RBMU LEPCHA LANGUAGE

[s. 409] : A dialect spoken in Sikkim, north of Darjiling and on the southern border of Tibet. It belongs to the Tibeto-Burman linguistic group, and is written with the Pahari alphabet. LEPERS; Special labor for: Previous to the year 1860 but little effort had been made to ameliorate the condition of the lepers, or to take As early the Gospel to them in their isolation. as 1812 Dr. Carey of Serampur, India, witne ed Ijepers Likoma Island the burning of a leper and was so impre ed by the helple ne of these outcasts that he established a hospital for them in Calcutta, probably In 1818 the Colonial Govthe first in all India. ernment of South Africa, fearing the spread of leprosy, erected a hospital at Hemel en Aarde, and four years later a larger hospital was erected, and the Governor requested the Moravian Church, already working among the Hottentots, to send mi ionaries to manage the institution and look after the spiritual as well as the material welfare In 1846 the establishment was of its inmates. removed to Robben Island, and was continued in the care of the Moravians till 1867, when the English Government appointed a chaplain of the Church of England, and the Moravians withdrew. As early as 1840 provision for lepers was made at Almora, India, through the efforts of a government official, and in 1849 the work was turned over to the LMS. In 1855 an asylum for lepers was established at Ambala, Punjab, by mi ionaries of the PN, again aided and largely supported by a government official. But, with the exception of the one asylum in South Africa and the two institutions in India, practically nothing was done for lepers during the years previous to During the next thirty years Christians 1860. were slowly but surely awakening to a sense of the pre ing need of these neglected cla es, especially in India, where leprosy is so prevalent. Asylums were established at Chamba, Rawal Pindi, Sabathu and Tarn Taran, in the Punjab; at Agra, Allah a bad, Almora, Banda and Chandag, near Pitthoragarh in the N. W. (United) Provinces; at Purulia in Bengal, at Ujjain in Central India and at Aleppie, Mangalur and Neyoor, in the south of Hindu stan. The CMS established a leper settlement on the Zanzibar coast in Africa and the Norwegian Mi ionary society began work for lepers at two stations in In Jerusalem the Moravians Madagascar. established an asylum and home for lepers. While the various existing mi ionary organizations were directly or indirectly working for lepers, the expansion of the work during this period is largely due to the formation of the society called the “Mi ion to Lepers in India and the East,” by Mr. Wellesley C. Bailey, who, while a mi ionary of the American Presbyterian Church in the Punjab, as early as 1869 became much impre ed with the condition of the lepers at the Ambala asylum of that mi ion. In 1874 he visited Great Britain and succeeded in forming developing this special work. a society for While as an organization it is independent, it cooperates with the various societies engaged in the work. Work especially directed to lepers has greatly expanded since 1890. At that date organized effort for lepers did not exist in China, Japan, Burma and many other countries, and there were but twenty institutions for lepers in all the mi ion fields together. Since 1890, sixty-two asylums and homes for these afflicted people have been established, more than three times as many as in all previous years. Twenty-two prominent mi ionary societies are receiving aid in their work from the Mi ion to Lepers, which now has fifty-five stations in India, Burma and Ceylon, ten in China, two in Japan, and thirty asylums or hospitals in these countries owned by the Mi ion to Lepers itself, altho other societies cooperate in the service rendered the inmates. 392 In addition to these, fourteen institutions for lepers owned by various societies, are partly supporteti by the Mi ion to Lepers. Fourteen homes for the untainted children of lepers have been established. Mi ionary work is also carried on in the asylums established by the British Government in several important cities of India, and in institutions supported by private benevolence which are found in various parts of India. Perhaps the best known among the workers for lepers in India is Mi Mary Reed, of the American Mi ion, who contracted the disease while working in India, and has lived among the lepers at Chandag, with no other a ociates than the afflicted natives, since 1890. The first institution for lepers in Burma was opened in 1891 at Mandalay. At Singapore, a government leper colony is regularly visited by a mi ionary. At Lakawn, among the Laos people, the native Christians support twenty leper families. At Pak-hoi, in South China, in ME 1891 the CMS founded one of the finest institutions for lepers in the foreign field, and has since opened work for them at Hang-chau-fu, Fuchau-fu, Kien-ning-fu, Lo-ngwong and Ku-tienIn 1895 the first leper asylum in Central China was established by the LMS. The American Mi ion has a work for lepers at Hsing-hwa-fu, and the Protestant Episcopal hsien. ME Church, U. S. A., has begun work at Ngan-king, Work for the lepers of on the Yangtse River. Japan was begun by the American Presbyterians in 1894 in a suburb of Tokio, and the CMS has a hospital at Kumamoto. In Africa, besides the colony on Robben Island, the Moravian mi ionaries work among the lepers within the bounds of their mi ion north of Lake Nyasa. In the Transvaal, the Herm anns burg The government Mi ion has a work at Mosetta. asylum at Emjanjana, in Kaffraria, is visited by a, mi ionary of the Scottish Episcopal Church. Another leper colony is cared for near the town of Zanzibar. In Madagascar the LMS began work for lepers in 1895, about four miles from FianManakavaly, the leper village near arantsoa. Isoavina built by the LMS, has been taken over by the Paris Evangelical Mi ionary Society. The Norwegian Mi ionary Society has a station for lepers at Antsirabe, and another at Fianarantsoa. The United Norwegian Luther an Church of America also has a leper home and asylum in Madagascar. The French Roman Catholics have two hospitals for lepers in the island and also work for them at Port of Spain, Trinidad, and at Mandalay. In Hawaii a leper settlement was established by the Government at Molokai, in which work is carried on by the Hawaiian Evangelical As so cia This leper tion and the Roman Catholics. colony was the scene of the labors of Father Damien, who established the Roman Catholic Mi ion there in 1873, contracted the disease, and died at his post in 1889. In the New He brides a leper colony has been established by the Me lanes i an Mi ion in one of the Banks Islands, and the LMS began work in 1897 among the lepers of Belep Islands. The first work for the lepers of Persia was begun by the American Presbyterians at Tabriz in 1894. In 1896 the Moravian Mi ionary Society established an asylum at Surinam, in South America. Summary (1901) Africa: 6 asylums and settlements, with 840 inmates. Burma: 2 asylums, with 162 inmates; 1 home for untainted children. — Lepers Ziikoma Island 893 Ceylon: 1 asylum, with 271 with 6 inmates. China: 11 asylums and settlements, inmates. with 636 inmates; 1 home for untainted children, India: 47 asylums and settle with 5 inmates. ments, with 3,302 inmates; 12 homes for unJapan: tainted children, with 222 inmates. Madagascar: 4 2 asylums, with 43 inmates. asylums and settlements, with 377 inmates. Malaysia: 2 asylums and settlements, with 25 Ocean i a: 3 asylums and settlements, inmates. Palestine: 1 asylum, with with 1,120 inmates. 35 inmates 1 home for children, with 35 inmates. South Persia: 1 settlement, with 150 inmates. America: 1 asylum, with 13 inmates. different fields; 6,528 Totals: 71 asylums in 12 inmates; 15 homes for untainted children, with inmates. 268; Mi ionary Review of the World, Vol. V, 136; Vol. VI. 434; Vol, VUI, 3.58; Vol. IX, 37d; Vol. X, 346; Vol, XI, 330; Vol. XII, 683; Vol. XIV, 537, Funk & Wagnalls, New York. ch071.xhtml l 411