Aotearoa New Zealand Association for Mission Studies

Khans and Kiwis: an historical paradigm for Christian witness in Central Asia.

William of Rubruck, Franciscan envoy of King Louis IX to the Mongols, reports of an inter-religious debate called by the Mongol Khan Munkh (r. 1251-1259) in the year 1254. The Mongol capital Karakorum had become by then a cosmopolitan centre made up of traders, artisans and slaves from the Mongols' conquests, and was also residence for numerous priests of Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Shamanism and Nestorian-Christianity.

Rubruck interpreted this "world's first ever recorded inter-religious debate" as an opportune moment to argue for the truth of Catholic-Christianity. However, Munkh Khan's motive in calling for the debate was not driven by the pursuit of truth. Richard Young (1989) argues that Munkh was governed by the yasa (law) of Chinggis Khan (r. 1206-1227) which dictated a pan-Mongol policy of religious tolerance within the loose boundaries of Shamanism. Young poses a paradigm of "inclusivity" to interpret the dynamics of the debate, and the subsequent rejection of Catholic-Christianity and the embrace of Tibetan-Buddhism.

When Kiwi missionaries go to Tibetan-Buddhist Central Asia they have the choice of presenting the Gospel as an "exclusive truth" or to adopt an "inclusive" paradigm similar to how Young interprets Munkh's debate. In the paper to be presented, these terms will be defined, examples from Kiwi missionaries' experiences will be offered, and it will be posed that respecting cultural identity is imperative if Christian faith and witness in Tibetan-Buddhist Central Asia is "to cross the threshold which allows historical incarnation" (Gumilev, 1970).

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