Situated at the height of more than 11000 feet, Moravian Church in Leh is one among the highest churches of India. The church was first consecrated in Leh by German missionaries in 1834 who brought some local Buddhist residents into their fold. Belonging to the Protestant denomination, the church has a history of being a successful attempt of missionaries to far-flung places in India.
The Moravian church is one of the oldest and smallest of the Protestant denominations and it traces its origin to Moravia and Bohemia,which are now provinces of Czechoslovia. The mission of this church across the world is to bring the people to Lord and share his love.
Christianity in Leh (Moravian Church)
The Christian Mission or the Moravian Church came as a result of a work that was first started in Kelang in Lahaul Valley. From Kelang they used to come to Ladakh to share the message of Christianity and they always had an ambition to establish a mission station in Leh, being on the trade route but were not allowed by the Maharaja as Kelang was a different state. Finally in 1884 the permission was granted and in 1885 they started coming to Ladakh.
The first priorities of this mission were Education and Medicine. In January 1887 Allopathic Dispensary was established that was the only allopathic outlet for about 3000 kms. Moravian Mission School was started in April 1887 and was a huge challenge as there was lack of proper teacher and my Grandfather was the first Tibetan teacher here. The missionaries were versatile who taught all sort of agricultural methods and handicrafts to help the income of the people.
History
A small 300-member Moravian community in Herrnhut, Germany sent missionaries to the Danish West Indies in 1732. Since then, Moravian missionaries had traveled to nook and corner of the world to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They reached the mountain tops of Ladakh, India, the savannas of South America and the prairies of the US. Today, Moravian churches or societies worship and minister in nearly thirty nations and number over 700.000 believers.
The Moravian Church in Leh in the border area of Pakistan, China and Tibet is a Protestant Church that was established in 1885 by Moravian missionaries who came from Herrnhut in Saxony (eastern Germany). Their mission was to convert the natives living here to Christianity. The natives here were Tibetan Buddhists and they had been practicing Buddhism for centuries. They also found out that it was difficult to preach Christianity and convert the natives to a new faith. However, they continued their mission and became pioneers in education, Allopathic medicine, vegetable gardening, agriculture, printing, improvement of the Ladakhi iron hearth (thab), knitting, weather monitoring etc. An interesting aspect of their mission was to give secular education and, not the one just based on religion alone.
Over the decades, the school became popular and presently, the school has an enrollment of about one thousand students. I believed that the British explorer one Aurel Stein had his right foot’s toes amputated on 14th of Octobe, 1907 near here they were severely affected by frost bite, while crossing the 18,100 feet high Karakoram Pass, leading to Asia. This Moravian church is at an altitude of 11,000 feet and is believed to be one of the highest churches in the world.
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