Beyond the Pir Panjal by Ernest F. Neve

Dr Ernest Neve “…joined his brother, Arthur Neve, MD (1858-1919), at Srinagar, Kashmir in 1886, working at the Church Missionary Society’s Hospital, to which he eventually became consulting surgeon in 1923. While working in India he won the Gunning-Lister prize from Edinburgh University in 1889. In 1892 he founded the Kashmir Government Leper Asylum and was for many years its honorary superintendent. Neve was an excellent administrator and a general surgeon who accomplished a great deal of sound work, while living as a devout Christian in a predominantly Muslim country.” [Plarr’s Lives of the Fellows]

My thanks to the Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide for maing this public domain itle available for digitisation.

Ernest Frederic Neve [1861-1946], Beyond the Pir Panjal. Life and Missionary Enterprise in Kashmir. London: Church Missionary Society, 1914. Hbk. pp.178. View in PDF format pdf [This material is in the Public Domain]

Contents

• Preface

1. The Vale of Kashmir
2. Historical Epochs
3. The People
4. Srinagar
5. The Kashmir Mission School
6. The Kashmir Medical Mission
7. The Mission Hospital
8. Village Life
9. Medical Mission Camp Work
10. A Glimpse of Kashmiri Tibet
11. The Upper Indus Valley
12. Sphere of Influence of Medical Mission Work
13. Development of Kashmir

Chapter 1: The Vale of Kashmir

Kashmir owes much of its fame to its varied phases of beauty. These are partly due to the seasons. But the different alti-tudes, with their countless slopes· and upland meadows, some with northern and others with southern aspect, con-tinually provide a simultaneous presentation of the beauties of successive seasons. In the hottest summer weather, for instance, when in the valley the temperature is over 90° F. in the shade, when the air is laden with moisture and mos-quitoes abound, a ride or drive of 30 miles and a climb of 3000 feet will take us to where the atmosphere is fresh and cool. Another two or three thousand feet of ascent will bring us to snow and to early spring flowers such as primulas and anemones. And looking down from the heights to the plain below, ‘\ith its masses of foliage dimly discernible in the midst of the heat haze, we appreciate the effect of alti-tude on climate.

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