Zenas Sanford Loftis (11 May 1881 - 12 August 1909) was an American
physician
A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...
who worked briefly as a
medical missionary
Medical missions is the term used for Christian missionary endeavors that involve the administration of medical treatment. As has been common among missionary efforts from the 18th to 20th centuries, medical missions often involves residents of th ...
in
Batang, a largely
Tibet
Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...
an town in
Sichuan Province
Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...
of West China. His photography and published diary contained accounts of culture, religious traditions, and the geography of China and Tibet.
Albert Shelton
Albert Leroy Shelton (1875-1922) was an American medical doctor and a Protestantism, Protestant missionary in Tibet, especially in Batang, Sichuan, Batang in the Kham region of eastern Tibet, from 1903 until 1922. He authored a popular book about ...
, the head of the Batang mission, wrote that Loftis "was a man who loved all the beauties of nature and was able to see God on every hand." He believed that Loftis would be a capable replacement for him when he and his family went on furlough to the United States. Upon arrival in June 1909, Loftis accepted the responsibility of the mission's dispensary until his death two months later from
typhus fever
Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposure.
...
and
smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...
.
Early life
Zenas Sanford Loftis was born in
Gainesboro, Tennessee
Gainesboro is a town in Jackson County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 920 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Jackson County.
Gainesboro is part of the Cookeville, Tennessee Micropolitan Statistical Area.
History
T ...
as the son of James H. Loftis and Nancy Eveline Loftis. The Loftis family moved onto a farm in rural Kansas when Loftis was seven years of age and later moved to central
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
where Zenas developed his skills in photography and the printer's trade. In 1894 Loftis became a
Christian
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
and soon after began his involvement in his local church.
When Loftis was 18, his father died from health complications with
paralysis
Paralysis (also known as plegia) is a loss of motor function in one or more muscles. Paralysis can also be accompanied by a loss of feeling (sensory loss) in the affected area if there is sensory damage. In the United States, roughly 1 in 50 ...
. He entered
Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1-million ...
a year later in the Department of
Pharmacy
Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it links heal ...
and graduated in 1901 while winning the prestigious Founders' medal.
Missionary work
Calling
Loftis's calling to the life of a medical missionary came about in
St. Louis
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
while performing slum mission work and teaching Chinese Sunday-school.
He was inspired by the work of
Susanna Carson Rijnhart whose husband and child died while on an expedition in Tibet.
In response to this calling, Loftis moved to
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the List of muni ...
to earn a medical degree within Vanderbilt University's Department of Medicine.
Throughout his studies, Loftis prayed to God "that he might be sent to the most difficult and needy field in all the world" and "wanted to go where no one else was willing to go."
In 1906, Loftis was sent by Vanderbilt University to the Southern Student's
Y.M.C.A conference in
Asheville, North Carolina
Asheville ( ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Buncombe County, North Carolina. Located at the confluence of the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers, it is the largest city in Western North Carolina, and the state's 11th-most populous cit ...
where Loftis first heard of plans to establish a mission in Batang.
Appointment
In 1903, Dr.
Susanna Carson Rijnhart, Dr.
Albert Shelton
Albert Leroy Shelton (1875-1922) was an American medical doctor and a Protestantism, Protestant missionary in Tibet, especially in Batang, Sichuan, Batang in the Kham region of eastern Tibet, from 1903 until 1922. He authored a popular book about ...
, and his wife, Flora Shelton, were sent by the
Foreign Christian Missionary Society
Foreign Christian Missionary Society (FCMS) was a Christian missionary society established by the Disciples of Christ.Douglas Allen Foster and Anthony L. Dunnavant, ''The Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement: Christian Church (Disciples of ...
(FCMS) to open a mission in Tibet.
However, in 1907 Rijnhart departed due to health problems.
After learning of Rijnhart's departure from the mission on the border of
Tibet
Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...
, Loftis applied for and was appointed to the mission in Batang by the FCMS in January 1908.
Journey
![SS Mongolia](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/SS_Mongolia.jpg)
Loftis's route from the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
to
Tibet
Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...
required that he make stops at
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
,
Honolulu
Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...
,
Yokohama
is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of To ...
,
Nagasaki
is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan.
It became the sole port used for trade with the Portuguese and Dutch during the 16th through 19th centuries. The Hidden Christian Sites in the ...
,
Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...
, and
Nanjing
Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and the second largest city in the East China region. T ...
.
After reaching Nanjing, Loftis had to travel up the
Yangtze River
The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest list of rivers of Asia, river in Asia, the list of rivers by length, third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in th ...
, pass through
Hankou
Hankou, alternately romanized as Hankow (), was one of the three towns (the other two were Wuchang and Hanyang) merged to become modern-day Wuhan city, the capital of the Hubei province, China. It stands north of the Han and Yangtze Rivers wher ...
,
Yichang
Yichang (), alternatively romanized as Ichang, is a prefecture-level city located in western Hubei province, China. It is the third largest city in the province after the capital, Wuhan and the prefecture-level city Xiangyang, by urban populati ...
,
Chungking
Chongqing ( or ; ; Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Chungking (), is a municipality in Southwest China. The official abbreviation of the city, "" (), was approved by the State Counc ...
,
Luchau,
Kiating,
Tachienlu
Kangding (), also called Tachienlu and Dartsedo (; ), is a county-level city and the seat of Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan province of Southwest China. Kangding is on the bank of the Dadu River and has been considered the histor ...
, and
Litang to reach Batang.
He boarded the
SS Mongolia on September 15, 1908 and left the United States, never to return.
He wrote in his diary that he felt "no sorrow in
isheart" as the country held "all that was dear to
imexcept
iswork.
Experience of Chinese and Tibetan culture
As he traveled through China and eastern Tibet, Loftis recorded his observations of the cultural landscape, providing context to many of the customs and historical landmarks that he encountered. On the way to Nanjing, he described the "thousands of graves" that covered the fields and detailed the cultural and historical context behind the "great stone statues" that lay along the road that he traveled. Along the Yangtze River, Loftis observed an "artificial cave" home to an ancient "aboriginal race" and entered one of them, concluding that they were "the first dwellings" of Tibetan ancestors. He also recorded histories of the
Purple Mountain Purple Mountain may refer to:
China
* Purple Mountain (Nanjing), a mountain in Nanjing, Jiangsu
Ireland
* Purple Mountain (Kerry), a mountain in County Kerry
United States
* Purple Mountain (Alaska), a mountain in Alaska
* Purple Peak (Col ...
,
Omei Shan, and a bridge that hovered over the Tong River.
![Loftis in a Coracle](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/Loftis_in_a_Coracle.png)
Loftis said that the
religious icons
An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Catholic churches. They are not simply artworks; "an icon is a sacred image used in religious devotion". The most c ...
of the Tibetan people were numerous, and described "
shrine
A shrine ( la, scrinium "case or chest for books or papers"; Old French: ''escrin'' "box or case") is a sacred or holy sacred space, space dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor worship, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, Daemon (mythology), daem ...
s with many
prayer wheel
A prayer wheel is a cylindrical wheel () on a spindle made from metal, wood, stone, leather, or coarse cotton, widely used in Tibet and areas where Tibetan culture is predominant.
Traditionally, a mantra is written in Ranjana script or Tibeta ...
s and idols."
He listened to the "chanting prayers of lamas" and looked at "devout Tibetans" whirling "prayer drums ... thus offering millions of prayers in one second." Loftis stumbled upon one prayer drum with "some half million or more written mani prayers."
Loftis was a harsh critic of the Tibetan people's Buddhist traditions. He wrote, "It struck chills to my heart when I saw these deluded wretches groping so blindly in the dark for help from a higher power." Loftis visited the large Litang monastery and its Holy Temple. He interacted with an abbot in Litang who was said to be "a Living
Buddha
Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a śramaṇa, wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism.
According to Buddhist tradition, he was ...
" and from whom Loftis learned about the
Kangyur
The Tibetan Buddhist canon is a loosely defined collection of sacred texts recognized by various schools of Tibetan Buddhism, comprising the Kangyur or Kanjur ('Translation of the Word') and the Tengyur or Tanjur (Tengyur) ('Translation of Treat ...
.
Loftis also highlighted the major health hazards found throughout the country. He stated in his diary that they did not "know what a sewer is, so everything that is waste
asthrown into the streets." He described a Chinese as having "four verminous beds" with "inevitable foul smelling pits of human refuse. Conditions were similar in Tibet where Loftis encountered inns that were "dirty and foul beyond belief." Along the
Yalong River
The Yalong River ( zh, 雅砻江, Pinyin, p ''Yǎlóngjiāng'', Wade–Giles, w ''Ya-lung Chiang'', Help:IPA/Mandarin, IPA ), or Nyag Chu (Standard Tibetan, Tibetan: , Tibetan pinyin, z ''Nyag Qu''), is a major tributary ...
, he described an inn which had "cracks in the walls" that were "filled with their eggs and larva" in addition to the presence of "bedbugs, fleas, and lice."
Loftis also criticized the "superstitious" nature of the Chinese. One night "they make a lot of noise with drums and gongs all night to keep the devils off." As he was traveling up the Yangtze River, he writes that the "Chinese believe the river to be infested with devils." Loftis characterized himself as a "foreign devil" as a crowd was staring as he ate his food with "knives and forks."
Healthcare
Loftis visited the Christian missions that he passed by on the way to the Batang mission, and wrote about their progress and conditions.
He noted that many of the stations were "terribly undermanned" and regretted that "he could not multiply himself into a hundred" to aid the missions.
He also treated patients along the way to Batang. On the road, he treated a man who attempted to commit an
opium
Opium (or poppy tears, scientific name: ''Lachryma papaveris'') is dried latex obtained from the seed capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, which i ...
suicide and was received with "profuse thanks" for his work. While traveling up the Yangtze River, he diagnosed and remedied a case of
malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...
, allowing him the opportunity to "make a demonstration of the power of foreign medicine." In Yachow, he treated a case of opium in a young girl. Near one of the Tibetan villages, he alleviated the pain of a "contused and swollen" sclera conjunctiva."
In Tachienlu, he performed an amputation on part of a finger.
Batang mission
Loftis reached the Batang mission on June 17, 1909, after a journey of ten months from his home in the United States to Batang.
He was welcomed at the mission by Dr. Albert Shelton and James Ogden and their wives.
Albert Shelton left the responsibility of the mission's dispensary to Loftis while Shelton and Ogden were on an extended trip south of Batang. Loftis treated patients around the area in whatever capacity was needed including attending to
dislocations
In materials science, a dislocation or Taylor's dislocation is a linear crystallographic defect or irregularity within a crystal structure that contains an abrupt change in the arrangement of atoms. The movement of dislocations allow atoms to sl ...
,
opium
Opium (or poppy tears, scientific name: ''Lachryma papaveris'') is dried latex obtained from the seed capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, which i ...
overdose,
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...
, skin
lacerations
A wound is a rapid onset of injury that involves lacerated or punctured skin (an ''open'' wound), or a contusion (a ''closed'' wound) from blunt force trauma or compression. In pathology, a ''wound'' is an acute injury that damages the epiderm ...
,
pediatrics
Pediatrics ( also spelled ''paediatrics'' or ''pædiatrics'') is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, paediatrics covers many of their youth until th ...
, and
smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...
. Loftis noted that the Tibetan people "knew nothing about dislocations," and a man with a dislocated shoulder whom Loftis had treated "praised the skill of the foreign doctor." He treated "between five and six hundred people."
Death
![Grave of Zenas Sanford Loftis](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/Grave_of_Zenas_Sanford_Loftis.jpg)
Not long after Loftis's arrival at the Batang mission, he told his colleagues that he was not feeling well.
Dr.
Albert Shelton
Albert Leroy Shelton (1875-1922) was an American medical doctor and a Protestantism, Protestant missionary in Tibet, especially in Batang, Sichuan, Batang in the Kham region of eastern Tibet, from 1903 until 1922. He authored a popular book about ...
noted that Loftis had attended to two patients with smallpox and suspected that Loftis may have caught the disease.
Although Loftis was vaccinated, his condition gradually worsened. Shelton observed that his smallpox "was raging everywhere."
Loftis inherited
Typhus fever
Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposure.
...
while battling
smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...
, which only exacerbated his condition.
Unable to obtain a vaccine, Shelton isolated himself with his colleague until Loftis perished at the age of 28 at four o' clock one afternoon.
Loftis was buried next to the grave of William Soutter, a Christian missionary.
Loftis's grave faces the road to
Lhasa
Lhasa (; Lhasa dialect: ; bo, text=ལྷ་ས, translation=Place of Gods) is the urban center of the prefecture-level city, prefecture-level Lhasa (prefecture-level city), Lhasa City and the administrative capital of Tibet Autonomous Regio ...
, the capital of Tibet.
Engraved on his grave is the quote, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."
In addition, the third stanza from the poem
Break, Break, Break
"Break, Break, Break" is a poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson written during early 1835 and published in 1842. The poem is an elegy that describes Tennyson's feelings of loss after Arthur Henry Hallam died and his feelings of isolation while at Mablet ...
by
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of his ...
is written in
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
,
Tibetan
Tibetan may mean:
* of, from, or related to Tibet
* Tibetan people, an ethnic group
* Tibetan language:
** Classical Tibetan, the classical language used also as a contemporary written standard
** Standard Tibetan, the most widely used spoken dial ...
, and
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...
on Loftis's tomb.
Legacy
The other missionaries in Batang named Loftis Memorial Hospital in his honor. Dr. William M. Hardy replaced Loftis, and more missionaries followed over the next 20 years. In 1932, the missionaries abandoned Batang due to tensions and violence between Tibet and China, a lack of funds, and internal dissention in the mission.
When Loftis reached Sanba en route to the Batang mission, he came across the grave of the Christian Missionary William Soutter. After seeing the grave, Loftis wrote in his diary, "O my Master, if it is Thy will that I fill a lonely grave in this land, may it be one that will be a landmark, and an inspiration to others, and may I go to do it willingly, if it is Thy will." His desires manifested themselves postmortem as the Foreign Christian Missionary and other organizations used Loftis's story in their published literature to recruit medical missionaries. His observations of China and Tibet were a contribution to the knowledge of the western world about a remote region.
See also
*
Christianity in Tibet
The main religion in Tibet has been Buddhism since its outspread in the 8th century AD. the historical region of Tibet (the areas inhabited by ethnic Tibetans) is mostly comprised in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) of China and partly in the ...
*
Protestantism in Sichuan
The Protestant mission began in the Chinese province of Sichuan (formerly romanized as Szechwan, Szechuan, or Ssuchuan; also referred to as "West China" or "Western China") in 1877, when premises were rented by the China Inland Mission in Chungki ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Loftis, Zenas Sanford
1881 births
1909 deaths
Vanderbilt University alumni
American Protestant missionaries
People from Gainesboro, Tennessee
Christian medical missionaries
Protestant missionaries in Sichuan
Protestant missionaries in Tibet
American expatriates in China
19th-century American businesspeople
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)