Missionaries framed Karens as idol-free people awaiting Christian discovery

Evidence

The opening words of his account of his missionary endeavors among the Karen set the scene: “Often perhaps had the Christian voyager gazed on the rocky promontories of Burmah, crowned with their whitened pagodas, that glow amid the eternal verdure of tropical climes; but he little thought that ‘the misty mountain tops’ in the distance, threw their shadow over the dwellings of a people that generation after generation had charged their posterity never to worship idols.” — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 324

Categorization

• FICTION: The missionary’s romantic framing — a people hidden in mist who never worshipped idols — is ready-made atmosphere for colonial-era fiction.