar, “A Bookseller on the Tibetan Border,” China’s Millions, Australasian edition (1 April 1923): 61.
[22] J. H. Edgar, “On the Tibetan Frontier,” China’s Millions, British edition (March 1925): 43.
[23] Dr. Taylor, “Editorial: Mr Edgar,” West China Missionary News (May 1936): 3.
[24] Castleton, Rough, Tough and Far Away; “Missionary Work in Thibet,” The Advertiser, 14 Feburary 1908, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5125312 (accessed October 1, 2024); “West China Border Research Society: Program of Open Meetings 1934–1935,” West China Missionary News (October 1934): 39.
[25] J. H. Edgar, “Journeyings in High Latitude,” China’s Millions, Australasian edition (1 May 1935): 77.
[26] J. H. Edgar, “A Mission Station at the Tibetan Foot Hills,” China’s Millions, Australasian edition (1 October 1928): 152.
[27] J. H. Edgar, “A Hot Gospeller for the Written Word,” China’s Millions, Australasian edition (1 July 1921): 82; J. H. Edgar, “Items of Interest by G. W. Gibb: Fighting,” China’s Millions, Australasian edition (1 March 1921): 38.
[28] “Oil for ‘The Surprise,’” Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’ Advocate, 9 July 1926, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article138169234 (accessed 1 October 2024).
[29] Edgar, “A Mission Station at the Tibetan Foot Hills.”
[30] Edgar, “A Mission Station at the Tibetan Foot Hills.”
[31] J. H. Edgar, “Thy Word is Truth,” China’s Millions, Australasian edition (1 November 1922): 154.
[32] Edgar, “Thy Word is Truth.”
[33] J. H. Edgar, “Our Faces Towards Thibet,” China’s Millions, Australasian edition (1 January 1921): 8.
[34] J. H. Edgar, “A Five Hundred Miles Journey on the Tibetan Frontier,” China’s Millions, Australasian edition (1 July 1924): 108.
[35] J. Huston Edgar, “The Tibetan Border,” China’s Millions, British edition (June 1925): 89.
[36] Edgar, “A Bookseller on the Tibetan border.”
[37] Edgar, “A Mission Station at the Tibetan Foot Hills.”
[38] Castleton, Rough, Tough and Far Away.
[39] “Excessive Bathing Is Degenerate?,” The Sun News-Pictorial, 9 January 1927, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article275333791 (accessed 1 October 2024).
[40] David Templeman, “J. H. Edgar: An Australian Missionary in the Tibetan Marches,” Lungta, Winter (II) (1999): 25–33.
[41] “Excessive Bathing Is Degenerate?,” The Sun News-Pictorial.
[42] Edgar, “A Five Hundred Miles Journey on the Tibetan Frontier”; Edgar, “Saints in a Buddhist Sense.”
[43] J. H. Edgar, “A Tibetan Nunnery,” China’s Millions, Australasian edition (1 October 1927): 157.
[44] Edgar, “A Tibetan Nunnery.”
[45] “The Back Door,” West China Missionary News (March 1940): 129.
[46] Edgar, “Thy Word is Truth.”
[47] Edgar, “Pioneering among the Kin Ch’wan Hordes.”
[48] Castleton, Rough, Tough and Far Away.
[49] “‘Thy Word is Truth’ Report of Church Work and Bible Distribution in Kwanhsien District during 1921,” China’s Millions, British edition (September 1922): 193.
[50] Cunningham, “On the Frontier.”
[51] John R. Sinton, “James Huston Edgar, F.R.A.I., F.R.G.S. Memorial Service, Chengtu, 29th March, 1936,” West China Missionary News (May 1936): 6.
[52] Edgar, “The Land of Mystery—Tibet,” 100.
[53] Edgar, “The Land of Mystery—Tibet,” 100.
[54] “Interview with Mr. J. H. Edgar,” China’s Millions.
[55] Edgar, “A Hot Gospeller for the Written Word.”
[56] Edgar, “A Hot Gospeller for the Written Word.”
[57] “A Bibliography of J. H. Edgar’s Writings,” Journal of the West China Border Research Society 8 (1936): 23–27.
[58] “James Huston Edgar: An Appreciation and an Interpretation,” Journal of the West China Border Research Society 8 (1936): 19–22.
[59] Castleton, Rough, Tough and Far Away.
[60] D. C. Graham, “Gifts to the West China Union University Musuem,” West China Missionary News (December 1934): 17.
[61] D. C. Graham, “Notes about the West China Union University Musuem,” West China Missionary News (May 1934): 9.
[62] James Huston Edgar, English-Giarung Vocabulary, (Chengdu, China: The Harvard-Yenching Committee of the West China Union University, 1935); W. R. Morse, “James Huston Edgar. 1872–1936,” West China Missionary News (May 1936): 13; “The Late Mr. J. H. Edgar, F.R.G.S., F.R.A.I.,” China’s Millions, Australasian edition (1 April 1936): 52.
[63] J. Stark, “Our Shanghai Letter. Containing Latest News from the Field,” China’s Millions, Australasian edition (1 February 1911): 15.
[64] Castleton, Rough, Tough and Far Away.
[65] J. H. Edgar, “The Racial Factor in the Kin Ch’wan Grouping,” Journal of the West China Border Research Society (1932): 27; J. Howard Jeffrey, “Where Christ is Not Known in China. Extracts from an Interesting Story of Pioneer Work in New Territory between West Szechwan and Tibet,” The Missionary Review of the World (December 1935): 571; J. H. J., “The Chinchwan and the Rgyalrong,” West China Missionary News (May 1937): 22.
[66] The Five Military Colonies were Mowkung, Tanpa, Fupien, Ts’onghua, and Hstich’ing in the Kinchwan. Jeffrey, “Where Christ is Not Known in China.”
[67] J. H. Edgar, “In a Danger Zone,” China’s Millions, Australasian edition (1 October 1935): 150.
[68] H. M. Griffin, “Our Shanghai Letter. A Letter from Mr. H. M. Griffin, dated September 5th, 1935,” China’s Millions, British edition (November 1935): 209.
[69] J. H. Edgar, “Surrounded by ‘Reds,’” China’s Millions, Australasian edition (1 May 1936): 75.
[70] Sinton, “James Huston Edgar, F.R.A.I., F.R.G.S. Memorial Service.”
[71] Marshall Broomhall, “The Manifold Grace of God,” China’s Millions, Australasian edition (1 July 1925): 104.
[72] Broomhall, “The Manifold Grace of God.”
