Background Introduction:

Servants of God Nicolas Michel Krick and Augustine Etienne Bourry were two French missionaries from the Paris Foreign Missions Society. On 19 February 1854, they left Saikhoa, the last British post on the Lohit, the unpredictable tributary which draws the sparkling water from the eastern extremities of the Himalayas to the bed of the Brahmaputra. They intend to go upstream in the direction of Tibet, their Mission land, through the territory of the Mishmis, a tribe known for its primitive and inhospitable customs. for Tibet, their Mission Land.

Apart from their common vocation and mission, they differ in almost everything: background call mom age, experience, and character. Nicholas Creek has the determination and the calm of an explorer with the curiosity and the attention often ethnologist. He is the scholarly and philosophical type. Augustine Bourry has the naïve heroism of and young soldier going to the front. His kind of stubborn zeal is characteristic of many of the missionaries of the time. Nonetheless, the task that Nicholas Krick and Augustine Bourry wer to embark on together would not have been attempted by any explorer, ethnologist, or soldier.

For survival they carry baskets containing rice, some medical supplies, a sextant, some clothes, their liturgical items and books, a Tibetan grammar and vocabulary book, and small particles to barter with the indigenous people for the right to pass through their territory.

Whatever happens, they were prepared to go all the way, even to give up their lives. That is why, to the great distress of their loved ones, they have left the peaceful stability of the French parishes, which they had been used to since the days of the devout childhood.

At the end of the summer of 1854, the men who had accompanied the missionaries brought back a letter dated 29 July which announced their entry into Tibet. It was the very last heard of them. After a while, news spread that two Europeans had been massacred in the Tibetan province of Ch’ayul Valley in a village called Somme. Louis Bernard, the third missionary of the team who was posted in Saikhoa for administrative work had begun to worry about his colleagues. He was soon informed that the two victims were indeed Nicolas Krick and Augustine Bourry, killed by a Mishmi chieftain called Kaisha Manyu, because of his greed and hatred towards the missionaries.

In this short biographical account of these two valiant missionaries, we shall see about their early life, their heroic missionary journey and their ultimate sacrifice for the message of the Gospel and for the love of Lord Jesus Christ.

Family and Young days of Nicolas Michel Krick:

Servant of God Nicolas Michel Krick was born in Lixheim, France on March 1, 1819. His father Michel Krick married Élisabeth Dubourg, a gardener's daughter, and he opened a tailor's shop. From their union was born first Catherine in 1816 and second was born Michel, who was actually called by the first name of his godfather: Nicolas. Three other children followed: Joseph in 1823, Nicolas Alexis in 1824 and Marie-Élisabeth in 1826. The birth of Marie-Élisabeth in 1826 went badly and Élisabeth died in childbirth. Nicolas Krick was then orphaned at the age of seven. His father Michel then married Anne Prévost, also a widow. Nicolas used to spent many hours in his father's shop. The contact he had with the clients sharpened his sensitivity towards women, a feature that can easily be found in his writings and his sermons.

Very little information about Nicolas Krick's childhood and adolescence is available. His later writings nevertheless make it possible to understand that he grew up in a relatively liberal atmosphere and very favourable to democracy and freedom. His father's wife, Anne Prévost, a former military wife, no doubt shared the ideas of her former Republican husband. Nicolas Krick has eclectic readings ranging from romantic writers like Chateaubriand to Voltaire and Rousseau.

He entered the major seminary of Nancy on November 4 , 1839. Even if we do not know what Nicolas Krick was doing at the time, we know that entry to the seminary required knowledge of Latin. Son of a craftsman, Nicolas had a somewhat atypical profile, insofar as the seminary is mainly made up of sons of notables and peasants.

Seminary Life in Nancy:

The seminary of Nancy worked on the Sulpician model: a formation very focused on the exercises of piety, meditation and prayer. As for studies, they focused on Theology and Holy Scripture. The seminary of Nancy had therefore adopted very rigorous and demanding regulations. In addition, it had a large library, an asset for the intellectual dynamism of the establishment which went hand in hand with the great respect for the freedom of thought of one who practised.

In one of his sermons, Nicolas Krick took up the defense of freedom of conscience, a favourite theme at the time of anticlericalism: “Those therefore who thought they were stifling the Church itself by this means were far from foreseeing that this freedom of conscience which in their hands was only an instrument of destruction and death should serve the supreme triumph: religious truth”.

During the fourth year of the seminary, he had a colleague, Augustin Schoeffler . They were born in neighbouring localities and entered the Foreign Missions of Paris . It was perhaps at this time that the missionary vocation of Nicolas Krickwas born. In 1842, he was sub-deacon and on December 13,1843, he was ordained a deacon and on June 1, 1844, a priest, at the age of twenty-four, like most priests of his time.

Lorraine Priest:

After his ordination, hewas appointed vicar at Gerbéviller in Meurthe-et-Moselle, then in 1847, second vicar of Phalsbourg (Moselle), the parish where Augustin Schoeffler was born. Nicolas Krick wrote down all his sermons; from the Gerbéviller and Phalsbourg period, seventy-two are kept in the archives of the Society. Their style demonstrates that he was spiritually demanding of his parishioners.

In his homilies, Nicolas Krick also showed himself to be an ardent patriot, a patriotism that did not prevent him from taking the necessary steps to become a missionary in Asia. On August 21, he announced his possible departure for the Foreign Missions in Paris and on October 28, 1848 he became an aspirant there, at the same time as Théophane Vénard and Augustin Bourry. During these years in Paris, he developed a close relationship with his followers. The correspondence he maintained after his departure shows that he maintained the friendships he made during this period of his life.

From Lorraine Priest to a Missionary in Asia:

One of the hypotheses that explains his entry into the Foreign Missions of Paris is his meeting with Augustin Schoeffler who also entered there. Another possible reason is reading the then widespread Annals of the Propagation of the Faith, telling of the lives of the 10 missionaries. His faith no doubt also played an important role, his abandonment to Providence , his meditations on the missions that we discover in one of his homilies:‘When man by his submission to the guidance of God has raised himself far beyond the sphere of his fears and his hopes, thus enhancing the noble privilege of his reason by the kind of abandonment which he in fact in the hands of Him on whom it depends (...) I believe because God spoke to me, because his apostles spoke. I believe because thousands of martyrs have sealed with their blood the truths that are proposed to my faith.’ Nicolas Krick saw in the missionary vocation the summit of the Christian life: ‘The servant is no more than the master, (...) giving his life to announce the good news was the straight path to heaven, (...) if we reward those who throw themselves into the fire, in the water, at the mouth of the cannon to save mortal lives, there is also a reward for the missionary’.

The context of his entry into the Foreign Missions of Paris:

The revolution of 1848 led to the establishment of the Second Republic in France. The previous year, Pope Gregory XVI erected the Apostolic Vicariate of Lhasa ( March 27 , 1847), in Tibet, and entrusted it to the Foreign Missions of Paris. The sending of missionaries to Tibet was made difficult by the opposition of the Buddhist lamas.

Faced with the difficulties and the opposition of the Chinese, the superiors of the Missions sought to penetrate into Tibet by the South, India and the Himalayas. This solution was favored by the fact that the vicar of Bengal sought to get rid of responsibility for the region of Assam, located north of Calcutta : he sees in the arrival of the Foreign Missions of Paris the possibility of relieving himself of this immense region where Catholics are few in number. The attachment of the Assam region to the Apostolic Vicariate of Lhasa was accepted.

Two problems remain. On the one hand, no Westerner has ever crossed the Himalayas from the South to reach Tibet and the missionaries do not have information on how to access it. On the other hand, this mission being quite difficult and perilous, the superiors of the foreign missions in Paris must find relatively experienced missionaries. After having gathered information for several months on those who would be the most suitable, they chose Julien Rabin, Nicolas Krick and Louis Bernard, all of whom had already been ordained priests and had pastoral experience. They received specific training in order to prepare for this mission. After a period of preparation of several months, longer than the usual period, the three confreres were sent by the Superior of the Foreign Missions, Father Charles-François Langlois, and left on December 23, 1849 for Portsmouth.

Preparation of the Tibetan mission in India:

Their ship sets sail from Portsmouth on January 1, 1850and they arrive at Madras on April 26, 1850. They are welcomed by the English archbishop, Mgr. Farrell, who lodged them and announced their arrival in the Catholic newspaper Bengal. The welcome is warm, but very quickly the three missionaries fall ill, victim of bourbouille. After a few days, they depart for Calcutta for Ascension . The English showed great interest in their mission, but the interest of the English press focused less on the missionary side than on the route leading to Tibet, which had never before been explored.

The superiors of the Paris Foreign Missions decided to appoint Julien Rabin superior of the mission. The latter sends them regular reports on the progress of the expedition. In order to get closer to Tibet, the missionaries left Calcutta on June 14 , 1850to settle in Guwahati in the region of Assam. They then realized the difficulty of the undertaking: the multiplicity of dialects and languages will make their progress very painful. They therefore decided to study them for six hours a day.

The superior of the mission, Julien Rabin, wanted to make Guwahati the center of the mission, while this city is located far from Tibet. He wrote to his superiors to inform them of his desire to build a college there in order to promote Catholicism in the region and to make this city the center of their activities. His projects seemed more and more unrealistic. The living conditions are very rudimentary: the missionaries are installed in an unsanitary bungalow and Julien Rabin is frequently ill. Following his letters, the superiors of the Foreign Missions of Paris called Julien Rabin to order and stressed that the foreign missions of Paris had neither the financial nor the human resources to found this college and that the objective assigned to it is Tibet, not the region of Assam.

Moreover, tensions began to appear between the missionaries: Julien Rabin then decided to delegate part of his authority to Louis Bernard, and Nicolas Krick was sent on a mission to Upper Bengal at the request of the Bishop of Dacca. While his trip should initially only last six weeks, Nicolas Krick ministered there four months with the small Christian communities of the region. The only testimony on this period is a very favourable comment from Bishop Carrew to the Governor General of India when he learned of the death of Nicolas Krick: “I knew Nicolas Krick personally. He was an extremely kind and talented man”.

First attempt to explore North India:

On March 30, 1851, Nicolas Krick returned from the mission and decided to do a new exploration alone. He went up the Brahmaputra to try to find a passage towards Tibet, going towards the tribes of Abors , Mishmis and Khamtis. He left with the English, arrived in Saikhoa on September 26 and realized that any crossing of Abor territories was impossible because of the hostility of the Mishmid. He asked the English to help him cross the regions inhabited by the Abors. They refused, saying they cannot guarantee his safety. The Abors have tattoos in the shape of a cross, which intrigued him a lot: he saw in it the sign of a very ancient evangelization. He returned to the Lohit region to prepare a new expedition there, despite the fact that all the English explorers who had preceded him had failed, in 1826, in 1837 and in 1846.

Nicolas Krick, unable to pass through the Abors territories, continued on his way and passes through Mangaldai on May 28, 1851. He discovered a road for Lhasa passable from November to February. Hearing that a priest is needed, he leaves for Nowgong, where he is welcomed by a French doctor, Mr. Pingault, and he begins his first mission with the few converts present. He gave first communion and baptised adults, and converted to Catholicism the wife of the doctor. Inspired by his preaching, she herself asked for baptism.

Exploring the Himalayas:

After preparing for it for a long time, Nicolas Krick set out to explore northern India in order to find a route to Tibet. He starts looking for carriers with a guide (Tchôking). Despite the fear of the Mishmis tribes , who have a reputation as slavers , Nicolas and Tchöking manage to recruit 17 porters and the expedition begins on December 18 , 1851. Nicolas Krick took many notes, performed topographical, geological, zoological or botanical measurements at each stop. On December 19 , he ate monkey. On the 20th, he meets the first members of the Mishmi tribe. The expedition continues to be dangerous and difficult in particular because a little further on of the paths taken which skirt precipices in the first foothills of the Himalayas.

The encounter with the first Mishmi village is very peaceful. Nicolas Krick, not knowing how to communicate otherwise, uses his flute. He is touched by Mishmi hospitality. The group continued on its way, despite the fact that the Mishmis and the Tibetans are at war with each other. They arrived on December 24 , 1851at Khroussa, a village chief, and learned that the Mishmis are sending an ambassador to the Tibetans to end the war. Khroussa says it is not possible to go any further until peace is reached. The carriers demanded from Nicolas Krick what he owed them, which he did and they abandoned him and his luggage. He confided to his diary the discouragement that assailed him far from the euphoria of the first days: “If I had not been a missionary I would have said: 'let's go back'. That's what all my people promised themselves to do”.

Krick, wanting at all costs to continue his journey, managed to obtain after much negotiation that the Mishmis help him transport his equipment in exchange for two cows. He arrived at a new village, is considered there as a circus beast. All the inhabitants wanted to see this man with white skin and blond hair: “They kept me waiting but I held on with my pipe until eleven o'clock, when the ladies retired; I laugh under my cape to have caught them. I said my prayers and then undressed. But all the women came running back and threw themselves around me as if it were a solar eclipse. I had nothing better to do than wrap myself in my blanket”.

On December 28 , his guide Tchôkingleft him and Nicolas Krick stayed with two Mishmis. The following night, he had his luggage stolen, but despite this disappointment, he took to the road again, deciding to trust Providence. On December 30 , 1851, he met three chiefs returning from Tibet. On the night of the 30 and 31, he had part of his rice stolen and learned from the porters that he was threatened with death. The further he advanced towards Tibet, the more perilous the situation became. At the beginning of 1852, he treated one of his porters who had been injured in the leg.

Exploration of Tibet:

The path he travelled was getting longer and longer. On January 5 , 1852, he can finally noted in his diary the arrival in Tibet: “Here the valley widens. The mountain is covered with tall and vigorous pines. We set fire to the grass. It seems to me to be in the Vosges mountains. I see in the distance a collection of black dots. I wonder what it is. I am told: “Tibetan village”. I take two more steps and find another at my feet. Tibet! Tibet!! Tibet!!!”. He probably arrived in the locality of Walong, where the villagers came to observe him and then leave. The Mishmi bearers, having claimed their money, also departed, leaving him alone. Believing in the greater hospitality ofLamas , he spent every penny to reach the nearest convent, that of Sommeu.“They opened my mouth, counted my teeth, looked me in the nose, counted my fingers on my hands. They found that I was an unknown being, half-man, half-animal, but holding both”, he recorded in his diary.

The Tibetans were very welcoming: they invited Nicolas Krick to have a meal with them. A Tibetan inspector, Noboudji, came to see him with a translator and asked him if he was a soldier. After asking for more explanation, he acted friendly and left. Nicolas Krick observed the Tibetan rites for a few days, while avoiding participating directly. The Tibetans asked Nicolas Krick for blessings, finally adding faith to his quality as a religious. He noted in his diary all the observations he managed to make on his exploration of Tibet. On January 31, Inspector Noboudjjireturne to see Nicolas Krick and two days later asked him to leave, claiming a new war, while giving him a letter facilitating his travels.

Return from Tibet:

Nicolas Krick left Tibet unwillingly, after his pleading for permission to stay fell on deaf years.Accompanied by two porters, he arrived at the border on February 5 , but during the night his porters abandoned him. Among the Mishmis, he exchanged his cover against the service of guides who also abandoned him. The journey was all the more difficult as the rainy season began. He arrived in a Mishmi tribe whose chief wanted him dead. A woman of the tribe who asked for her intervention to heal her husband injured in the foot, he was allowed to stay a few days in the tribe without the threats being carried out. But he knew he was in danger and prepared for death. The care practiced by Nicolas Krick relieved the patient and he could now negotiate for his departure.

He arrived on February 19 in a new tribe where he finally receives a warm welcome from the chief. He stayed there for a few days, noted in his diary his observations of religious ceremonies and rests. Tême, a Mishmi, accompanied him to the next village, allowing him to benefit from protection and not to suffer violence or theft from neighbouring tribes. He arrived in the Khroussa tribe and is stuck there for a week due to violent storms. He took the opportunity to negotiate the help of guides to accompany him to Saikhoa. Travel conditions were extremely difficult: traveling during the rainy season, the reduction in rice rations pushed Nicolas Krick and his porters to continue their march so as not to die of hunger. After several days, Nicolas Krick arrived, with the help of fishermen, in Saikhoa, where he met Captain Smith, on March 18 , 1852. The account of his exploration in Tibet ended with the mention of this last encounter. The journal he sent was published under the title: Relation d'un voyage au Thibet par M. l'abbé Krick.

Return of the Expedition and Appointment as Superior:

Back from Tibet, Nicolas Krick went down to Nowgong where he arrived at Easter. This was the reunion with Doctor Pingault who built in his absence a chapel at his expense, then with Louis Bernard. Nicolas Krick advised the latter to settle in Nowgong and took him around the brotherhoods of the region.

In Nowgong he received news from the Foreign Missions of Paris , which congratulated him on his exploration of Tibet and announced the arrival of Augustin Bourry asking him to take him on his next expedition. Louis Bernard remained in Assam, a locality now considered the rear base of the Mission.

Nicolas Krick left Nowgong and he took advantage of the dry season to explore the region. He went through Saikhoa in order to avoid the Mishmi tribe, made contact with other tribes: those of the Soulikattas (cut hair), the Abors and the Padams (the tribe with the cross-shaped tattoos). At the time of departure, he received a second letter from the Foreign Missions of Paris in which he learned that he had been appointed superior of the mission for Tibet.

Mission among the Abors:

Waiting for Bourry, on February 1853, he went on an expedition to join the Abor tribe, with whom he had stayed a few days before his solo trip to Tibet through the Mishmi Hills. The Abors grew suspicious and prohibited the entry into their territory to any foreigner. In fact, for 29 years, it is also forbidden for the English to go there to Tibet.

He tried, despite his very poor knowledge of the local language, to demonstrate that he was not an Englishman, but a religious (Dondaï ). The Mebo village accepted him, for the inhabitants, a monk is above all a hunter of demons, he must cure all diseases, these being considered as caused by evil spirits. The Dondaïs practice exorcisms and offer sacrifices in order to cure illnesses. Nicolas Krick tried to treat illnesses from the knowledge he had acquired during the Necker hospital courses, with the intention of proving that he was not an English spy. Not without difficulty:“Of course, I was not a man to cure all illnesses. When I told them that I couldn't cure such and such a disease, or that I had no cure, they got angry and accused me of ill will.I had to give them something, if only a little water, so they were happy. Basically, it was not difficult to work wonders. A little care and cleanliness, cerate, purgatives, did more than all the sacrifices of dogs, hens and pigs. I saw the moment when they were going to take me on their shoulders and carry me in triumph”.

He obliged to continue his office as a doctor. The prestige that he conquered because of the cures obtained aroused the jealousy of the Dondaïs who accused him of witchcraft. He was chased out of the village, but the patients he had cured again demand his presence, which allowed him to stay there. Nicolas Krick wrote to the Foreign Missions of Paris to ask for first aid kits, but the fire in the village and the attack on a cow by a tiger put an end to his stay: the inhabitants asked him to leave. He complied, on Good Friday , in the middle of a storm. He then wrote two reports, one for the superiors of the Foreign Missions of Paris, the other for Doctor Bousquet, where he described the habits and customs of the Abors, showing great open-mindedness for the time. He also concluded this report as follows: “Paris is certainly more corrupt than Membo”.

Illness and Convalescence:

Back from the Abors, Krick fell seriously ill. The fever from which he suffered is accompanied by a strong weakness or depression and his strength diminished. He returned to Saikhoa hoping to see there the new missionary Augustin Bourry. His state of health worsened and he decides to return during the month of May to Nowgong in order to be able to benefit from medical care. In Nowgong, a doctor treating him thought his condition was hopeless. Bedridden, in a depressive state for months, he only wrote to the superiors of the Foreign Missions in Paris on September 20 , 1853. He told them about his illness: “Six months of this dreadful illness with all the violent remedies have totally exhausted me. I am only a shadow of what I was. All I have now is skin left dry and wrinkled to the bones. This fever is unknown in Europe. It kills in less than 24 hours and those who escape are demoralized and useless for several months”.

During the month of September 1853, while he seemed to be getting better, his face began to swell . This new ordeal and a letter he received from the Foreign Missions of Paris transformed his state of mind and his deep motivations as a missionary marked by greater detachment, more spiritual than before. On October 15, he wrote to the directors of the Foreign Missions in Paris:“God be blessed to have sent me this ordeal. It is more effective than all the dangers and all the pains of my travels to purify my soul… Our mission is put at its beginning to many tests but it is to be hoped that one day it will bloom and give back a hundredfold. Assure the Council that we will do everything to succeed and that we are ready to sacrifice everything, even our lives, for the glory of God”. In the month ofNovember 1853, after several months of convalescence in Nowgong, he could finally leave for Saikhoa and joined the two colleagues who are waiting for him.

Krick and Bourry Meet:

On December 10 , Louis Bernard and Nicolas Krick resumed contact with Augustin Bourry on the Brahmaputra where he had been waiting for them for several months. Once there, Nicolas Krick and Augustin Bourry made plans to reach Tibet.

In the following sections, we shall see a brief biography on Augustine Etienne Bourry and then we shall dwell on their journey together towards Tibet and finally their martyrdom in Somme village by a Mishmi tribe Chieftain.

Augustin-Étienne Bourry:

Augustin Bourry was born on December 27 , 1826in La Chapelle-Largeau in Deux-Sèvres, France. His father’s name was Augustin Bourry and mother was Jeanne Felicite Rigodeau. He was the eldest of their five children, the others being Louis, Jeanne, Marie and Henri.

His father, a cloth maker, was a model of honesty and Christian living. It was matter of honour for him to maintain religious habits and patriarchal ways of his forefathers. Unlike, many unfortunate people of our times who get carried away by the endless and tyrannical concerns of commerce, which are like huge abyss, into which honour , fortune and conscience are fatally dragged down by mad and blind greed, he worked on his small fortune with patience, moderation and wisdom which is inevitably rewarded by God.

Bourry’s mother was a model of Christian mothers. She was deeply convinced that God had given her children only to make Saints out of them and that if she succeeded in her mission, these young hearts would be her comfort on earth and His glory in heaven. She thought only of protecting them from all the evil influences of the world, and inspiring them to hate evil more and more.

Bourry’s School Life:

When Bourry was barely five years old, he was placed in the parish school. This pious institution, founded by the venerable parish priest, was run in a spirit so perfect, the feelings it inspired in the children were so religious and pious, the vices which usually come about with the youth were checked so early, that it offered all the advantages of the best home without any of the disadvantages of the public establishments. It really was the perfect model of its kind. Thus, it was for Bourry pleasant as home.

The first prize of honour in this marvellous school was the privilege of serving Mass every day. This distinction was soon given to Bourry for his exemplary behaviour. His pious mother had informed him that the place he had at the sanctuary was that of an angel and he understood that he had to keep it with the utmost care. Thus, the child, instead of being a distraction for the priest and an embarrassment for the congregation, as it often happens elsewhere, was so dignified in his manner to be a delight to all those who had the pleasure of seeing him.

First Holy Communion:

At around the age of twelve, he had his First Holy Communion. He was so candid, so pure of heart, so angelically pious as only Christian mothers can inspire their children to be, by using their irresistible charm of tenderness. This ceremony was so emotional and joyful for the whole family that they kept an engraving of it as a souvenir in the most visible place of the house. The parish priest of the presbyteral school of La Chapelle-Largeau presented him with the relics of Jean-Charles Cornay , missionary martyred. He then added that he “would be happy if one of these children could later become a missionary like Mr. Cornay was”. Augustin Bourry would confide later that from that day on he had strongly wished to respond to the call made by the priest.

Student Life and Learning Difficulties:

After his First Holy Communion, Bourry left school and was preparing to follow ion his father’s footsteps in a commercial career, when providence called him in a most sudden and unexpected way to a higher destiny. Several young priests from the Vendee had been struck by the lack of clergy in their diocese of Poitiers and were worried that in a not too distant future there would not be enough of them to ensure the continuation of the priesthood. They were very zealous and devoted and came up with the bright idea of creating small schools made of three clerics in their presbytery.

Bourry was the first to be chosen and he deserved to be for until now this admirable child had known no other activities than those of his home, the school, the presbytery and the church.

Young Bourry was 18 then and the effects of his early training was beginning to tell on him. His mind was paralysed by the many devotions he practised and he had practically lost all ability to develop an independent mind. He understood almost nothing at the seminary. His thinking was smothered by the heavy piety of his surroundings and he could not learn even the bare minimum needed to play the modest role of a country curate. His teachers were greatly discouraged.

In spite of his best efforts, the slowness of his intelligence did not allow him to make much progress in the acquisition of knowledge. He thus continued on the course of his studies with the greatest difficulties. The more the syllabus expanded, the more he fell behind. Things got so bad that the teachers of the minor seminary decided to send Bourry back to his parents with a formal advise that he should choose another career.

Seminary Life:

On his parents’ insistence, Bourry was admitted at the major seminary in Poitiers in 1848. While in the seminary he always dreamt of becoming a missionary. Sometimes he used to go blank with the overpowering thought of becoming a missionary. Many a nights in the seminary he could not sleep due to the thoughts of becoming a missionary.

Later, he would describe his condition to one of his colleagues as follows:“In my cell, during my work, I thought about it, and often, when I was writing, my pen suddenly stopped, and I thought of being a missionary. During recreation at the seminary, during the days spent at Mauron, when I took so much advantage of the rest to distract myself with recreation, I thought of being a missionary; at night I couldn't sleep because this thought was so strongly etched in my mind.”

The professors of the seminary mentioned that Augustin Bourry was passionate, very pious, very respectful and considerate with regard to his superiors, but reserved vis-à-vis his fellow students. With the help of his spiritual director, he managed to get rid of his scruples and free himself from his obsessions. Also, he could continue his studies at the major seminary of Poitiers.

Ordination and Missionary Appointment:

He was ordained a sub-deacon on the December 21, 1850 and deacon on July 4 , 1851 and on June 5 , 1852 Augustin was ordained a priest at Notre-Dame with five other seminarians, a deacon and three sub-deacons. The next day, the superior asks him to prepare for Korea , one of the most dangerous missions. Bourry, very satisfied with this destination, is forced to postpone his departure. Finally, the July 28 , 1852, he is sent to Tibet where Christianity is still quite unknown to help Krick who was alone there. In fact, this choice was mainly motivated by his experience as a nurse. This region of the world suffered from diseases that required urgent and appropriate care. The Abors, Mishmi and Tibetan tribes, with whom Nicolas Krick made contact, are in great need of health aid.

Crossing to India:

On August 12, 1852, many inhabitants of his parish made the trip to see him before his departure. Augustin Bourry was moved by this mark of attention on the occasion of his departure on mission. He took the train to Bordeaux with his colleagues from the congregation sent to India: Clovis Bolard, François Thirion, Jean-Denis David, François-Xavier Digard, Charles Dallet. They embarked on the Vallée-le-Luz. Augustin took with him books of English, Hindustani, Tibetan, a rifle and an accordion, all objects claimed by Nicolas Krick already in North India from where he intends to reach Tibet.

The trip was long and Augustin Bourry often suffered from seasickness. The Vallée-du-Luz anchors at the Cape of Good Hope on November 4, 1852. The crossing was also an opportunity for Augustin Bourry to share the life of people outside the Church, in particular the sailors whose religious practice is almost nil. The Vallée-du-Luz finally docked in Pondicherry, the first port of call in India, on the December 26 , 1852, after one hundred and twenty-four days of navigation. Bishop Bonnard welcomed the travellers.

Bourry discovered that the country and the tropical heat was too much. The nudity of the Indians, far from shocking him like that of the statues and paintings of La Madeleine, touched him.

On January 9, 1853, he set sail again for Madras . He stayed there from 14 toJanuary 30. On February 4, 1853, he went to Calcutta where the monks gave him a warm welcome. He continued on his way to Guwahati, where Louis Bernard, also from the Foreign Missions of Paris, was waiting for him. He falls ill and has to stay in bed for several days.

Mission to Lhasa:

The two missionaries, Krick and Bourry, were very aware of the dangers they run by going to Tibet. Nicolas Krick, still ill, wrote to the superiors of the Foreign Missions in Paris: “Everyone, and even the doctor this morning, told me that I would not recover until I left Assam for a while. But I tell them that if I get out of it, it will be for Tibet and not for Bengal. If I die another will replace me.”

The experiences of the first journey had made Fr. Krick more prudent about the preparations for this second joumey to Lhasa. Kroussa, the Mishmi chieftan, who had helped so generously in the first journey was ready to give his support for this next journey. He became the guide of the contingent. Fr. Krick already knew the dangers and fatigue that this journey would mean to him, yet he remained undaunted, and even the warning and the forebodings of the sages, would not deter this man of determination.

On 19th February 1854, Frs. Krick and Bourry, left Saikhoa intent on bringing the message of Christ to Lhasa, through the same route that Krick had formerly followed. Our few details of this journey are only from letters sent to different persons while they were travelling.

On February 24 , they realized that the route followed is too difficult, the current of the river was too fast. They made the rest of the way on foot. Another letter from May 10 , 1854sent from a village of the Mishmi tribe, it can be said that the two missionaries were not making much progress, that they were threatened by the tribes encountered who were trying to loot their baggage.

A letter of Fr. Bourry to his parents gives us some indication how he was facing this very trying situation. He writes quite pathetically, "For ninety days we have been on the move. We are walking barefooted since our shoes have been worn out in the hard going. I have a pair in my sack in very bad condition which I keep for the celebration of the Holy Mass. For two weeks we have been pushing through the forest, and the heavy under-growth makes the movement very slow, due principally to the torrential rain. Our breviaries, Bibles and the Imitation of Christ have been spoilt by the rain. Our diet is very meagre, for we cannot carry much, and so we are forced to limit ourselves to a handful of rice each meal. We are really under-nourished, and since we have no medicine or doctor with us, when we feel very ill, we lie near the fire and hope for the best. We suffer constantly from high fever, dysentery, rheumatism, and our blood seems to have been drained out by the leeches. The Good Lord is testing us, and He wants something great from us.”

One of the last letters from Fr. Krick was written from Somme, a small Tibetan village. This letter is more optimistic than other accounts given on the way. "Just fifteen minutes ago, we arrived here (Somme) a small Tibetan village. I remained about a week, when I was here last time. Our main preoccupation is what will the Government think about this venture of ours. Today is the feast of St. James the Apostle, and besides it is a Saturday, dedicated to Our Lady. How happy we feel after five months of travelling, through rugged country to reach the place where we hope to bring the message of Christ."

These few lines are taken from the last letter written by Fr. Krick to his superiors, and it is indeed a testament of fidelity to the Mission entrusted to Him by God. For months nothing was heard about the Missionaries, until the month of October. when a muffled rumour was spread about two Europeans, murdered in the Zayul Valley.

On July 25 , 1854, Krick and Bourry arrived in the first Tibetan village in Oualong, very exhausted by the trip. Augustin Bourry asked for medicine and complains about the harshness of their living conditions: “In our bags we have everything we need for Mass and hardly anything else. If providence were not by our side to console us among all these troubles and fatigues, I can tell you for sure that we would not survive”.

On July 29 , they arrived in Sommeu, a place where Krick had visited during his first missionary journey to Tibet. From here, he wrote a letter to his superiors, which became the last correspondence between the two missionaries and their superiors.

Martyrdom of Krick and Bourry:

Through out the Monsoon season, there was no communication between Assam and the Mishmi Hills. Fr. Bernard writing to Mr. Pingauli, who was away in Calcutta, tells him, "As I write these lines the dreaded thought of the death of my fellow missionaries is before my mind. Yesterday TshokingGohain, a tribal from the Mishmi regions informed me that there is a strong rumour that Frs. Krick and Bourry have been done away with by Kaisha, a Mishmi chieftain."

Later Fr. Bernard approached a Khamti leader to find out news about the two missing Missionaries, but very few details were known. Captain E. T. Dalton who was in charge of Lakhimpur District was told to enquire into the matter and sent a detailed report to Colonel F. Jenkins. Sometime later Dalton was able to find the coolies who had been carrying the kits of the missionaries, and they were able to give more complete details about the death of these two valiant missionaries.

Reason for the Killing:

There are many versions spoken of as the reason for the killing. Among many others, dislike and hatred towards the missionaries is said to be the primary reason that led to their killing. Kaisha Manyu, a Mismi chieftain, was angry with the missionaries for not taking his permission while crossing his village. He had lost his son, when the boy was drowned in Dibrugarh. The lad had been employed by the Government to guide a Tibetan Lama to Assam. While swimming in Dibrugrah, he was drowned accidently. Even though he was in the employment of the Government, the father never got any compensation for the boy. This made him angry and he was determined to take revenge.

When Kaisha met the missionaries, he was still very grieved over his son's sad death, and he told the missionaries, "You have to pay for this, otherwise I will kill both of you!" The missionaries told Kaisha that if he accompanied them to the Tibetan village, they would give him cloth and money in compensation for his son's death.

The missionaries visited two Tibetan villages, and while they were in the second village, another petty chieftain from another village came to beg the Fathers to go with him to help a sick man. The missionaries were ready to go anywhere. They went to the village, where the wife of the headman was ill, and they were able to effect a complete cure.

They waited in the village for some time, learning a little Tibetan, and trying to spread the Gospel, but then suddenly and unexpectedly Kaisha appeared. He was a very hard character and seemed to be determined about revenge. "Last time we met," he said, "You promised me cloth and some money. I have now come to get these."

Fr. Krick replied, "You did not help us to reach this village. and therefore we are by no means indebted to you."Kaisha left in a rage, but returned a few days later. Fr. Bourry was in bed. The people were coming to visit him, and people passed in and out of the hut, and so no one took any notice of the people who came and went.

One of the friends of Kaisha entered the hut and asked Fr. Bourry whether he was needing to buy rice. "No," replied the priest, “we have sufficient store for the time being. But as he said these words, the accomplices of this man bound Fr. Bourry hand and foot, and dragged him ruthlessly from the hut. At once Kaisha came and killed Fr. Bourry with his own long knife.

A coolie who was nearby was tied up to a tree, and he witnessed the death of Fr. Bourry and saw Fr. Krick lying in a pool of blood, with the blood oozing from his gaping wounds, moistening the earth of that place that he had been sent to convert with his own blood. One of the greatest witnesses to the authenticity of Christianity are the noble sons who have been ready to lay down their lives for Christ. The murderers robbed the missionaries of their positions, and threw the bodies in the jungle.

When the assassins had left the scene, the simple people feeling great sympathy for the missionaries, took their bodies and laid them to rest. Kaisha and his accomplices took the boy who had been working with the Fathers, to their own village, and he was kept there for some time. The Khamtis on hearing of the murder and being very disappointed with the whole affair, negotiated through a Taiong Mishmi, whose name was Lumling, for the return of the boy and the personal belongings of the missionaries.

The Mishmis returned to the Khamtis a silver chalice without a patten, a crucifix, a part of the white vestments for Mass, a black stole, a candle stick, a stethoscope and a gun. Later on Captain Dalton reported on the murder and made a statement, in which he believed that the cause of the murder was greed for money. He came to know from Fr. Bernard, that the missionaries had left Saikhoa with about Rs. 10,000.00, and goods and articles of exchange worth about Rs. 500.00. Probably through the servants, the Mishmi Chief had learned about this money and the goods they were carrying.

In his report of 1855, Mr. Needham stated that the missionaries had never asked Kaisha's permission to pass through his territory. This was also confirmed by the findings of Lieutenant Eden who made a report to the Government on the murder. While the missionaries went to their death, there remains a monument that bears elegant testimony to their zeal. Mr. Needham describes it in his report, "We went about a quarter of a mile towards the north from the village of the Mishmis, and reached an open place called, 'Ma-nak-re’. Here just at the border between the land of the Miju-Mishmis and Tibet, there is a cross formed by two large stones placed together. These two stones were placed there, as a memorial of their entrance into Tibet, to bring the message of Christ to the People.

A letter from the Superior General of the Seminary of Foreign Missions, while regretting the death of these two valiant young men, expressed his pride and joy that God had accepted the supreme sacrifice of their lives. He begged clemency and forgiveness for this crime. The sentence had already been passed when the letter reached the Government. Fr. Bernard had appealed to the Magistrate for a commutation of the sentence on the grounds of clemency. The sentence was commuted, but before long, Kaisha in a moment of temper killed one of the prison wardens with a chain, and for this crime he was executed.

As a conclusion to this work on the life and death of these missionaries, let us never forget these great hearts who planted the seed of Faith in Christ in the soil of the North-Eastern Region, and watered it with their blood."Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies it bears much fruit" (Jn. 12, 24).

Krick: A man of profound Spirituality

The early childhood formation in Lorraine gave Krick a faith which was strong, well baanced, natural and reasonable. He was convinced that purity is not found in separation from the world but in the quality of the infinite mercy of God who came not condemn but to save. He was convinced that God made man for happiness. He was convinced of the infinite mercy of God for all humanity. It is this thirst that led him to his missionary journey.

He wrote on the infinite love of God for man in a sermon: “Of all the creatures on earth, there is not one that God loves more than man…not onle does God prefer man to everything else there is on earth but he also prefers him to anything else in heaven.” He was convinced that a souls which has attained perfection is a thousand times more precious in the eyes of God than all his choirs of angels. He prayed to God for the grace to be a simple preacher who speaks from the heart and moves the people to God.

Krick: A man of Deep Faith

It was his deep faith that enabled Krick to face all the ordeals of the missionary vocation. His deep faith gave him the courage to endure till the end, to the point of death. Krick’s faith is very evident in his sermons. He writes, “I believe because God has spoken, because his apostles have spoken. I believe because the Church teaches me that I am a disciple in the school of humility. I believe because the universe believes, because it believes inspite of many conflicts. I believe because thousands of martyrs have sealed with their blood the truths which my faith offers me.”

Krick based his priestly vocation on a thorough examination of the articles of faith. This personal belief, free and convinced, was a doubtless part of the calm and almost phlegmatic ease which characterised his missionary personality. He was disciplined and his obedience never made him lose track of his free choice and his ability to take initiatives.

Krick’s Love for the Church

Krick had a great love for the Church and he wanted her to grow at all cost. It was his great missionary zeal that brought him to leave the comfort of France to preach the Gospel in Tibet. Krick knew deep in his heart that nothing in this world has motivated him to be a missionary but the command of the Lord “Go to the end of the world.”

His understanding of the true meaning of the Church is evident in his writings. He wanted the Church to be free from its external pomp and power. He writes in the background of the religious persecution in France: “Leaving the Church to itself was to put her back on to the hand of God, her maker. It was to give her back her original strength by which she had withstood the power of the world.”

Krick’s Missionary Zeal

Krick was first and foremost a missionary. Even though he was rather reserved in his spiritual life, a few lines from various parts of his writings speak volumes about his prayer life and his missionary preoccupations” “Wearing the cassock, surplice and stole, I knelt down on a rock to perform my devotions. A granite block did the duty as an altar on which I placed a crucifix, the Bible and the breviery. I implored the help of him who said ‘go to the end of the world.” Such was the missionary thirst of Krick who spared nothing to reach his goal of preaching the Word of God in the land of Tibet.

During his first journey to Tibet, as he halted in the village of Khroussa for the night, several chiefs gathers in Krick’s hut trying to persuade him to go no further. They argued that the Birtish, in spite of their presents, their soldiers and their arms had to turn back. How could he, without money and without any escort, have a chance of getting through? He would surely be killed. And Krick replied, “They will kill me, what more can they do? Death is nothing. I am a Priest and I belong to another nation.”

Krick had to spend the Christmas in the middle of the jungle as he was on the expedition to Tibet. Krick was deeply distressed by the hardships and he writes in his diary, “This Christmas I had to think about Bethlehem. After all Mary was just a young virgin, a weak girl, sick and delicate, just like me.”

Krick was convinced that the missionary vocation is a choice of great importance. In the case of a priest, missionary vocation is rooted in another vocation, that of the priesthood, of which it is the finest form. Krick had the daring characteristics of an adventurer and missionary but first and foremost he remained a priest, a man ordained to administer the sacraments, preach the Word of God and break the Bread of Life.

He was convinced that the Lord called him to leave the comforts of his parish community to take up the responsibility to give himself completely for the love of the Lord in the missions.

The Missionary Style of Krick

Krick’s missionary styler was different, that showed his own vulnerability, attracting the people with music, gaining their good will by health care, communicating with simple signs, gestures or physical contact, trying to understand their culture so as to introduce his religious message with the help of pictures and symbols. With such warm heartedness he could spontaneously touch people who were foreign to him. Krick also was a man of communication and he was particularly gifted at that. He immediately identified the tattooed crosses with the Christian cross. With simplicity Krick communicated with the local people. They were taken up by his charm and they wanted to take him with them.

Krick: A True Pastor

The pastoral care of Krick is seen from his personal follow up of the Christian community at Nowgong. In May 1851, before setting off for his first expedition to Tibet, Krick got the opportunity to assist the Christian Community at Nowgong, where they had been asking for a priest for several years. It took just over a month to put this little community back on their feet. He followed them up with heavy program. Everyday they had Morning Prayer together, Mass, classes for adults and catechism for children in English. He stayed at the house of doctor Pingault who was a Catholic. On July 13, 1851 he was able to organize first Holy Communion for four adults and six children with all the solemnity possible.

Thanks to his ability to adapt and to a spirit of cooperation which he had retained from his ministry in Lorraine, Nicolas Krick managed in a few weeks to give the abandoned community of Nowgong the warmth and unity of a real parish. Baptisms, marriages, education of children, etc., were taken care of. When the Catholic community asked for a set of rules to follow in their Christian life, Krick asked them to formulate their own rules and that he would approve them. This shows the open mindedness and the liberal attitude of Krick. The efficiency of his pastoral method was based on listening, dialogue and discretion.

Krick’s trust in Divine Providence

His trust in Divine Providence is evident in all the writings and expressions of Krick. He writes in his diary: “Here I am without a penny, without anything, what shall I do? Throw myself into the arms of God and sleep like a child.”

In the midst of death threat he went to sleep expecting a violent death. In the midst of all the agony from cheating and theft, he writes “I have fallen among men who are ready to devour me. From my death there is no escape but what shall I do let us sleep like a child trusting in the province of God.”

After his first expedition to Tibet, when he had to leave the country, he prayed for them. Krick writes: “They do not know whom they are allowing to leave. If they knew, they would run after me and bring me back in triumph. If they knew all the vows that I have taken to come to them and all that I have suffered, if they knew I was coming to bring good news, the Gospel, Heaven, happiness, light, the Real God, they would cry out: benedictus qui venit in nomine domini. But they do not know. Let us submit ourselves to God’s will. Let his name be blessed.

Krick’s Religious Obedience

Krick’s religious obedience is seen during their journey towards Tibet. He obeyed the superiors at Paris as well as Julien Rabin who was the local superior before him. At times the decisions of Rabin seemed irrational; even then he obeyed without complaining. In none of his letters to the Superiors in Paris he has written ill of his local superior or his unwise decisions.

Krick also was regular with his correspondence with the superiors in Paris when and where it was possible. He communicated to them of all the efforts he had made to reach Tibet and also the hardships. The superiors had confidence in Krick who had been very balanced in his decisions and outlook.

Bourry as a Priest and a Missionary

Augustin Bourry was endowed with a robust health and an exceptional vigour. He was known for his piety and his austerity. He had been dreaming of going to Korea where missionaries had a very tough time, but eventually his superiors decided to send him to Assam where some reinforcement was badly needed. He left Paris in August 1852 and reached Guwahati in March 1853. There was no one to welcome him. He proceeded alone to Saikhoa where he met Krick and, a few weeks later, met Bernard who had been doing some missionary work in the region of Nowgong.

Bourry was faithful in his prayer of the Breviary and the celebration of the Eucharist. He was very much concerned when his Breviary was damaged due to rain. His great love and reverence for the Eucharist is seen in one of his letters: “We have nothing in our bags except the things required for the celebration of Mass. All my shoes are ruined except for the pair which I keep for celebrating Holy Mass.”

Bourry’s Missionary Zeal

Bourry was ready to face any amount of hardships for the mission. He writes of his sufferings during the missionary journey with barefoot. He had the thirst for the mission land.

His missionary zeal coupled with complete trust and protection and providence of God. He trusted even when their future was uncertain. Upon his arrival in the Tibetan village, Sommeu, he writes: One day everything seems to be going according to the plan and the next day we are in the brink of death. But we stay here and work for His Glory so that He will thwart all the tricks of the devil and we will triumph.

Bourry: A missionary who accompanies

Augustine Bourry was a true missionary companion to Krick. Krick by nature was adventurous and strong and he could face all the hardships. But for Bourry, the journey, the people and the uncertainties were new. But he faced them with courage and accompanied Krick as a true follower. They remained together in Sommeu, taking care of the sick, becoming familiar with the language and customs. Beyond the differences which separated them, they had two things in common, medicine and music, and they reached out to as many as possible with these gifts

Posterity among the tribes of Arunachal Pradesh:

The government's policy to protect the tribes of Arunachal Pradesh involves banning missionaries from traveling to this region of India. It was not until 1978 that an Indian Salesian priest , Father Thomas Menamparampil , school principal, managed to visit the Mishmis at the invitation of one of the tribal chiefs. During this visit, the chief of the tribe and his members converted to Catholicism, thereby contributing to an extraordinary expansion of Christianity in the region. On August 2 , 1979, nine hundred and twenty-four members of the Noctes tribe request baptism.

Father Thomas Menamparampil then had a life of Nicolas Krick and Augustin Bourry written from the archives of the bishopric, which helped to strengthen devotion to the two missionaries, considered to be the founders of the Church of Arunachal Pradesh. In 1981, Thomas Menamparampil was appointed bishop of Dibrugarh and tried to organize the evangelization of the region. In 1983 , a school was opened, leading to progress in conversions.

Thomas Menamparampil renewed contact in 1991 with the Foreign Missions of Paris, who discovered the influence of Nicolas Krick and Augustin Bourry in the region. In 1993 , the first church was built in the region and was inaugurated in the presence of Mother Teresa , who supported theproject . The new Christians in the region are asking for the beatification of Nicolas Krick and Augustin Bourry, whose trial is in progress.

The Foreign Missions of Paris were then led to rediscover the two missionaries and to encourage the publication and distribution of the writings of Nicolas Krick on the life of the first mission to Northern Tibet. Historian Françoise Fauconnet-Buzelin published a book on the South Tibet mission in1999 , and a study of Nicolas Krick's diary was published in 2001 from the archives of the Paris Foreign Missions .

Process of recognition by the Church:

When Nicolas Krick and Augustine Bourry died, there were very few publications about their life. No hagiography is made and the research undertaken has only found their birth certificates and correspondence with clergymen of the time, the region having suffered heavy destruction during the Second World War.

Meticulous, Nicolas Krick keeps all his homilies, which he leaves to the Foreign Missions of Paris before his departure for Tibet. All of his homilies are preserved and published in volume 1311 of the archives of the Foreign Missions of Paris , made up of 747pages.

It was not until 1981, after the start of the conversion to Christianity of part of the Mishmis, that Father Thomas Menamparampil was appointed bishop of Dibrugarh. The desire to present Nicolas Krick and Augustin Bourry as “founders” of the local Church leads to talking about them and proposing them as models. A process of beatification is underway, opened by the local bishop Thomas Menamparampil.

Non-spiritual posterity - Nicolas Krick's Travel Diary:

During his mission in Tibet, Nicolas Krick wrote two scientific (and non-religious) reports which he sent to France. These two reports turn out to be important for the knowledge of Tibet which was then relatively incomplete.

The second report was written in March 1853 after his trip to the Abors; it is intended for his professor of medicine at the Necker hospital . These two reports are partially published in the Annals for the Propagation of the Faith which, from the outset, warn against the original or unconventional character of the writings of this religious. Nicolas Krick describes things with humour, something relatively rare on the part of a missionary, the missionaries seeking rather to produce edifying writings than to scientific scope.

The interest of these works pushed the persons in charge of the Foreign Missions of Paris to publish a more complete version in 1854 under the title Relation of a voyage to Tibet by Krick.In 1900 , Adrien Launay reproduced large extracts from Nicolas Krick's reports in his history of the Tibet mission. And this work by Alain Launay serves as a basis for subsequent research. Extracts from the Relation of a trip to Tibet also published in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1913, thus allowing English ethnologists and explorers to become acquainted with the writings of Nicolas Krick. Krick is one of the oldest sources of Western origin for North East India specialists. In 2001, the archives of the Foreign Missions of Paris published Tibet Terre Promise. The diary of Nicolas Krick: missionary and explorer (1851-1852), by Juliette Buzelin. In 2014, an Indian novelist, Mamang Dai, published a fictionalized biography titled The Black Hill based on Krick's letters.

Scientific contribution of Nicolas Krick:

Nicolas Krick's motivations are diverse. The first of these is the evangelization of the peoples at the same time as the desire to provide future missions with information on the country.

His activity as a missionary in Tibet gave him the opportunity to gather information on a region then completely unknown to Europeans, and to disseminate it. Those which take place in its reports make it possible to draw up a general picture of the country, even if this one is not complete. He is interested in geology and climate although he did not have an altimeter allowing precise measurements.

The description of the Mishmis allows us to see the influence of French culture on Nicolas Krick: the 19th century was marked by the desire to classify men according to "races". Nicolas Krick used the language of the time, seeking to classify the different races present during these expeditions. Nevertheless, he seems more influenced by the philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau : European superiority is not linked to race, but to the ability of men to organize themselves into society. Nicolas Krick notes a filiation of the Mishmis with the Chinese and is surprised at the behavior of the Mishmis tribes among themselves who consider themselves “not friends”.

He also described the functioning of the Tibetan government, the collection of taxes, the religious organization; he calls into question the authors who, prior to his observations, see in the Tibetan religion the copy of Catholicism. He describes the religious ceremonies, the Tibetan habits and customs, then poorly known to Westerners, and analyses the social relations of the Tibetans, their games.

The set of scientific elements transmitted by Nicolas Krick, very descriptive, noted during his exploration, makes it one of the references for ethnologists specializing in present-day Arunachal Pradesh: English books dealing with the peoples of northern India quote his name and his writings translated into English. The interest of his diary is all the greater since the Mishmis have no written tradition, and Nicolas Krick's diary is therefore one of the traces of their history.

In 1954 , the English ethnologist Verrier Elwin paid homage to Nicolas Krick in an article published in The illustrated Weekly of India on November 7 , 1954.

Books used for writing this Biography:

• Mamang Dai, The Black Hill, New Delhi, ALEPH, April 2014, pages 1-296.
• Évariste Régis Huc, Christianity in China, Tartary and Tibet,1858, pages 1-476.
• Françoise Fauconnet-Buzelin, The Bearers of Hope, The South Tibet Mission: (1848-1854), Condé-sur-Noireau, CERF, April 1999, pages 1- 256.
• Juliette Buzelin , Tibet Promised Land The Diary of Nicolas Krick: Missionary and Explorer (1851-1852), Archives of the Foreign Missions, Churches of Asia – History Series, coll. “Studies and documents”, December 2001, pages 1-311.
• Laurent Deshayes, Tibet (1846 - 1952): The Missionnaires of the Impossible, Les Indes savantes, 2008, pages 1-311.
• Gilles van Grasdorff, Discovering Asia with the Foreign Missions, vol. III, Paris, Omnibus, 2008, pages 1-999.
• Françoise Fauconnet-Buzelin, Mission unto Martyrdom: the Amazing Story of Nicolas Krick and Agustine Bourry, the First Martyrs of Arunachal Pradesh , Don Bosco Center for Indigenous Cultures, December 2001, pages 1-271.
• Adrien Launay, History of the Tibet Mission, vol. 1, Paris, Paris Foreign Missions, 2001.
• JP Verriest, Revue catholique: religious, philosophical, scientific, historical collection, 1854, pages 1-767.