1922 - Albert Shelton

February 17, 1922

Batang, Sichuan

Albert Shelton.

Albert L. Shelton is remembered as a prince of Protestant missionaries among the Tibetans in the 20th century. Not long after arriving at the remote town of Batang, which straddled the border between Tibet and China in western Sichuan Province, Shelton and his wife decided to adopt a destitute half-Chinese, half-Tibetan orphan boy they saw living on the street near their home. They raised him with love and care, treating him as an equal with their two biological daughters born on the mission field.

Dr. Shelton was a member of the Foreign Christian Mission Society. On one occasion a Tibetan leper knelt on the floor before Shelton as a way to show his appreciation for the doctor’s help. Shelton took hold of the man’s arm and helped him to his feet, firmly saying, “Get up from there. We do not allow anyone to get down on their knees to us. Before God, one man is no more and no less than another, whether he is a beggar or leper or no matter who he is.”[1] This attitude helped Albert Shelton be at ease with everyone he met—government officials, Buddhist lamas, or peasants.

Shelton’s dream was to establish a hospital in Lhasa, the capital and spiritual stronghold of the Tibetan Buddhist world. For years he tried to send a message to the Dalai Lama, seeking permission to travel to Lhasa and set up a medical clinic there. The Dalai Lama responded, “I know of your work and that have come a long way to do good. I will put no straw in your way.”[2] Before he could start out for Lhasa the political situation in Tibet deteriorated and bandits ruled the countryside.

In 1920, while travelling from Batang to Kunming with his wife and two daughters, Shelton was kidnapped by bandits who demanded a ransom of $25,000 for his release. The rest of his family, although badly shaken, were allowed to go free. Hauled off into the mountains, Shelton was held for 72 days. During the whole time he refused to cooperate with his captors’ demands, telling them, “You can kill me or whatever you wish but I will not be ransomed.”[3] At the same time Shelton lovingly treated the sick and wounded bandits, and gradually they came to view him as their friend. After more than ten weeks in captivity, Shelton’s body was so emaciated that he was unable to stand up. The bandits “left him by the side of the road where they knew he would be found by the government troops who had been following them.”[4]

After being reunited with his grateful wife and daughters, Shelton again started to plan the long and dangerous journey to Lhasa, at the invitation of the Dalai Lama. The bandits who had kidnapped him one year before heard about his intended journey, and devised plans to kidnap the missionary again. This time their intention was to keep him as their doctor. In February 1922 he started on the trip with three Tibetan companions. On the 16th the other missionaries at Batang were told that a group of about 20 bandits had ambushed and shot Shelton at a low pass just six miles (10 km) from Batang.

Russell Morse and Dr. Hardy rushed to the pass and found Shelton unconscious. They gave him an injection of morphine and carried him back to Batang. His colleagues did all they could to revive him, but at 12:45 in the morning of February 17th, Albert Shelton passed to glory. The small missionary community was grief stricken. One of their members wrote, “His death was a great blow, piercing the very heart of the mission. He was truly an outstanding evangelist, and a tireless physician and surgeon. But more than this, he was our encourager, our joy, our constant inspiration.”[5]

Albert Shelton with the Head Lama of Batang.

An historian later summarized the stellar contribution Shelton made to the Protestant missionary enterprise among the Tibetans:

“Skilled as a surgeon, fluent in Tibetan, compassionate in his ministry to people, he ministered to both Chinese and Tibetans in many war situations and was respected equally by all, who recognized him as a man of God. Some of these contacts gave him hope that he might be able to establish a hospital in Lhasa. Before this became even remotely possible, he was gunned down by brigands.”[6]

On the day after Shelton’s death a funeral service was held. It was conducted by Li Guiguang, the orphan boy whom the Sheltons had adopted 19 years earlier. Li had matured into a fine Christian man and was an effective evangelist to both the Tibetans and Chinese living in the Batang region. After Shelton’s death, churches in America established a memorial fund in his name. They “raised over $100,000 for the purpose of founding new mission stations in the Tibetan territory that he had so loved and for which he gave his life.”[7]

1. Flora Beal Shelton, Shelton of Tibet (New York: George H. Doran, 1923), 165.
2. Hefley, By Their Blood, 147.
3. Gertrude Morse (ed. by Helen M. Morse), The Dogs May Bark, But the Caravan Moves On (Chiang Mai: North Burma Christian Mission, 1998), 27.
4. Morse, The Dogs May Bark, 27.
5. Morse, The Dogs May Bark, 50.
6. Covell, The Liberating Gospel in China, 72-73.
7. Morse, The Dogs May Bark, 59.