History
The name ‘Tura’ was called by the British officials and is a corrupted form of ‘Dura’ yet it is still in use without any complaint or remorse. A time may come when the citizens would like to come back to the original name as it has been done to a number of megacities in the mainland India (like Kolkata for Calcutta; Mumbai for Bombay; Chennai for Madras; Bengaluru for Bangalore and so on).
The big crest of the hill on the east of the town, which, in fact, is the face of the mountain range, was supposed to be the abode of heathen god of the Garos called “Durama Imbama”. Later the hill itself has been named with the first half of the name of that heathen god as “Durama” (meaning ‘the mother of Durama Imbama’); and the small habitation or hamlet at the foot of the hill was called “Dura”. The British officials could not follow the pronunciation of the native Garos and they jotted down in their book as “Toorah” which finally was written as “Tura”.
THE BEGINNING OF CHRISTIAN CHURCH IN TURA:
Dr. Issachar Jay Stoddard an American Baptist Missionary and co-worker with Dr. Miles Bronson both stationed at Nowgong (Nagaon) in Assam, conceived the idea of starting a Mission centre at Tura in his visit in March 1868. Lt. J. Williamson the then Asstt. Commissioner of Garo Hills was not in favour of his immediate move to Tura station since the situation was not conducive from political stability point of view. In January 1871, three missionaries, Bronson, Stoddard and Comfort visited Tura and selected a place on the southern periphery of the town (the present police parade ground, near present Tura Supermarket) to be their headquarters for mission work. In 1872-73, the whole Garo Hills was brought under control of British rule which created a favourable climate for the missionaries for their work. In the meantime, the first two missionaries designated for Garo Mission, Rev. Marcus Clark Mason and Rev. Elnathan Gooding Phillips the graduates from Colgate University in Hamilton, USA, reached Goalpara towards the end of 1874 and was received by Rev. Thomas J. Keith. The duo came up to Tura on their first visit by September 1875 and selected the new place on the north of the town (the present Mission Compound) to be their Garo Mission headquarters.
The first ever formal Sunday worship with the local Garos was held at Tura on Sunday evening, the 26thof November 1876, as the nucleus of Tura Baptist Church; when Rev. E. G. Phillips came to Tura with Nepali coolies and pitched his tent at the very site old baptistery at Mission compound (on the other side of the road from the church building, i.e., in front of the present ABDK General Secretary’s quarter) on their aforementioned visit. There, the missionary worshipped the Lord inside his tent along with the Garo coolies who are working in different places in small hamlet of Tura, who reportedly had heard about Jesus sometimes earlier but had not yet been confessed their faith in Christ.
The first baptism took place on May 6, 1877 with Sinja, Niron and Chongre by Rev. E. G. Phillips at the Gandrak stream in a small pool, named as Gilja Wari soon afterwards. The second batch of three persons namely Rangmin,Lokhiram and Sangrin were baptized by the same missionary at the same pool. Out of these other three, Sangrin later on was posted as a school teacher at Chokpot and was killed for preaching the gospel; who thus became the first Garo martyr for Christ. In December 1877 Demol got his church membership transferred from Rajasimla (the first Baptist Churchin Garo Hills) to Tura. The American Baptist Missionaries and pioneering Garo leaders maintains that the Tura Baptist church was established with 7 members only. Then, it is evident that Tura Baptist Church was established with these 7 members from among the local Garos and the missionaries as their leaders either at the close of the year 1877 or at the beginning of the year 1878 (before February 24, 1878) as the 9th Garo Baptist Church in the erstwhile Garo Hills of Assam in India; however the exact date was not available till date due to lack of proper records. [However the most probable date was 3rd week of December 1877] On February 24, 1878 two women from Chokpot namely Pincho and Ruje got baptized at Tura; soon later Achel and Kalik were baptized on March 3rd and March 5th 1877 respectively. The first pastors were the two Missionaries themselves, the Rev. Marcus Clark Mason and the Rev. Elnathan Gooding Phillips.
