Explores firsthand information on advent of Christianity to Nagaland
Dimapur, July 18 (MExN): In an effort to explore firsthand information on the advent of Christianity to Nagaland, 5th Semester Honours students, Department of History, St. John College, Dimapur, visited Impur- the Ao Baptist Arogo Mungdang’s (ABAM) Mission Centre on July 16-17, 2018.
The pupils touring Impur Mission Centre were supervised by Senkatoshi, HoD and Tianechitla, Asst. Prof. Dept. of Department of History, St John College.
The students were exposed to a treasure trove of the American Baptist missionaries at the ABAM Museum that housed a considerable number of things used by the early missionaries. Some of the materials include saddle, hand drilling machines, adjusting screw, pliers, wheel water puller, pulley chain, water filter, pump harmonic, keys, kettles, container, saucer and fork, nuts and bold, megaphone (used for announcement), type writers, the first letter box of Mokokchung District, etc.
“One of the interesting features of the ABAM Museum is that it treasures things of the premier Naga missionaries’ like the Bible, overcoat, rod and staff, shoes, watch, etc,” Senkatoshi, HoD, Dept. of History, St. John College, Dimapur stated in a press release. He also added that the present museum was then used as school building built probably in 1907.
The students were also accessed to the library that stocked a number of rare books like the Ao Naga Grammar and A Corner in India by M .M. Clark, Christianity in North East India by Frederick Sheldon Downs, Nokinketer Mungchen (Abode of the Head hunters) by Rev. L Kijung Ao, the American Missionaries and North East India, 1836-1900 by H.K. Barpujari, A Philosophy for NEFA and the Nagas in the Nineteenth Century by Verrier Elwin, etc.
The students also interacted with different people including one Rev. Dr. Mar, the Executive Secretary of the ABAM, who appreciated and encouraged the students for their interest in the history of Christianity. Hinting a symbiotic relation between Christianity and Naga history, he further said that to study the history of the Nagas without Christianity is incomplete.
The Impur Mission Centre is the ‘brainchild’ of Edward Winder Clark, and the word ‘Impur’ was also coined by him, meaning ‘son of the soil.’ This mission centre was established in October 1894. Impur is located a few kilometres away from the district headquarter Mokokchung.
