1929 - Sadhu Sundar Singh

June 1929

Tibet

Sundar Singh.

Sundar Singh, the son of a wealthy Sikh landowner, was born in Patiala state of North India in 1889. Considering his background, nobody would have guessed that this man would one day be remembered as the most famous Indian evangelist of the early 20th century. As a young man, Sundar’s mother took him every week to sit at the feet of a sadhu—an ascetic Hindu holy man—who lived in a remote forest. When their son was old enough, however, his parents wanted the best for Sundar so they sent him to a Christian school run by missionaries, so that he could learn English. When Singh was 14 his mother suddenly died. This tragedy plunged the teenager into deep despair and violence at anything to do with religion. He began to hate the missionaries,

“persecuted their Christian converts, and ridiculed their faith. In final defiance of their religion, he bought a Bible and burned it page by page in his home compound while his friends watched. The same night he went to his room determined to commit suicide on a railway line.

However, before dawn, he wakened his father to announce that he had seen Jesus Christ in a vision and heard His voice. Henceforth he would follow Christ forever, he declared.”[1]

Singh later shared what happened on that night when he decided to kill himself:

“Jesus came into my room. As I was praying for the last time a bright cloud of light suddenly filled the room…and out of the brightness came the face and figure of Jesus. He spoke to me…. ‘How long will you persecute Me? I have come to save you. You were praying to know the right way; why do you not take it? I am the Way.’ He spoke in Hindustani, and He spoke to me.”[2]

Sundar Singh’s father and other family members did not share the excitement of his newfound faith. His enraged father, Sher Singh, held a ‘farewell feast’ where he publicly disowned Sundar, pronouncing him “dead.” Several hours after the feast Sundar was violently ill and realized he had been poisoned by his own family. He rushed to a nearby Christian hospital and his life was spared.

On his 16th birthday, Singh was publicly baptized at Simla in north India. A year later, in October 1906, he shocked everyone by appearing in a yellow robe and turban—the dress of a sadhu. He declared, “I am not worthy to follow in the steps of my Lord, but, like Him, I want no home, no possessions. Like Him I will belong to the road, sharing the sufferings of my people, eating with those who will give me shelter, and telling all men of the love of God.”[3]

In his formative Christian years Singh became close friends with a British missionary named Charles Andrews. Singh’s zeal for the things of God soon became legendary. He was known to pray several hours each day and to fast for weeks at a time. He took a vow of poverty and decided to hold nothing back from the cause of Christ. His travels not only took him to Hindu, Muslim and Buddhist settlements throughout the Himalayas, but also to Europe, America, Australia and various Asian countries where he spoke to large audiences. On one trip, while still a teenager, Singh walked barefoot through fanatical Muslim territories in the Punjab, Kashmir, Afghanistan, and through parts of the present-day Pakistan. In all the places Singh went he wore the garments of a sadhu. Soon after the start of his ministry, Christians gave Singh the nickname, “the apostle with the bleeding feet.” On a number of occasions, he reported being helped by angels, and the only word to describe some of his escapes from death is miraculous.

On many occasions he was arrested, beaten, and stoned. He faced incredible hardship, yet he carried on, a trophy of God’s grace in one of the harshest spiritual climates in the world. There were many admirers of Sadhu Sundar Singh, but also many critics. For many of the missionaries in India his ways were just too radical to embrace. Those who enjoyed safe Christianity felt threatened by the intensity of his commitment and his methods of operation. Missionaries persuaded Singh to enrol at a Bible college in Lahore, so that he would be “equipped for the ministry.” He graduated and was ordained, but in 1911 he had a change of heart. He handed back his preacher’s license and returned to the simple life of a sadhu.

The mysterious Tibet had attracted Singh since he was a young boy, and he made his first preaching trip there in 1908. In 1912 he decided to preach the gospel for several months each summer in Tibet, Nepal, and areas along the Northern India border. He encountered much opposition in these dark places, and many attempts were made on his life. The methods of torture included being sewn into a wet yak skin and left in the sun to be squeezed to death as the skin tightened; being smothered with cloth filled with leeches and scorpions to sting him and suck his blood; and being tied to a tree overnight as bait for wild animals.[4] On one occasion Singh reached a Tibetan town called Razar. He was arrested for illegally entering the country, and the head lama sentenced him to death. Buddhists are forbidden to take life, so the lama had Singh cast into a well, and the iron cover locked until he had perished. The smell of the putrid water made the evangelist’s soul recoil, for

“The bottom of it was covered with dead men’s bones and rotting flesh, and the stench was almost overwhelming…. It was far worse than anything he had ever experienced before…. He was in that well for two days and nights, and on the third day he heard a sound above. The cover of the well was being removed and then a rope was let down and a voice told him to take hold of it…. As he breathed in [the fresh air] he felt himself strangely revived… But he was alone. There was no sign of his rescuer….

The following day, back in the village, news reached the head lama that the sadhu who had been thrown down the well was out and about again preaching. Again Sundar was brought before him. How had he escaped, the head lama demanded, but all Sundar could tell him was what had happened, and that he had seen no one. Furiously the lama asserted that someone must have stolen the key to the well, and ordered that a search be made for it. No one was more taken aback than he when it was eventually found on his own girdle.”[5]

By the early 1920s Singh’s health was beginning to deteriorate from the hardships he had endured, even though he was only in his early 30s. He made another trip to Tibetan areas in 1923 and came back exhausted. For the next several years he continued to minister, refusing to belong to any denomination or to start one himself. During these years he turned his hand to writing books. These encountered great success, being translated into numerous languages. In 1927 he again attempted to enter Tibet, but was forced to return due to illness.

Finally, in June 1929, he disappeared while inside Tibet and was never seen again.[6] He had told friends of his intention to go back to the Mount Kailash area, and to possibly visit Razar, the town east of Lake Manasarowar where he had been thrown into the well years before. Singh had heard there were a few Christians living there, and he wanted to go and see if it were true.

Just how Sadhu Sundar Singh died remains a mystery, but rumours circulated that he had been put to death by enraged Buddhist monks.

1. John Woodbridge (ed.), More than Conquerors: Portraits of Believers from all Walks of Life (Chicago: Moody Bible Institute, 1992), 148.
2. Cyril J. Davey, The Story of Sadhu Sundar Singh (Chicago: Moody Press, 1963), 32-33.
3. Woodbridge, More than Conquerors, 148.
4. Many books have been written on Singh’s life, including A. J. Appasamy, Sundar Singh (Cambridge: Lutterworth, 1958); Dayanandan Francis (ed.), The Christian Witness of Sadhu Sundar Singh (Alresford: Christian Literature Crusade, 1989); Burnett Streeter & A. J. Appasamy, The Sadhu: a Study in Mysticism and Practical Religion (London: Macmillan, 1923); Janet Lynn Watson, The Saffron Robe (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1975); Davey, The Story of Sadhu Sundar Singh; T. E. Riddle, Vision and Call: A Life of Sadhu Sundar Singh (New Zealand: Presbyterian Church of New Zealand, 1950); and Phyllis Thompson, Sadhu Sundar Singh: A Biography of the Remarkable Indian Holy Man and Disciple of Jesus Christ (Carlisle: OM Books, 1992).
5. Thompson, Sadhu Sundar Singh, 75-76.
6. Whether Singh died while inside today’s Tibet, or in Tibetan areas on the Indian side of the border, has never been determined. He was last seen passing through Simla in today’s Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, heading towards the Tibetan border. Tibet proper, and especially the capital city of Lhasa, had long been his goal. Is it known that he managed to three times go as far as Mount Kailash and Lake Manasarowar, inside today’s Tibet Autonomous Region.