1890s Tibetan work

Amdo ཨ་མདོ་

For countless centuries the Amdo region of northeast Tibet had sat undisturbed by the servants of Jesus Christ. That all started to change in the 1890s, however, when several intrepid Evangelical missionaries entered Amdo.

William Christie and William W. Simpson arrived in Gansu in 1892, commencing long and distinguished missionary careers that would result in thousands of Amdo Tibetans hearing God's plan of salvation for the first time.

Several years later, in 1896, two Swedish brothers, Martin and David Ekvall, arrived in the area and set up base at Minxian in southern Gansu—a strategic location straddling the border of the Chinese and Tibetan worlds.

Simpson served energetically with the Christian and Missionary Alliance (CMA) for the next two decades, but when he attended a conference in 1912 he had a Pentecostal experience and admitted that he had spoken in tongues. This practice was incompatible with CMA beliefs, so Simpson resigned from the denomination and joined the Assemblies of God.

For many years the Christie, Simpson and Ekvall families served among the Tibetans with great courage and tenacity. Their children were born in this forgotten corner of the earth, and tellingly, when they grew up most of them also chose to serve Christ among the Tibetans.



David Ekvall wrote an excellent account of the work among the Amdo Tibetans in 1907,[i] before he unexpectedly received his call to heaven five years later. His son, Robert, grew up to become a key figure in the evangelization of the Amdo, and surpassed his father by writing numerous books on various aspects of Tibetan life; several of these included accounts of Christian work in the region.[ii]

© This article is an extract from Paul Hattaway's book ‘Tibet: The Roof of the World’. You can order this or any of The China Chronicles books and e-books from our online bookstore.

 
 See David P. Ekvall, Outposts, or Tibetan Border Sketches (New York: Alliance Press, 1907).

[1] See Robert Brainerd Ekvall, God's Miracle in the Heart of a Tibetan (Harrisburg, PA: Christian Publications, 1936); Robert B. Ekvall, Gateway to Tibet (Harrisburg, PA: Christian Publications, 1938); and Robert B. Ekvall, Tibetan Sky Lines (New York: Farrar, Straus and Young, 1952).