James Gilmour – Among the Mongols

This is the travelogue of James Gilmour [1873-1891] written in the course of his missionary work in Mongolia. My thanks to Redcliffe College who provided me with an original copy of the book to scan. This book is now in the public domain.

James Gilmour [1843-1891], Among the Mongols. London: Religious Tract Society, n.d. Hbk. pp.288. [Click to download complete book in PDF]

Contents

1. First Acquaintance With Mongolia
2. Picking Up Mongolian
3. The Baikal in Winter
4. Traces of the Old Buriat Mission
5. Learning to Ride
6. A Night in a Mongol’s Tent
7. Buying Experience
8. How to Travel in Mongolia
9. Dining With a Mongol
10. Appeal to a Mongol Mandarin
11. Lama Miao
12. Urga
13. Wu T’ai Shan
14. Kalgan
15. Doctoring the Mongols
16. The Gospel in Mongolia
17. Mongols’ Difficulties About Christianity
18. The First of the White Month
19. Norbo’s Marriage
20. Friendly Mongols
21. A Mongol Court of Justice
22. A Mongol Prison
23. Whisky in Mongolia
24. Mongol Toilet
25. The Mongols in Peking
    

Preface

This book aims at representing to the western reader whatever is most noteworthy and interesting in the home life, manners and customs, occupations and surroundings, modes of thought, superstitions and religious beliefs and practices of the Mongol tribes who inhabit the eastern portion of the plateau of Central Asia lying between Siberia on the north and China on the south.

It is not a missionary’s report nor a traveller’s diary, nor a student’s compilation, but has for its source things seen, heard, and experienced by me while travelling with natives through the desert, Sharing with them the hospitality of the wayside tent, taking my turn in the night-watch against thieves, resting in the comparative comfort of the portable cloth travelling tent, or dwelling as a lodger in their more permanent abodes of trellis-work and felt while engaged first of all in learning the language and acquainting myself with the country, and afterwards in the prosecution of my missionary duties.

Starting from Peking as head-quarters, I first saw the plain in August, 1870, and during most of the intervening years have spent the summer months itinerating among the tribes to the west, north, and east of Kalgan; and have had the opportunity during the winter months in Peking of meeting Mongols who come to that great centre on Government duty from nearly all the tribes scattered over the vast extent of desert territory which acknowledges the Chinese rule. [Continue reading]