Unknown
Carte-de-visite of Josiah Nelson Cushing, a notable American missionary, with 3 "Native teachers" of Shan, northern Burma, 1869
Albumen print
4 x 2 1/2 inches
With notations and date in pencil verso.
With notations and date in pencil verso.
Doctor Josiah Nelson Cushing was a Baptist missionary and religious scholar who translated the Shan Bible. The details of his life have been pieced together from the diaries, letters, and...
Doctor Josiah Nelson Cushing was a Baptist missionary and religious scholar who translated the Shan Bible. The details of his life have been pieced together from the diaries, letters, and articles he wrote for religious magazines.
Born in North Attleboro, Massachusetts, in 1840, he studied at the Opalic Institute at East Attleboro and graduated Brown University in 1862. In1865, he was assigned by the Baptist Missionary Union to work in Myanmar (then-Burma) with the Shan people, an ethnic-minority who are part of broad tribal group known as the ‘Tai’ people, which emerged from Southwest China and settled in the country around a thousand years ago.
He married in 1866 and left for Burma with his wife a year later, where he studied the Shan language and began translating the Gospel. The Cushings briefly left for health reasons in 1874 and returned to Burma in 1876. He continued his missionary duties until 1880 and returned to the U.S. with his wife and son. Having finished his translation of the Bible, Cushing returned to Burma on his own in 1886 and became principal of the Baptist College and Pastor of the Church in Rangoon. Dr. Cushing died on May 17, 1905 at 65 years old. By the time of his passing, Cushing had established the college with a full staff and financial backing which still stands today as part of the oldest university in Myanmar, the University of Yangon. Beyond his translation of the Bible, he had written a Shan and English dictionary, grammar book, and two texts on Buddhism.
Born in North Attleboro, Massachusetts, in 1840, he studied at the Opalic Institute at East Attleboro and graduated Brown University in 1862. In1865, he was assigned by the Baptist Missionary Union to work in Myanmar (then-Burma) with the Shan people, an ethnic-minority who are part of broad tribal group known as the ‘Tai’ people, which emerged from Southwest China and settled in the country around a thousand years ago.
He married in 1866 and left for Burma with his wife a year later, where he studied the Shan language and began translating the Gospel. The Cushings briefly left for health reasons in 1874 and returned to Burma in 1876. He continued his missionary duties until 1880 and returned to the U.S. with his wife and son. Having finished his translation of the Bible, Cushing returned to Burma on his own in 1886 and became principal of the Baptist College and Pastor of the Church in Rangoon. Dr. Cushing died on May 17, 1905 at 65 years old. By the time of his passing, Cushing had established the college with a full staff and financial backing which still stands today as part of the oldest university in Myanmar, the University of Yangon. Beyond his translation of the Bible, he had written a Shan and English dictionary, grammar book, and two texts on Buddhism.