Chaldeans and Assyrians were engaged in many trade routes and posts all over Central Asia and in the Indian subcontinent
that led to the stablishment to further colonies in cities along the Silk Road and in the Malabar Coast. Even these colonies grew
more after the Roman or the Persian persecutions of Christians, as that of Shapur II in 337; and such early colonizations lead to
an easy preach of the Chistianity among the colonizers: per example we know from 'The Chronicle of Seert', a document of the
seventh century, that the bishop of Basra/Basora, Dudi/David, left his see between 295-300 and went to India where he
evangelized many people in India. So it is logical to find churches, crosses and testimonies that relate us on a Chistian
presence in Sri Lanka, India, Central Asia and Western China. There was said that Christian communities and its bishops
were along the trade routes, so in the "Book of the Laws of Countries", written about 196, it is mentioned of Christians living
as far as Bactria (region of actual Samarkand, in the road of the Silk Road). So that by the V Century we hear of monasteries and
bishropics all along Partia, Media, Bactria, Sogdiana, etc. Many of the Christians there might have been descendants of
the populations deported from Roman Syria, Cilicia and Cappadocia by Shapour I (240-270AD), and it is known that such
deportations afected even Persian citizens, and that their colnies arrived as far as Xinjiang. It is curious to point out that among
Persians, Christianity never became a religion of theirs: in fact there were neither Bible in Persian, nor Persian Church, nor
translations of the Fathers of the Church in Persian.

Greater India -

For India and Sri Lanka we have the valuous accounts of Cosmas Indicopleustes in his "Christian Topography" (writen in
the mid of the VI Century) where he states after visiting such countries that: "in Taprobanê [Ceylon], an island in Further
India, where the Indian sea is, there is a Church of Christians, with clergy and a body of believers [...]. In the country called
Malê [Malabar Coast], where the pepper grows, there is also a church, and at another place called Calliana [Kalyana, near Bombay, or maybe Quilon] there is moreover a bishop, who is appointed from the Persian Empire". A more clear picture is
given about the Ceylanese Christians: "The island has also a church of Persian [from the Persian Empire] Christians who
have settled there, and a Presbyter who is appointed from Persia, and a Deacon and a complete ecclesiastical ritual. But the
natives and their kings are heathens." The Chistians in India seem to have been catched at least socialy by Hinduism:
as being a high cast, they rejected the relations with the inferior casts, they practiced "untouchablism" according to the
Portuguese sources and it seems that this situation prevented the spreading of Christianity there (in fact were the Portuguese
whom preached at the indigenous Indians). A possible proof about the autoisolation and conservativity is the evidence of
Marco Polo, as in his descriptions he states in the CHAPTER XXV of his book that the Kingdom of Koulam: "is the residence
of many Christians and Jews, who retain their proper language. [Aramean ?]. The king is not tributary to any other." In the
other hand we have accounts of Christian Nestorian communities scatered here and there across India (Assemani, Osorius,
Jarricus, Abder-Razzak, Marco Polo, Nicolo Conti, etc.).
 

Turcomongols -

Before to treat the spread of Nestorianism in Central Asia it is worth to know the religous and ethnic backgrounds as to
have a good outlook. In the time of the Romans, Central Asia was occupied by Iranic peoples, some of whom were sedentary
(Bactrians in Uzbekistan, Sogdians in the Fergana Valley, Tocharians in the Tarim Bassin), where others were nomadic in those
regions that it was not possible to cultivate (Scythes, Alans, Massagetes).  The sedentary Iranic peoples were under Sassanid
Persian rule, and were converted to oficial Zoroastrism or unoficial Zurvanism, as well to Manicheism or even Buddhism.
Exception was the Tocharian nation, not Iranic properly, but of Indoeuropean stock; they converted in the first centuries
of the first millenia to Buddhism in masse. The Islam reached Central Asia since the VIII Century, and even it was produced
Sogdian Islamic literature.

The Balkash area, North Chinese Turkestan and much of Mongolia was occuped by Turkmen shamanist nomadic tribes
by then. With the confederation of Turcomongol tribes led by the Huns, that affected all sedentary empires like China,
Rome, or Persia, it started a continuous flow of Turcomongol peoples  (Cumans, Tatars, Petchenegs, Karluks, Uighurs,
Kirguiz, Avars, True Bulgars, etc.) to these empires that led to final turkization of Central Asia in the VIII Century, Tarim
Bassin in the X Century, Asia Minor in the XII Century and the Russian steppes. The Islam came to Central Asia
with the Arabs in the VIII Century, and it was a starting point for the Turkmen newcomers to be integrated.

The trade routes to the Far East allowed Christian preching and colonizations along the Silk Road in Central Asia; contrarily
at the Indian counterparts, Christianity had results in preaching at the neighbour peoples... but in the other side it seems that
these neighbours prefered to keep their Zoroastrism (or Buddhism), or to choose Manicheism, the last one being also carried
by the same Assyrians and Chaldeans. In whichever way, Nestorianism was ever minoritary among the Sogdians (there are
Sogdian Nestorian texts), but it was much more minoritary among Persians, Medes, Parts and other Iranic peoples as we only
know of the existence here and there of bishropics and monasteries led mainly by foreigners: it was rare to see conversions
among the Iranians.
 

The Turkmen and the Nestorianism -

When the Persian king Kavadh I had to flee his country to Central Asia in 499, he met on the way a group of Christian
missionaries (a bishop, four presbyters and four laymen) going to Central Asia to preach to the Turkmen. By such epoch
the known Turks that were occupying  and ruling over Central Asia were the Hephtalite Huns  (or White Huns), whom invaded
the region in the middle of the V Century. It is to suppose that such mission was directed in fact to them as a mean
to have Nestorianized rulers as allies (or to strenght Christianity in this tribe). It was a custom of the Catholic, Orthodox
and Nestorian sees to target first the governors as a mean to convert in masse their peoples. In fact, we have a confirmation
of the Christianization of part of such nation because in the middle of the sixth century, a priest of the Hephthalite Huns was
consecrated as bishop for his people by the Nestorian Catholicos.  In the other side, these Huns keept mainly their shamanism,
or were attracted by Buddhism; notwithstanding, the preaching did not continued among them, in the middle of the VI Century
were defeated and expelled by an alliance of Persian and Turkmen forces. It is believed that many White Huns choosed to follow
the Avar ordes in their invasion of Europe, being themselves surely kin of the Avars. Moreover by then a Jacobite narrator told
that the art to write and the art to cultivate was introduced among the Huns by the bishop of Arran [near Tavriz] along four
fellow-men missionaries. A possible relation with this nation and their first bishop, can be traced by the description of the
Christian Turks written by to bishop of Mabbug, Philoxenos, to the Militar Governor of Hirta; there he mentions that "Turkmen
who are Christians came to Ctesiphon from the remote countries in order to elect a Metropolitan for themselves" and that "they
went to Akak [Acacius, Nestorian Patriarch from 483 to 496]". He said of them that they had five churches and a bishop in an
unmentioned pagan city where it was spoken "Yabatai", a language that had its own script, where the Christian Turkmen,
in their side, wrote and read the Bible in Assyrian, which was translated in Turkmen language in their masses.
Philoxenos also describes their pastoralist and nomadic way of live: "they dwell under tents, and have no towns,
no villages, and no houses; but they are divided into powerful and great clans, who journey from place to place."

This failure to bring Chistianity to the Turkmen tribes did not break the purpose to preach at them the gospel: Timothy I
(780-819) sent more than eighty monks for mission work in Turkestan and China, so that the number of Turkish Christians
increased so much that the Patriarch consecrated a metropolitan for them in about 781 after checking how "the king of the
Turkmen, with nearly (all inhabitants of) his country, has left his idolatry, and has become a Christian, and he has requested
us in his letters to create a Metropolitan for his country; and this we have done". In fact it seems that Timothy misundertood
the Khan of the Uighurs, or wished to increase his own name, but what in fact happened is that the Khan of the Uigur Khanate
Alp Qutlugh, who ruled over Inner and Outer Mongolia by then, solicited at the Patriarch the assignment of a Metropolitan for
his realm. Truly, the Uighurs were mainly Buddhists since the VII Century, excepting those of the elite class that followed
Manicheism. Who were his Christian subjects ? Perhaps were of the Naiman tribe, it can be thought so since we don't know
concisely when they were Christianized, but they were Nestorians. Another possibility is that such Metropilitan was directed
to rule over the Uighurized Sogdians that professed Christianity. It is known that Sogdians were good traders, and even they
had in all important cities along the Silk Road a quarter for themselves. As Khosraw I (531-578) severely persecuted Zoroastrist
heresies in his realm, many Manichean Sogdians, and possibly also many Christian Sogdians, fled towards these colonies
(cities of East Kazakhstan, Tarim Bassin, Dzungaria, Kansu province, etc.); also a good part of them fled towards the Turkish
Empire, which by then was centered in Mongolia. So these Nestorian Sogdians that dwelt among Uighurs became integrated
and retained a high status as traders. In "The History of the Tartars", compiled by He'tum the Armenian it is stated that
"The people thereabouts are called Eo'gur [Uighurs]. They have always been idolators [refered Buddhists] and at present still
are, excepting the kin of those kings who came, guided by a vision of the Star to Bethlehem in Judea to worship the birth of the Lord. Even now one may find many grandees and nobles among the Tartars [among the Turkomongols] who are descended
from that line, and who firmly hold the faith of Christ."; another distinctiveness between Uighur and Nestorian is given by
William of Rubruck, who visited the Uighur lands in the XIII Century: "Those Iugurs who live interspersed with the Christians
and Saracens...", moreover he says about the Uighurs that they where idolators (Buddhists).

The Patriarch Timothy also mentioned in one of his letters that he was about to consecrate a metropolitan for Tibet, but by
then the Tibet (or Turfan Kingdom comprissed much of Central Asia).

Some two hundred years after, many of the Kerait tribe converted to Nestorianism, the story of the conversion of this people
is told by Bar Hebraeus in his Chronicas Ecclesiasticas: "At that time Abhd-Isho, Metropolitan of Merv, one of the cities of
Khorasan, sent and informed the Catholicus (Mar John II) saying, ' When the king of the people who are called Khyreth
[Keraits], that is to say the inner Tirkayd [Turkmenia], who live in the north-east, was hunting in one of the high mountains in
his country, he fell into a region of deep snow, and he lost the path and wandered about distractedly. And when he had lost all
hope of saving his life, one of the saints [Mar Sergius] appeared to him in a revelation and said unto him, If thou wilt believe in
Christ I will be thy guide so that thou shalt not die here "; as result that the king was saved by the saint, he converted and
requested at the bishop of Merv to teach him Christian religion along two thousand Kerait converts.

The Kerait were Christianized, at least partialy, since 1008 as told before; for the Naimans, also Christianized, we don't
know when they embraced Christianity (but we know that it was partialy: Rubruck says of them "we entered the country
of the Naiman, who are pagans"). In the other side it is worth to expose the histories of these Turcomongol tribes, as far as
the historical sources leave to know of them in such epoch. The Naimans and the Keraits used to dwell originaly where they
are nowadays inhabiting mainly, that is to say from the Balkash to the East in Kazakhstan, and the north steppes of Xinjiang
Chinese Province; yet in such areas there are Kazakhs of the tribes Kerei and Nayman, but now they are till some degree Muslim.

Around the beginning of the X Century, the Naiman tribe expelled many of their Kereit neighbours from their lands, so that
these needed to seek new territories to encamp and to allow at their flocks to graze; the new territories obtained by the expelled
Kereits were in the Orkhon bassin (nowadays Central Mongolia). After time passed, and Christianization of the Keraits
happened in the XI Century, the Turkomongol tribes developed more and more towards a complex organization,
so that by the XII Century we know of Kingdoms of Naimans and Kereits governed by Christian kings. The Kereit
tribe grew more strong and even in some period they were able to occupy Ung or Ungutia (the territory of the Ongut tribe,
north of the Yellow River bend, which Marco Polo identified with Gog, where Magog was the Tatar/Mongol region),

Merkrit territories, south of the Baikal Lake, and even they reached territories of the Mongols proper, in East Mongolia. In fact,
such awesome big kingdnom, or khanate, was the territory of the famed Prester John. The history of Prester John circuled in
Europe since the middle of the XII Century and told that there was beyond Central Asia a Christian king that ruled over a big
kingdom, and who wished to help the crusaders of Palestine. We have notice of the names of the Naiman and Kereit kings,
such Marghus (Marcus), Qurjaquz (Ciriacus), John, David, etc. Even we have notice that the fugitive ruler class of the
Kithanians of the Liao Kingdnom, who ruled over Manchuria and were expelled by the Jurchens (the new Jin Dinasty in China)
in 1124, after their stay among the Kereits and Naimans where many Naimans and Kereits joined to the orde became rulers of
the new government imposed by the Kara-kithanians after conquering the Muslim Karakhanid kingdom which comprissed
much of Central Asia. The confederation Kara-Khatay was then composed by fugitive Kathayans, Naymans, Tanguts and
Kereits, whom were ruled by kings named as "John", "Elias" or "George". If we count the total area comprissed by the Naiman,
Kereit and Kara-Kithanian khanates, the last one centered in Kyrgyzstan, we find that such area was big as 8 times France.
To notice that the Naiman and Kerait khanates were created after the pass of the fugitive Kithanians in such lands, it seems
that they were the responsible to develop these tribes from tribal organization to state organization.

The Kereits had much influence in the Mongol tribal territories, but Gengis Khan realized that the desunion of the Mongol
clans provoked their weakness. After imposing himself as khan, the Mongols started to conquer their near enemies, which
became some time after allied tribes. The strenght of this alliance of Turcomongol tribes led to an impressive success all over
Asia, so that in the half of the XIII Century the "Mongols" or "Tatars", as finaly were known these ordes, taking the names
of some of the tribes, ruled over China, Central Asia, European Russia, Iran and Irak. As said, the "Mongols" were in fact an
alliance of Turcomongol tribes, including also Keraits, so that many Tatar rulers were Christians or at the point to become
Christian by parental ties. Per example, the wife of the son of Gengi Khan, who succeed his father (Sarkuti, who was niece of
Ung-Khan, the Christian Kerait king); her sons were also Christian: Hulaku Khan (1251-65 who conquered Persia and Syria)
and his sister/wife Dokuz Khatum; Mangu or Munga Khan (1251-1260); Kublai Khan (1260-94, who conquered the rest of
China, otherwise he never was officially Christian); the Ili khans in Persia: Guyuc, Abaka and Arghun. In the other side,
a part of the Keraits, the majority of the "Mongols" ever choosed the universal religion of the conquered lands (Buddhism
in China, Islam in Irak, etc.).

Another aspect of the Turcomongol Nestorians was their character and morals; about them we have sharp observations
by Rubruck's accounts of the XIII Century; their Christianity was hindered because they "have sacred books in Syrian,
but they do not know the language", and because their priests were "all simoniacs, for they administer no sacrament gratis";
in fact Rubruck stated that their spiritual position was even worse that that of the Buddhists: "for the lives that the Mongol
themselves and the Tuins [Buddhists] or idolaters lead are more innocent than theirs." Per example it seems that it was
costumary to drink: "they are usurers and drunkards; some even among them who live with the Tartars have several wives
like them". Moreover, Turkmen Nestorians seemed that were syncretical, as Rubruck commented: "I saw that their sect was
full of sorceries and idolatries", or "The priests do not condemn any form of sorcery; for I saw there four swords half way out
of their scabbards, one at the head of the lady's couch, another at the foot, and one of the other two on either side of the entry.
I also saw there a silver chalice, of the kind we use, which had perhaps been stolen in some church in Hungary, and it was
hung on the wall full of ashes, and on the ashes was a black stone; and these priests never teach that such things are evil.
Even more, they themselves do and teach such things.".  Even he related how a Nestorian family consulted a Muslim sorcerer
as to resolve why the father was extremely ill. Marco Polo himself checked how Nestorianism was mingled with magic in
Peking: "There are in the city of Kanbalu, amongst Christians, Saracens, and Cathaians [Native Chinese Buddhists], about
five thousand astrologers and prognosticators". A good thing perceived by Rubruck was that the Nestorians of Karakorum
were willing to receive a Catholic patriarch, but that in the other hand they did not admited other Christians in their masses,
being no matter if they were Monophisists, Orthodox or even Catholics.

What happened with Nestorian Turkmen after ? Why there are no more Nestorian Turkmen nowadays ? After the expulsion
of all foreign tribes from China by the Ming Dinasty, many Naimans and Kereits might have returned to their homeland, north
of Xinjiang and East Kazakhstan, where others saw more fitable to occupy regions of North Kazakhstan. In the XV Century,
some Kirguiz clans of "kazakhs" (which means "nomads") splited and occupied what is now Kazakh speaking areas, including
those of the Naimans (now being there the Nayman Kazakh tribe), and those of the Kereits (now being there the Kerey Kazakh
tribe). Such Kazakhstization led then to paralel Islamization. The Islam among the Kerey exists as "diluted", since they neither
pray as costumary the daily five orisions, nor they have imams, nor they use the Koran. Around the middle of the XVIII
Century, some Kerey clans occupied the westernmost Mongol province of Olgij: there are now in the province some 160.000
Muslim Kazakhs (4% in Mongolia), were in China the Kerey and Naiman Kazakhs are around 1.000.000; in Kazakhstan
proper there is a similar cipher.
 

China, the Dragon that never awakes -

This country, although it has been not but until recently a place for Christians, deserves in the other side historical
consideration and study since just two centuries ago, this region ever comprised between 1/4 till 1/3 of the humankind.
Christianity has "tried" to succeed in China for four times (understood as China proper here), but each time the spread of the
Gospel has found big hinderings to stand up there.
 

First Call -

The first notice of missions in China was found just where the Silk Road ended, in the ancient Chinese capital of Chang’an
(Hsi-an), where it was unearthed a great slab of stone with Syriac and Chinese inscriptions where it is stated that a monk
known as Alopen arrived at China in 635 to spread his religion (Nestorianism, "Ta-Chin"). Though the religion of northern
China was basically Buddhism by then, it was during Kao-tsung’s reign that Christian missionaries began to extend their
work from their centre at Chang’An to other nord Chinese cities, well founding churches, well founding monasteries. But in
the half of the ninth century the Chinese government, as to obtain more revenues and to have more workers, decided to
persecute Buddhist, Christian and Zoroastrian [including Manichean ?] monks. According to the report arranged by the
Board of Worship, by the edict of 845, 260.500 Buddhist monks and nuns were compelled to renounce their spiritual path
to become laics. The Nestorian and Zoroastrian monks numbered there some more than 3000. So by equal proportions for
each group, we could calculate that Christianity in China affected by then a 0.6% of the clericals, not counting there the
amounts of Taoist monks and the amounts of Confucianist priests, whom were not persecuted.

So Christianity in China, without any govern left quikly declined, so that an Arab record written in Baghdad about 987, tells
that the writer meet a Nestorian monk of Najran who had seven years earlier been sent to China by the patriarch, with five
others, "to bring the affairs of Christianity in that country to order", and that this young man told at the writer "Christianity
is extinct in China; the native Christians have perished in one way or an-other; the church which they had has been
destroyed and there is only one Christian left in the land."
 

Second Call -

It will be needed to wait till the Mongol invasion to find again Christians in China (China proper) because many
invaders/occupiers were themselves Nestorian (Keraits, Naimans). So in the period of rule of the Yuan dinasty, the dinasty
founded by the Mongols in the Far East, there were 72 Nestorian monasteries in China during that period (1289-1320);
and according to William of Rubruck in Cathay (the region comprissed between the Huang Ho and the Big Chinese Wall),
"There are Nestorians in 15 cities in Cathay and they have a bishopric there in the city called Hsi-chin". By then even the
suzerain, Kublai Khan demanded at the Pope to deliver to China 100 missionaires, so that in the beginning of the fourtheen
century John of Montecorvino was bishop of Peking.

Another aspect of this new Christendom of China was that it was composed mainly by foreigners. Marco Polo, who acted as
a local administrative under Kublai Khan government, visited many regions, so that he after described the particular customs
and histories of many cities and regions. In his descriptions he noted those cities that he visited with Christian minorities:
Chinchitalas, Succuir [Jiuquan], Kampion [Zhangye], Erginul [Wuwei], Singui [Xining], Kalacha [Yulin; these first 6
cities where in fact in the Tangut Kingdom or Hsi Xia, but was in fact a Chinese province], Tenduk city and province [Hohhot],
Kanbalu [Peking], Ken-zan-fu [Jingzhaofu = Xi'an], Yachi [Kumming or Dali], Pazan-fu [Xinxiang ?], Ken-zan-fu/Ka-chan-fu
[Ho-Chun-Fo], Chan-ghian-fu [Zhenjiang], Kin-sai [Hangzhou]; and noted also those that were exclusively Buddhist:
"All its inhabitants are idolaters and burn their dead" which was the common religious description of the much of the Chinese
cities. As can be seen, many of these cities are in North China, and it can be ascertained from Polo's descriptions that these
Christians were not native: "Amongst the inhabitants [of Hohhot], however, there are both worshippers of idols and
followers of the law of Mahomet. There is likewise a class of people known by the appellation of Argon, because they
are produced from a mixture of two races, namely, those natives of Tenduk who are idolaters, and the Mahometans.".
Or this comment on religion in Sachion [Dunhuang]: "The people are worshippers of idols [Buddhists]. There are Turkomans
among them, with a few Nestorian Christians and Mahometans. Those who are idolaters have a language distinct from the
others." Such accounts lead to think that Mahometans, and surely also the Christians, were not native. Again another excellent
proof is seen in the case of an aborted native revolution: "Vanku and Chenku, having held this consultation together, imparted
their designs to some of the leading persons of the Cathaians, and through them to their friends in many other cities. It was
accordingly determined amongst them that, on a certain day, immediately upon their perceiving the signal of a fire, they should
rise and put to death all those who wore beards; and should extend the signal to other places, in order that the same might be
carried into effect throughout the country. The meaning of the distinction with regard to beards was this; that whereas the
Cathaians [Chinese] themselves are naturally beardless, the Tartars, the Saracens, and the Christians wear beards. It should
be known that the grand khan not having obtained the sovereignty of Cathay by any legal right, but only by force of arms,
had no confidence in the inhabitants, and therefore bestowed all the provincial governments and magistracies upon Tartars,
Saracens, Christians, and other foreigners". In describing the city of Ken-zan-fu [Jingzhaofu = Xi'an], he gives this account
on local religions "The inhabitants in general worship idols, but there are also found here Nestorian Christians, Turkomans,
and Saracens.", or "Yachi [Kumming or Dali], is large and noble. In it are found traders and artisans, with a mixed population,
consisting of (the native) idolaters, Nestorian Christians, and Saracens or Mahometans; but the first is the most numerous
class.". In telling the history of Chan-ghian-fu [Zhenjiang], he states that "There are in this city three churches of Nestorian
Christians, which were built in the year 1278, when his majesty appointed a Nestorian, named Mar-sachis, to the government
of it for three years. By him these churches were established, where there had not been any before; and they still subsist."
So after arrival of the Mongols and thier allies, Christianity and Christians arrived at least in this city. For the monk-diplomat
William of Rubruck, he wrote in te mid of the XIII Century that "Living mixed among them [Tangut Kingdom], though of alien
race (tanquam advene), are Nestorians and Saracens all the way to Cathay. In fifteen cities of Cathay there are Nestorians,
and they have an episcopal see in a city called Segin [=Hsi-king], but for the rest they are purely idolaters."

To note that Nestorians in China seem to have been a minority inside a minority (the foreign Turcomongol tribes); almost
ever that Marco Polo accounts Chirstians in a given city, he also accounts the presence of Muslims and that the
idolators/Buddhists were the majority. Moreover, in describing Hangzhou: "the whole city must have contained one million
six hundred thousand families, amongst which multitude of people there was only one church of Nestorian Christians."
(1600000 families x 6 members = 96000000; a mean middle church capable to contain 960 persons, then 0.01% as Nestorian.).
In the district of Chin-kiang there were six monasteries of a total of the 72 Chinese monasteries. According to the census
of 1332, the district of Chin-kiang had 215 Nestorians. At that time the foreign population of Chin-kiang, including
Mongols, Uighurs and Moslems, etc. amounted to 13503 persons.

Even the Catholic mission was directed first at the Turcomongols; John of Monte Corvino wrote that: "I have got a
competent knowledge of the language and character which is most generally used by the Tartars. And I have already
translated into that language and character the New Testament and the Psalter", and "I have had six pictures made from
the Old Testament and New Testament for the instruction of the ignorant, and they have inscriptions in Latin, Turkish and
Persian, so that all tongues may be able to read them.". Otherwise, the Turcomongol tribes foreigners mainly Shamanist and
they prefered to convert to the native universal religion (Buddhism): "It should be known that the Tartars, when they followed
their original customs, and had not yet adopted the religion of the idolaters [...]" (Marco Polo).

But again Christianity faded in the Far East. After the Ming native revolution led by the Buddhist monk Chu Yuan-Chang,
as a means to oust the foreign occupiers, it was taken a strong position against all forms of Christianity, and within a decade
brought about the suppression or extirpation of all churches and the expulsion of Christians from Peking and all government
offices. By sure then many Christians took direction to their countries of origin; in fact the Turcomongols immigrated to
Central Asia divided in two groups (Mongghul and Oyirat, the last one comprissing the Kerait and Naiman tribes).
 

Third Call -

After two centuries, the Ming became step by step more tolerant, so that in 1579 the Jesuits began to preach from Macao
(Ruggieri), and in few decades they won a big respect among the Chinese elite due their big knowledges on Astronomy,
Mathematics, etc. But again Christianity in China failed; when the Catholic missionaires were having good results in their
preach, the Manchu ruler Kang Hsi ordered the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1721 after discussion on the acceptance
or not of the ancient rites to appraise the deceased (but underline it was treated the acceptance or not of extern influences).
The measure was stregthen with Yung Ching's Edict prohibiting Christianity (1724).
 

Fourth Call -

Again, the duty to preach at the Chinese was carried out by Catholic and Protestant missionaries in the beggining of the
XIX Century, process eased as the missionaries were backed up by international treasies.

In the other hand, a Protestant native offshot became involved in the mid of the XIX Century with politics and revolutionary
(against the foreign Manchu dinasty), the Taiping. Led by Hung, the revolutionaries mixed a syncretical Christianity with
militarism. They added unorthodox variancies as marrying God, or having a Bible of theirs that included half of the canonical
books, or having an unorthodox concept of the Trinity. Buddhism, Taoism and witchcraft were targetered for their bannings.

In 1936 the total stimated number of baptized Protestant members and catechumens was over 700000. Similar ciphers could be
shared by the Catholics.
 
 

Other Peoples

Gilanians and Dailomanians -

The report of the Christianization of these two nations (Gilom in the Western Iranian coast of the Caspian Sea, Dailomites
above these in the mountains) comes mainly from the Book V of Thomas of Marga's The Book of the Governors. There
Thomas tells how Mar Yahbhlaha, Kardagh, Mar Elijah and Mar Shubhhal-Isho were ordained by the Nestorian Catholicos
Timothy (778-820) as to convert the Iranic peoples living in the shores of the Caspian Sea: "to whose part of the world no
'preacher a planter of the truth had ever gone, and where the doctrine of the glad tidings of our Redeemer had never been
proclaimed'"; or "into whose country none of the preachers and evangelists of the kingdom of heaven had gone since the
time of the Apostles until the present". Even the missionaires dared to change Zoroastrian temples into churches: "that the
fire-temples and the fire-altar of his cakes were pulled down". To act so it was necessary to have some tribal or royal
permission, but also interesting to note is the survival of Zoroastrism, and that is because the Arabs did not occupied
effectively such remote region so that Islam does not appears in the accounts of Thomas. Of the seven bishropics that the
region had it is not known when were left definetively, but the Islamization of the Dailamites and Gilyans started around 791,
when some descendants of Ali found refuge in the region; and it may have been quick since two centuries after, the Arab
geographer Mukhadasi says by 985 that where the Gilyans are Sunnis, the Dailamites follow mainly the Shiite stream.
In fact the Dailamintes founded a very important Islamic dinasty that was ruling Iran by then: the Buyids (932-1055).
 
 

Alans (now Ossetians) -

The Alans (or As) were a strong Schytian / Sarmatan tribe that occupied what is now South Ukraine and the Russian steppes;
as commented previously, the Hun invasions led to a constant flow of Turkik tribes, so that by the VI Century the only Iranic
Alans that keept their language were found in their new refuge in the North Caucasian Mountains, where nowadays use to
dwell the Muslim Ossetes. After the defeat of the Jewish northern kingdom of the Khazars by the Rus in the X Century,
the Alans were able to create a kingdom for themselves (Alania), where Orthodox Christianity started to be professed and
the first churches were constructed. William of Rubruck described their religiosity in the XII Century: "Alans, who are there
called Aas, and they are Christians according to the Greek rite, and use the Greek writing and have Greek priests. They are
not however schismatics like the Greeks, for without any respect to persons they honor all Christians". In the other side this
Christianity got tightly interlaced with the relics of pagan notions so that their culture knew a direct continuation of the pagan
rites and ideas, such as the Scythian worship of the godly sword, or the Scythian habit of predicting the future by the withes,
etc. Alania was thereafter defeated by the Mongols in the XIII Century, whcih followed progressive Islamization and
transformation of churches into mosques.
 

Soldaians -

This was refered to a people of Kwarezmia, who dwelt in western Uzbekistan: "For he [Sartach] is on the road of the Christians,
to wit, of the Ruthenians [=Russians], Blacs [=Wallachians or Vlachs], Bulgarians of Minor Bulgaria, Soldaians, Kerkis
[=Abkhazian Circassians ?] and Alans, all of whom pass by him hen going to his father's ordu carrying presents to him,
so he shows himself most attentive to them." (William of Rubruck); the Armenian monk Het'um in describing the Khwarazmians
of the area he says of them "They are pagans, lacking writing or laws and are ferocious warriors. Amongst them are people
called Koltink' [Soldains], possessing their own language and using Greek letters and the Greek rite. They take communion
in accordance with the Greek ritual, and they obey the patriarch of Antioch."
Kwarezmia was an independent state till the VII Century, when the Arabs occupied the region. Till then the Kwarezmian
(a language related to Alan and Scythe) was official. Since the middle of the VI Century there were diplomnatic contacts with
the Byzantine Empire, and maybe as a mean to sure the protection of the country against a Sassanid invasion, Christianity
was demanded to be preached there. Islamization otherwise was slow, so that by the XI Century Al-Biruni states that
Kwarezmia was Melkite (Orthodox) and with relations with Constantinople.
 
 

Caucasic Albanians -

Azerbaijan's plain before to become Turkish was inhabited by the ancient Albanians, and we have some comments of Aghuans
[Caucasic Albanians] professing Christian religion since the V Century. According to the chronicler Steppanos Orbeli in
"The History of Sisakan", Christianity appeared here first by the hand of apostle Batholomew, who succeeded to convert
the local king along many citizens; in the other side, a brother of the king compelled by the pagan priests ordered the crucifixion
downwards of Bartholomew in Alban [now Baku]; it was in the year 71. Notwithstanding,  the new church planted by
Bartholomew continued, so that his successor Elise became the first archbishop of Albania with see in the city of Kish/Gish.
Almost three centuries after, the Albanian king Urnair accepted Christianity as oficial religion similarly as did the Armenian
king after that Constantine elevated Christianity as tolerated religion in Rome. But this situation endured few, as the Sassanid
Persians took control over the country, the nobility and religious leaders seek refuge in Karabakh, there Vache II forsook
Zoroastrianism and adopted Christianity which became again official. By then, the Albanian Church was composed by 12
bishropics and had a particular alphabet developed by St. Mesrob, who facilitated alphabets for Armenians and Georgians
previously. Between the V and VII Centuries, the Albanian Church and Albanian Christians were splitted between Diophystist
and Monophysist parties.
The Arab invasion of the VII Century, was a source of Islamization for Albanians as was for the Turkish newcomers; but also
the Arab rule allowed the religious Armenization of many Albanians (along ethnical Armenization after ?) led by the
Armenian Catholicos Yelia in 705; in a letter addressed to the khalif, he tried to convince that it was worth that Christian
Albanians were included into the Armenian Church as a mean to forecome Byzanthine influencies: "The Aluans [Albanians]
profess the same belief to the Christ Son of God, just like we do. But now, the one who is the Catholicos of Albania in Partav
[Barda], came to an agreement with the Emperor of the Romans [Byzantines], and praises him in his prayers and forces everyone
to unite with him. So know about this, and don't leave it without attention, because, one noble lady [Sparam, wife of the
Albanian prince Varaz Trdat] is together with him. Let's, with your highest power, punish those, who dared to sin against God."
After approval of the Khalif, Yelia ordered the execution of the Albanian Metropolitan, Nerses Bakur, and the destruction of
Albanian books. Christian Albanians regained self-government in some regions between the IX to XV Centuries [which could
be the Koltink' referred by Het'um], but the process of Turkification and Islamization was general in Azerbaijan by then.
The religious outlook came again to Armenian orbit since the Russian government conceded at the Armenian Church
the subordination of the Albanian Catholicosate to it. Some years ago, the Albanian writing has been deciphered so that
it comes to be known that today's Caucasian Udin is the language most related to the ancient Albanian: even Herodotus listed
Utis/Otens as an Albanian tribe. Nowadays, there are yet some 5000 Udin speakers in Central North Azerbaijan that still
profess Christianity, but mixed with pagan rites and without priests as the forcible imposition of Monophysism by Armenians
was neither accepted nor understood.
 

 

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