hillong: Nigel Jenkins, who had visited Meghalaya in 1992 and met with several people here, passed away on Tuesday morning in the UK.
This news was communicated by Andrew J May, Associate Professor of History at the University of Melbourne, Australia and grand-nephew of Rev Thomas Jones, who had authored the book Welsh Missionaries and British Imperialism: The Empire of Clouds in North-East India.
Nigel Jenkins, whose book Gwalia in Khasia set in the Khasi Hills of Meghalaya won the Arts Council of Wales award.
He was an elected member of the Gorsedd of Bards of the Island of Britain. Gwalia in Khasis was released in India under the title Through The Green Door (Penguin).
There are three main stories intertwined in the book: the adventures of Thomas Jones, the first Calvinist Methodist missionary in the field, the tale of the mission itself, and the account of Jenkins’ own travels in the Khasi hills. he talks about the Welsh legacy of laced curtains, scones and pastries that the Khasi people have imbibed.
Jenkins visit to Meghalaya is providential. One evening, after a hard day’s work he had settled down to watch a TV documentary on the Indian monsoon, and for the first time saw the wet wilderness of the Khasi Hills.
He also heard of Welshman Jones, the “father of Khasi literature”. Intrigued, he set about researching Jones. Then a writing award came by and thus, by co-incidence the author found himself in Shillong in the middle of a curfew where a communal violence had left several people dead.
While in Shillong Jenkins addressed a Sunday school gathering at Police Bazar Presbyterian Church
Margot Morgan in Swansea, a dear friend of Jenkins said, “On the Sunday before Christmas, Nigel Jenkins was diagnosed with a nasty form of pancreatic cancer which spread to his liver. Nigel has been in a palliative care unit and I have just received an email this evening that he passed away in the early hours of this morning (Jan 28,2014).
Jenkins will be remembered as the man who did so much to have Thomas Jones, missionary to the Khasis, have his rightful place in Khasi history. Jenkins is remembered by his peers as a kind man, a scholar, a wonderful poet and a friend of Thomas Jones and the Khasi Hills.