[
    {
        "id": 209968,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1983",
        "page_number": 227,
        "title": "RAS-1983",
        "content_text": "205\n\nLanka, and then to Malacca where he converted a Japanese resident. The two set out to convert Japan and they landed at Kagoshima in 1549. Such was their success that 400,000 converts are said to have been made.\n\nWhen he understood that the Japanese had long considered China the source of wisdom and knowledge, Xavier made up his mind to bring the Christian message to that vast country. After failing to persuade the Governor General of Goa to send an embassy to China so that he might accompany it and thus evade the laws against foreigners entering the Imperial Empire, the missionary decided to proceed privately.\n\nHe joined a group of merchants and in 1552 reached the small Portuguese settlement on Sanchuang Island, south of what was later to become Macau. However, he was stricken with fever and the merchants, fearing official reprisals, refused to take him to Canton. Undaunted, Xavier intended to carry on by junk; but his fever worsened and, in a miserable hut on the shore, on December 3, 1552, he died.\n\nA colleague recorded:\n\n\"I went at once to the ship to obtain vestments and all else necessary for the burial ... some of those on the ship returned with me and we made a wooden coffin in which we placed the body clothed in priestly vestments. It was very cold; so most of them stayed aboard, and there were only four of us at the burial, a Portuguese, two slaves and a Chinese.\"\n\nToday relics of the saint can be seen in three places. His body lies in an ornate shrine in Goa and it is exhibited to pilgrims at intervals of several years. The saint's right arm up to the elbow was removed in 1614 and was sent to Rome where it has been venerated in the Jesuit Church of Gesu for more than 300 years.\n\nThe sole remaining relic is the fragment of bone in the tiny Macau church.\n\nIn 1619 three bones from the elbow to the shoulder of the right arm were extracted at Goa. One was sent to Cochin, now Southern Vietnam, another went to Malacca and the third went to Macau. By this time the Portuguese empire was faltering and",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 215481,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-2001",
        "page_number": 258,
        "title": "RAS-2001",
        "content_text": "207\n\nbirthplace of Bhutan's first king, Ugyen Wangchuk. There were one or two dogs, children playing, old people wandering through, and 27 members of the Royal Asiatic Society being waited on hand and foot. I got a clear impression of what it must have been like to take The Grand Tour in Europe in the 18th Century. I have seen prints and paintings of people wandering at will over sites of enormous classical importance, threading their way between dogs and children playing amongst the ruins, thinking to myself 'those were the days.' I imagine that in years to come such sites as the one at which we were to have lunch will be cordoned off and entered only on payment of an admission fee. I felt extraordinarily fortunate and privileged. To complete the picture, two small boys were playing Pooh-sticks from a stone bridge over a very fast stream.\n\nLunch done, we found the caretaker of the once-royal residence and he led us inside. My first impression was that we had entered Gormenghast Castle; I was to have this impression again a few times in the coming days. Upstairs in the large wooden building, one room led into another and another, until finally, at the end of the link, was the privy, from which there was direct access to the grounds via a narrow chute.\n\nNext to come was Jakar Dzong, or the Watchtower of the White Bird. Set in a commanding position up the mountainside, this looked every inch a watchtower from without. Within, it was rather like going back to a medieval European castle, in which a small village had taken root. Galleried wooden courtyards and stone steps, it would make a fantastic hotel if permission could be gained. Its present uses include a chamber for the District Court. Some of the monks were very young (monklets, perhaps), and one of them asked me in Japanese if I was alright (‘O genki desu-ka?”), reminding us that we were probably not the only tourists to have visited, although we had seen no others.\n\nAs the day was getting on, we had to as well, as the next item on the itinerary was the Jakar bazaar. Sadly for the shopaholics amongst us this turned out to be a single shop. Being the second day of New Year all the others were closed. So it was back to the hotel for tea and bickies and a much-needed opportunity to get some laundry done. Then as the light faded, again, so did the electricity, again.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g",
        "rank": 0
    }
]