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1897-1904 ― HOLMES WELCH
Christian missionary to the Jews of Hamburg and Montreal, first as a Presbyterian, then as an Anglican clergyman; finally curate in an English country village.
1904-1906 Odd jobs in London.
1906-1909 Director of a large socio-economic survey of Belgium.
1909-1915 Member of Parliament, speculator in Rumanian oil fields, forger of cheques,
1915 Would-be German spy, who, after escaping from Britain, then escaped from the New York police.
1916-1919 In English prison for forgery.
1919-1922 Plotter in the Kapp Putsch in Berlin; salesman of information about other proto-Facist plots in several European countries; again in jail.
1922 To the Far East.
1922-1924 Advisor to a succession of Chinese warlords (Yang Shen, Wu P'ei-fu, Ch'i Hsi-yüan). Back to Europe, then to the U.S., then to China again, where he resolved to enter a Buddhist monastery.
1925-1926 In Colombo, Ceylon, where he began to dress as a Buddhist monk and lecture on Buddhism; returned to Europe for an unsuccessful attempt to save his son from execution for murder in England.
1927-1928 Buddhist missionary in San Francisco; then back to China.
1928-1931 Whereabouts generally unknown, but sometimes living in Buddhist monasteries in Shanghai and Hangchow. From July 1929 to June 1930 on a tour of Europe, lecturing on Buddhism, dressed in Buddhist robes and signing hotel registers "Chao-k'ung".
In May 1931 he became Chao-k'ung officially when he was ordained at Pao-hua Shan, the most illustrious ordination center in China. The next year he went to Europe to collect disciples and arrived back in Shanghai with them on July 25, 1933.46 There were twelve of these disciples - English, French, Italian, and