Before I describe our forays into the mysteries of Ladakh, I would like to quote some extracts from the book of Nicolas Notovich pertaining to Jesus. The book has fourteen Chapters and it is a very interesting read. Definitely all the accounts given in the book could not have been made up.

The most important disclosures relevant to our subject of Jesus visit to the east are in Chapter five where travels of Jesus in India and other lands at the age of 14 are mentioned. The description is very interesting. “In the course of his fourteenth year, the young Isha, blessed of God, came on this side of Sind and established himself among the Aryas in the land beloved of God. Fame spread the reputation of this marvelous child throughout the length of northern Sind, and when he crossed the country of the five rivers and the Rajputana, the devotees of the god Jaine prayed him to dwell among them. But he left the erring worshippers of Jaine and went to Juggernaut in the country of Orissa, where repose the mortal remains of Vyasa-Krishna and where the white priests of Brahma made him a joyous welcome. They taught him to read and understand the Vedas, to cure by aid of prayer, to teach, to explain the holy scriptures to the people, and to drive out evil spirits from the bodies of men, restoring unto them their sanity. He passed six years at Juggernaut, at Rajagriha, at Benares, and in the other holy cities. Everyone loved him, for Isha lived in peace with the Vaisyas [the merchant class] and the Sudras [the servant class], whom he instructed in the holy scriptures.” The scrolls then describe Jesus denying the teachings of the Brahmins who chased him away. He is stated to have traveled to mountains of the Himalaya and to the land of the Buddha. Then his return to the place of birth through Persia is mentioned. Christianity is supposed be very much influenced by the Buddhist teachings.

It was in this background of the news reports about the myth of Jesus being buried in Kashmir that Peter Montagnon, the BBC TV producer who had made a film series on Zanskar approached me. We had come to know each other during the filming of the four part documentary, “Zanskar, the last place on Earth.” This documentary was based on the book written by Michel Peissel, the French author and anthropologist. Peter was very keen to follow the story about the Hemis manuscript. He felt it would be a good starting point for a documentary on the subject. No one had seen these scrolls for more than 70 years or so. The last person to see these was the Elizabeth Caspari, the founder of Montessori School. She visited the monastery in 1939. If only we could get a photo copy of these, we will be able to produce a top class documentary as well as a book! We made a trip to Leh together in search of the Hemis manuscript. I was quite known to the lamas there as I had helped in restoring some parts of the monastery. We met the lamas and explained to them about the Jesus manuscript. None of them knew anything about it. However, they showed us a sealed chamber which contained a number of precious artifacts, manuscripts etc. The chamber had been sealed by the head lama who was away in Darjeeling.

There were some interesting stories about the head lamas of the Hemis monastery. There were two head lamas. The first was the original one known as Taksang Rinpoche. He was in Tibet with the Chinese. It was stated that the said lama had gone to Lhasa for higher studies in Buddhism and was stranded there when the Chinese annexed Tibet. He was turned into a truck driver by the Chinese. He subsequently married and settled there. However, the Ladakhis still considered him the spiritual head of the monastery. After the permanent loss of its head lama to Chinese, Drugchen Rinpoche became its head lama. But he was also associated with a monastery in Darjeeling and stayed most of the time there. It was reported to us that the chamber containing precious items and scrolls had been sealed by him only! Now the biggest question for us was how to get the seal removed and the chamber opened? Without achieving this we will not be able to verify the existence of the manuscript.

We started with some of the prominent Buddhist religious leaders like the head of Thiksey monastery. The Rinpoche of this monastery was the head of the Gompa Association. We explained to him the research project we were following. It was to confirm the existence of the manuscript. He was very sympathetic but stated that without the presence of the head lama it was not possible to open the sealed chamber. Next we called on the head of the Institute of Buddhist Studies. We met Professor Jamyang Gyalson. Peter explained to him the necessity of digitizing these important documents. He even offered to set up a complete digitization unit in the Institute for preservation of all these precious documents. However, the Professor too expressed inability to help in the matter even though he would have very much liked to see and preserve the documents for posterity. Due to excessive greening of Ladakh there had been a climate change. Many places had experienced heavy rains. A number of monasteries had developed leaks in the roofs which had damaged wall paintings and in some cases the religious scrolls. After having failed with the religious leaders, we met some prominent citizens including political leaders and tried to explain to them these delicate matters of preservation. Well, this too did not yield any results. Finally, Peter decided to approach the head lama in Tibet as well as the one in Darjeeling. He left for London to arrange his travel including visas to visit Lahasa. In the meantime, Peter also sounded various TV channels for making a documentary on the subject. He was confident that once the manuscript is located and filmed, Ladakh and especially Hemis would receive world wide publicity. In fact, he was certain that this sensational disclosure would bring thousands of western tourists especially scholars, researchers, and religious persons to Ladakh. He jokingly mentioned that once the truth is established, there would be such a rush that the locals would not know what hit them?

(To be concluded)