p. 27 | Mixtures of Races and Religions in Sumatra

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 3, 1910

Mixtures of Races and Religions in Sumatra.

By Bernard Judge

In Padang, the capital, we have the Malay proper, some Bataks from north Sumatra, and the Nias, of an adjoining island. Then there are the immigrant Chinese, and the Babas, born of Chinese fathers and Malay mothers, and speaking Malay as their mother tongue. The Chinese proper are Buddhists, Shintoists, or Confucianists in theory, but their real religion is ancestor worship.

Then there are the Tamils, Japanese, and Arabs, the latter being the ones who brought to this country Mohammedanism, which is the religion of the Malays. Mohammedanism is a faith that denies the Trinity, but contains some truth, and in theory teaches many great truths. But the truths it does hold are held in unrighteousness. The result of such a religion is to make the people who accept it more bigoted, more cruel, and more wicked than before its acceptance. Such is the condition of the people among whom we have come to labor in this field.

BERNARD JUDGE.

Padang.