National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

write a letter with my wishes to the above-mentioned society and also to the Commission for Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs, which was presided over by YEN HsiSIIAN. I was to inform them that my friend VINCENT BENDIx, who was deeply interested in lamaistic cults and arts, had placed at the disposition of the government and the society a sum of forty thousand dollars, that was to be used for the restoration and preservation of the famous Lama Temple in Peking. I was then to propose that the society should prevail upon the government to show its gratitude for this donation by presenting a temple to Chicago and one to Stockholm.

Messrs LI YU-YING and Wu CHIN-HUI were to leave for Nanking at the beginning of February, and they promised to act as spokesmen for the society there and lay our desires before the government.

ETHNOGRAPHIC PURCHASES

Meantime, however, we used the period of waiting for the purchase of ethnographic objects, especially such as belonged to lamaistic cult life and art, with which the temples were to be furnished. MONTELL, and LARSON came across many extraordinarily fine and rare objects, that would serve splendidly to illustrate the motley magnificence of lamaism. LARSON was here of invaluable assistence to MONTELL, especially when it was a matter of forcing down the prices; for no business is concluded without much haggling in China.

HASLUND LEAVES THE EXPEDITION

HASLUND, who was to help us in connection with the acquisition of the temples, was now more or less idle. He had had periods of illness and had been unable during the winter to participate in the work of the expedition as much as he would have wished. As he planned to marry, he needed to look about for a more secure and permanent job than the expedition was able to offer him, and it was therefore agreed that he should wind up his connection with us after the good three years during which he had been in our service. On February 7th he left for Calcutta and Karachi, to take on a post that was connected with the commerce between British India and Eastern Turkistan.

As accountant for the so-called BENDIX fund we now employed JOHN KULLGREN, a Swedish missionary's son and a clerk at the Swedish Legation.

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