C. R. Bawden was a Professor of the Mongolian language in the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London from 1970 to 1984.
Review of the Original Publication: “This book tells the full story of the mission to the Buryat Mongols of Eastern Siberia launched in 1814 by the London Missionary Society in conjunction with the British and Foreign Bible Society at a time when the ideas of Alexander I about the spreading of the Gospel made such a venture possible… It was thought that the translation of the Bible into Mongolian and the subsequent conversion of the Buryats would lead to greater things. The idea was of penetrating China- after evangelizing various tribes in Siberia- at a time when there was no access to the Chinese coastal ports. It was a grand design which, as Professor Bawden shows, was based on false premises…” - George Lewinson, The Slavonic and East European Review, Vol. 64, No. 4 (Oct. 1986), pp. 612-614