Baha'i News Baha'i Year 132 May 1975 -rhe green light expedition A journey of friendship by Rut)iyyih K!:lanum to the Indian tribes of South America Universal House of Ju t1ce Message Riqvan message Plan objectives present distinct, insistent challenge entire Baha'i world OCCASION MOST GREAT FESTIVAL WE CONTEMPLATE WITH THANKFUL HEARTS ACHIEVEMENTS FIRST YEAR FIVE YEAR PLAN ELECTION THIS RIQVAN FIVE NEW NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLIES FOUR IN AFRICA ONE IN ASIA. DESPITE WORSENING PLIGHT MORIBUND CIVILIZATION EVIDENCES GATHERING CLOUDS WIDESPREAD OPPOSITION DI VINE MESSAGE BELIEVERS THROUGHOUT WORLD FORGING AHEAD ACCOMPLISHMENT GOALS. THREE HUNDRED EIGHTY-SIX PIONEERS ALREADY SETTLED ONE HUNDRED FIFTY-TWO PREPARING PROCEED POSTS . NEW WORLDWIDE TRAVEL TEACHING PROGRAM DESIGNED BY INTERNATIONAL TEACHING CENTER NOW BEING LAUNCHED BY NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLIES JN CONSULTATION COUNSELLORS. BELOVED HANDS CAUSE ADVANCING VANGUARD ARMY LIGHT LENDING CONSTANT LOVING GUIDANCE ENCOURAGEMENT PROTECTION FRIENDS LABORING DIVINE VINEYARD . WORLD CENTER FAITH RICHLY BLESSED THROUGH ACQUISITION HOLY HOUSE MASTER BIRTHPLACE SHOGHI EFFENDI WITHIN WALLS 'AKKA WILL EARLY WITNESS ON CONSECRATED SOIL SLOPES MOUNT CARMEL INITIATION EXCAVATION FOUND ATIO NS PERMANENT SEAT UNI VE RS AL HOUSE JUSTICE AND IN IT ALY SIGNATURE CONTRACT MARBLE REQUIRED MAJESTIC EDIFICE. AT THIS CRITICAL JUNCTURE HUMAN HISTORY THREE MAJOR OBJECTIVES PLAN AND ITS SPECIFIC GOALS PRESENT DISTINCT INSISTENT CHALLENGE TO EACH INDIVIDUAL BAHA'I ADULT YOUTH CHILD TO EACH BAHA'I FAMILY TO EACH LOCAL COMMUNITY AND ABOVE ALL TO EACH LOCAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY WHOSE DEVELOPMENT IS VITAL SUCCESS FIVE YEAR PLAN AND PROGRESSIVE UNFOLDMENT DIVINELY ORDAINED BAHA'i SOCIETY . MAY REMAINING THREE HUNDRED NINETY-Fl VE PIONEERS SPEEDILY ARISE AND ARMY VOLUNTEERS RESPOND NEWLY LAUNCHED TRAVEL TEACHING PROGRAM. NATIONAL LOCAL ASSEMBLIES INDIVIDUAL BELIEVERS URGED CONTRIBUTE UNSTINTINGLY TIME EFFORT OUTPOURING MATERIAL RESOURCES SUPPORT EVERY PHASE IMPLEMENTATION PLAN COMING YEAR. APPEAL BELIEVERS EVERY LAND JOIN US PRAYERS SUPPLICATION BLESSED BEAUTY GUIDE SUSTAIN PROTECT HIS DEVOTED FOLLOWERS IN THEIR DEDICATED EFFORTS PURIFY THEIR SOULS RAISE HIS BANNER SER VE HIS CAUSE. UNIVERSAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE Ri~van 1975 Baha'iBaha'i Year 132 May 1975 Vol.News 52 No. 5 For Baha'fs Only Universal House of Justice Ri~van message ................................ Inside Cover Plan objectives present distinct, insistent challenge entire Baha'i world The green light expedition ........ ...................................................2 A journey of friendship by Ru~iyyih KMnum to the Indian tribes of South America Ri~van 132 ...................................... .................................. 14 50th anniversary of the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States Conventions cable news of progress to World Center Around the World .............................. ............... ....... ... ....... .20 Hawaiian Islands, Papua New Guinea, Kenya, Solomon Islands page 21 page 4 Cover photo: The "beautiful barge" on which the expedition traveled for 32 days, was powered by two dugout canoes with outboard motors. Here it journeys up the Ventuari River, a tributary of the Orinoco. page 14 Baha'i News is published monthly for circulation among Bahll'is only by the National Spirrtual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States, as a news organ reporting current activrties of the Baha'i wor1d community. Manuscripts submitted should be typewritten and double spaced throughout; any footnotes should appear at the end. The contributor should keep a carbon copy. Send materials to: Baha'i News Editorial Office, 112 linden Avenue, Wilmette, IL 60091 , U.S.A. Change of address should be reported directly to Office of Membership and Records, National Baha'i Center, J 12 Linden Avenue, Wilmette, IL 60091, U.S.A. Subscription rates: one year, US $6.00 ; two years, US $12.00 . Effective May 1, 1975, one year, US $8; two years, US $15. Second class postage paid at Wilmette, Illinois 60091 . Copyright ~ 1975, National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States. World Rights Reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. By David Walker Photographs by Anthony Worley On March 12, 197 5, the Hand of the Cause of God Amatu'l-Baha Rul:ifyyih Khanum returned to Puerto Ayacucho, capital of the Federal Territory of Amazonas and principal city of the Venezuelan Frontier Region, having just completed a journey of more than a thousand miles by riverboat and dugout canoe up the Orinoco and Ventuari rivers and many of their tributaries. She had penetrated one of the few undeveloped and largely unex­ plored wilderness areas remaining in the world. In the course of her 32- day trip she and the seven other members of her expedition . ·~: ' visited 38 towns, villages, and homesteads, contacting eight Indian tribes, the Guajibo, Piaroa, Maco, Puinabe, Curipaco, Makiritare, Yabarana, and Sanema, this last tribe being part of A journey of friendship .. by Rubiyyih l<hanum ., ..... ~ t. ' l ' =# "'.i .. " ~· : ·"* : ,; r ' ... to the Indian tribes •;"<•"t ' .. • .. ~ .. "' "• t ~ • v . .. '. ." of South America '• '· . the Yanomamo group, the most primitive Indians in Venezuela ways pure, from where they are over to the future World Order? I and one of the most untouched tribal societies in Latin America. think it is by giving them the Baha'i Teachings as quickly as "It was a thrilling and wonderful experience," she told a group possible. Otherwise they will have to make the longjoumey down of Baba' is in Caracas at a Naw-Ruz gathering. " Every moment of into thi s dark valley of our present civilization which is too this voyage except for the bug bites was for me an unmitigated terrible, too difficult for many of them to survive. Many of the joy. City people tend to forget they are a minority of the human tribes will never come through, they will die out or be morally race. According to United Nations statistics two-thirds of the destroyed." world's population still lives in villages. If we take the premise Compelled by the repeated calls of 'Abdu'l-Baha, Shoghi Ef­ that the Baha'i Teachings have the remedy for the spiritual , fendi, and The Universal House of Justice to the Baha' is of the social, intellectual, and economic problems of the world, then we world to arise, while there is yet time, and take the Teachings of have to ask ourselves when are we going to deliver this message to Baha'u'llah to the far comers of the world, and by her own keen the other two-thirds? Very few are willing to leave the comforts of awareness of the urgent need for pioneers gained from years of the city and go to primitive areas. The Baha'is are a small extensive travel throughout Africa, South America, and Asia, community. Unlike the church we do not have a great many Amatu' l-B<;1ha .formulated her plans for a journey to the great people to call upon for this kind of service. Yet it must be done Amazon River Basin. Her main purpose is to make a documentary and done quickly ." film of some Jf the indigenous peoples of South America which It was to draw the attention of the Baha'is of the world to the can be shown to Baha'is all' over the world to demonstrate the urgency of arising and pioneering to primitive areas such as the tremendous teaching opportunities and the pressing need for Orinoco that Amatu'l-Baha embarked upon this expedition. pioneers to respond immediately to the call of The Universal " Suppose you have two mountains," she said, explaining the House of Justice in order to meet the goals of the present Five plight of villagers all over the world. "Let us say that one moun­ Year Plan. " Ifl," she said, " at the age of 64 can undertake such a tain is the civilization of the future , the World Order of trip , then surely the younger generation of believers can do as Baha' u'llah. And the other mountain is the culture of the primitive much." people. In between is the valley of disillusion, corruption, materialism, and moral degradation, the very thing that many of us highly sophisticated people are just coming out of. How can we get the primitive people, who are so spirituaJly sound and in many Amatu' l-Baha with Dr. Pablo Anduze, Governor of the Federal Amatu' 1-Bah<i on the left and Dr. Nosrat Rabbani on the right in Territory of Amazanas, when he received her at his residence in the truck that took the expedition from Puerto Ayacucho to Ven­ Puerto Ayacucho. ado. Embarking on the Queen Mary at Venado on the Orinoco River. RufJ.iyyih Kh<inum sweeping the deck in the prow. While the boat goes up the river members of the expedition cook Meeting in the school room at San Vicente. Amatu' 1-Baha' stalk and write. Left to right:Amatu'l-Baha, Rodney Charters, Mas'Ud is being translated into Spanish by Mas'ud Khamsi; Leco Zam­ Khamsi, Counsellor for South America, David Walker, Mark ora, Argentine pioneer to Venezuela, sits on her right. The Sadan, Leco Zamora and Nosrat Rabbani. Indian woman holding her child translates into Guajibo. The green light expedition The "beautiful barge" on which the expedition floated for 32 days, christened the Queen Mary, had room enough aboard for a table and benches, a small butane stove, 42 boxes of food and supplies, a dozen barrels of gasoline, two wooden lockers for storing film and sound equipment, and sleeping space for eight members of the party and three members of the crew. Accompanying RliDiyyih Khanum on this journey are Mas'ud weeks going into the interior. The governor, who is very much Khamsi, a member of the Continental Board of Counsellors for opposed to any touristic exploitation of the Indians, asked her South America, and Nosrat Rabbani , a pioneer from Iran who why she wanted to do this. She told him truthfully that it was completed her medical studies in Holland and has since been because she loves jungles and before she died she wanted to really pioneering for nine years in Surinam and Curas;ao.