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<\/p>\nThe death of John Allen Chau the 26-year-old missionary from Washington state \u2014 who broke a raft of laws and put the health of the indigenous people at risk \u2014 has sparked international outrage, a heated debate about the protection of tribal communities and at least two investigations by authorities in India. It also has prompted soul-searching in the U.S. evangelical community, which has been debating whether Chau was a martyr, a fool or was afflicted by a messiah complex.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cGod, I don\u2019t want to die,\u201d Chau scrawled in his journal while sitting in a fishing boat off the coast of the island where the North Sentinelese people live, shortly before he was killed. \u201cWHO WILL TAKE MY PLACE IF I DO?\u201d<\/p>\n
Chau had a \u201cvery meticulous plan to camouflage his expedition as fishing activity,\u201d said Dependra Pathak, the director general of police for the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.<\/p>\n
Brahma Chellaney, a professor at the Center for Policy Research in New Delhi, says Chau violated the country\u2019s aboriginal and forest protection laws as well as cultural norms.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe repeatedly trespassed on this island, and they lost their patience with him,\u201d Chellaney said. \u201cThere is faith, and there is mental illness. .\u2009.\u2009. He didn\u2019t understand the line between faith and doing something that\u2019s absolutely nutty.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chau\u2019s diary, which his family provided to The Washington Post, unfolds like the adventure novels he once read. He arrived in the Andamans on Oct.\u00a016 and paid fishermen to take him by boat at night to the island on Nov.\u00a014, evading the lights of patrols on the way. When the sun broke, Chau drew near the tribe. The women began \u201clooing and chattering,\u201d he wrote, and he was faced by men armed with bows and arrows. \u201cMy name is John, I love you and Jesus loves you,\u201d he shouted before retreating.<\/p>\n
The second day, he kayaked to the island and tried to offer the tribe small gifts \u2014 fish, scissors, cord and safety pins. A man in white with a crown, possibly made of flowers, shouted at him. He responded by singing \u201cworship songs and hymns\u201d and the tribe fell silent. A juvenile fired an arrow at him, piercing his waterproof Bible. Chau fled on foot through the mangroves.<\/p>\n
\u201cLord, is this island Satan\u2019s last stronghold where none have heard or even had the chance to hear your name?\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
By the third day, he became convinced he was going to die.<\/p>\n
\u201cWatching the sunset and it\u2019s beautiful \u2014 crying a bit .\u2009.\u2009. wondering if it will be the last sunset I see,\u201d he wrote. He asked the fishermen to drop him on the beach. They returned the next day and saw the tribesmen dragging Chau\u2019s body.<\/p>\n
The fishermen have been arrested, as has a friend of Chau\u2019s who helped organize the boat trip. Police have no strategy to retrieve his body and don\u2019t plan to confront the islanders, Pathak said.<\/p>\n
Chau\u2019s friends from the islands are still grieving and mystified by the whole episode.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe lost his mind, definitely,\u201d Snoeij said. \u201cBut ask any adventurer. You have to lose your mind a little bit, otherwise you don\u2019t do it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The death of John Allen Chau the 26-year-old missionary from Washington state \u2014 who broke a raft of laws and put the health of the indigenous people at risk \u2014 has sparked international outrage, a heated debate about the protection of tribal communities and at least two investigations by authorities in India. It also has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":3915,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[2878,2879,2874,2876,2877,2875],"class_list":["post-3913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-stories","tag-illegal","tag-india","tag-john-chau","tag-last-neolithic-tribe","tag-quarantine","tag-trespassed"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n