Kashgar

http://www.chinahighlights.com/image/xinjiang/kashgar/map/kashgar-location-xinjiang.gif

Kashgar

Here is where the Master almost pioneered during the early years of His ministry.
There seems to be a city by that name nearby, in Kazakhstan; the Chinese place seems to be a province. Here is an article about the Chinese Kashgar, from China Review:

http://www.chinareview.com/provinces/xinjiang/kashgar/index.html

Here is the Wiki article on Kashgar:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kashgar

The Baha'i Cause and the Chinese People

(Words of Abdu'l-Baha recorded and translated by Mirza Ahmad Sohrab, Star of the West, Vol. 13, 184-186)

A Chinese student connected with the Peace Conference in Washington, D. C. last February attended a Baha'i meeting and asked questions with intense interest. At the close of the session he said: "This is the best religion of which I have heard." Another Chinese student, whose family are leaders in the new China, read the Baha'i literature with great enthusiasm. "This is just what the new China needs," he said. "Confucius taught duties to princes. But how are we to teach the ethics of Confucius to the people in a Republic where there are no princes? Today we need a universal ethics in China, something modern and something to unite the religions."

"When I was a little boy," continued this student, "my dear old grandmother in China used to take me on her knee and say, `Some day, in the golden age, the good and wise Confucius will comeback to earth.' I do believe if my grandmother were living now she would say, 'Abdu'l-Baha is Confucius come back to earth!'"

This same Chinese student read Abdu'l-Baha's "Paris Talks" with enthusiasm. He read them in the morning and their radiant sentences filled his heart with the joy of loving kindness. But about four in the afternoon, after a hard day's study, he became irritable, ready, he said, to strike anyone who disagreed with him. Then he would sit down and read again the "Paris Talks." They filled his heart with such love that he could be kind and gentle to his associates until he went to bed at ten in the evening.

A Chinese students' club in one of our great universities listened not long ago to a Baha'i address and asked eager questions. Some of them had been caught by the materialism and agnosticism of current western thought but most of them were eager for a modern religion.

They were especially attracted to the Baha'i teaching of the oneness of the races, the need of a universal language, the fundamental truth in all religions, and to the picture of the universal Temple to he built at Wilmette, north of Chicago, with its nine gardens, nine doors open to all sects and religions. "How wonderful," they said, "to find a religion which teaches that all the world religions are fundamentally true and divine!"

The Chinese are just waiting for the universal light of the Baha'i Glad Tidings. "China, China, China-ward the Cause of Baha'u'llah must march," says Abdu'l-Baha. "Where is that holy, sanctified Baha'i to become the teacher of China! China has most great capability. The Chinese people are most simple-hearted and truth seeking. The Baha'i teacher of the Chinese people must first be imbued with their spirit, know their sacred literature, study their national customs and speak to them from their own standpoint and their own terminologies. He must entertain no thought of his own but ever think of their spiritual welfare. In China one can teach many souls and train and educate such divine personages that each one of them may become the bright candle of the world of humanity. Truly, I say, the Chinese are free from any deceit and hypocrisies and are prompted with ideal motives. Had I been feeling well I would have taken a journey to China myself!"

One day on Mount Carmel Abdu'l-Baha told of his plans to go to China in the days of his imprisonment and exile, of how he longed to travel to all nations in the service of the Kingdom. But for forty years he was a prisoner. He prefaces his story with these words about how Baha Ollah loved to describe the glory of teaching:

"Whenever during his lifetime the Blessed Perfection (Baha'u'llah) desired to signalize anyone with his special favor he encouraged him to go forth and teach the Cause of God. When he spoke to one of the pilgrims or wrote to a far off Baha'i concerning the promotion of the Cause, inciting the former and the latter to arise and deliver the message of the Kingdom, everyone felt instinctively that these souls were elected, the chosen ones and that the glances of mercifulness had encircled them. It is noteworthy to remark that most of the general epistles of Baha'u'llah, embracing comprehensive teachings and principles are revealed in the names of the teachers of the Cause. A number of rare spiritual souls having consecrated themselves to the promulgation of the glad tidings of the Kingdom were peculiarly favored by him. Whenever their names were mentioned in his presence his countenance became all wreathed in smiles. This was the most notable proof and clear evidence of the favor and bestowal of the Blessed Perfection. When he happened to discourse on teaching and teachers he waxed most eloquent, his words inspired the hearts, his face became radiant with the anticipated joy of a humanity instructed in the laws of God and the application of the laws of nature, and his unquestioned, divine authority filled the listeners with such fiery enthusiasm for the promotion of the Cause that they were ready to give up their lives to execute his command. He used to say that the teachers were the Israfels of God who, with the sound of their trumpets blow the spirit of life into the dead bodies of mankind.

"One day, in the course of his talk, he praised so much the lives and services of the teachers of the Cause and expressed such high appreciation of their unselfish lives that, although I was a prisoner said to myself: 'O! That I might be confirmed in this!' Then I thought I might go to Kashgar, one of the provinces of China and a place not visited up to that time by any Baha'i teacher. I was going to travel alone and with no baggage only a handbag containing a number of tablets and books and papers and pens.

"I secured even my passport; the old Mufti stood as my guarantor. When the crafty Motosarraf, Ibrahim Pasha, heard about this he sent his secretary to me with the message: I have heard that your Excellency contemplates taking a long journey. I will not be so disrespectful or discourteous as to thwart your plan or in any way hinder your departure but, as I am the Governor of this province, I am responsible to the central government for everything that happens here. Therefore, it will be but my official duty to send a cable concerning your departure as soon as you set your feet on the steamer.' I was familiar with the fortuitous ways of oriental expression. So I saw that this was a polite way of saying: 'We will not let you go.' Hence I deferred my departure to a more opportune time."

"China is the country of the future. I hope the right kind of teacher will be inspired to go to that vast empire to lay the foundation of the Kingdom of God, to promote the principles of divine civilization, to unfurl the banner of the Cause of Baha'u'llah and to invite the people to the banquet of the Lord!"