After returning to London Peter started working out the details for his trip to Lahasa, Tibet. He felt that the first attempt should be made to contact the former head lama of Hemis to obtain his consent for opening the sealed chamber. Taksang Rinpoche was no longer a lama but a truck driver.

He was married and settled in Lahasa. Peter obtained the necessary visas from the Chinese Embassy and took a flight through Doha to Chengdu in Tibet. From there he had to drive to Lahasa. Peter was able to locate Taksang Rinpoche with the help of some friends. The lama was no longer a Rinpoche but an ordinary Tibetan driving a truck. After the Chinese takeover of Tibet, most of the monasteries were destroyed and the lamas had disappeared. There were still some monasteries. Before the revolution there were thousands of monasteries but now there are only few hundred. Most of the lamas were forced to undertake manual labour. Peter met Taksang Rinpoche and spoke to him about the Hemis manuscript. He was not very familiar with it but said that there were many ancient scrolls in the monastery which were among the precious artefacts. As he was out of Ladakh, it was not possible for him to arrange the opening of the sealed chamber housing the precious artefacts and the ancient manuscripts. He advised Peter to approach Drugchen Rinpoche who was present on spot and could arrange the opening of the chamber. After this unsuccessful visit Peter came back and informed me about his next move. He planned to visit Darjeeling to meet Drugchen Rinpoche and also visit Leh.

So the focus shifted back to Ladakh. In order to approach Drugchen Rinpoche we sought assistance from Leh. We were informed that the closest person to Rinpoche was Lama Lobsang, the member of a Central Commission in New Delhi. Peter and I went to his official residence on Shah-i-Jahan Road in Delhi to discuss the subject with him. He was very kind and courteous and listened to us with rapt attention. He too felt that without the consent of the head lamas it would not be possible to open the sealed chamber in the Hemis monastery. He agreed to arrange Peter’s meeting with Drugchen Rinpoche in Darjeeling. Thus Peter set out on yet another journey to get clearance to open the secret chamber. However, this visit too was not very fruitful. Drugchen Rinpoche put all responsibility on Taksang Rinpoche and stated that he had the ultimate authority to authorise the opening of the chamber and taking out of the ancient manuscript. He would be able to help only if there was a written authorisation from Takasng Rinpoche to do so. Now we felt that we were being tossed from one person to other and no one is ready to take the responsibility. There must be something which was preventing the opening of the chamber. Before Peter’s second visit to Lahasa, we decided to make one more attempt in Leh itself. In Leh we again tried to contact various senior religious scholars and other prominent citizens. We also met the management of Hemis. The key person there was Chewang Rigzin, a professor of Buddhist philosophy. We also contacted the Gompa Association. Peter was ready to offer to set up a museum in Hemis at a cost of over twenty thousand ponds or so to house various artefacts including the famous manuscript. It would be a great tourist attraction. However, we did not meet with any success even though the monastery management was keen to have the facility of a museum. The Buddhist Institute professors also showed keen interest in getting their manuscripts digitised. Peter had offered to set up this facility at the Institute. Ultimately, after a lot of probing we were able to find out the cause for the hesitation from everybody in opening the chamber. We learnt that there were some precious artefacts missing in the chamber. Once it was opened and the artefacts tallied with the lists available in the monastery, there may be a big scandal. It was because of this that everybody was avoiding the opening of the sealed chamber!

In spite of these hiccups we did not give up the effort to unearth the real truth behind the manuscript. Peter wanted to make a last try before totally giving up. He planned one more visit to Tibet. To work out the details and to meet various TV channel bosses, he invited me to London. I went in March 1998 and stayed with Peter. He introduced me to John Purdie, a producer of Channel Four. He had been making documentaries on some alien phenomenon. John had got his bosses interested in making a documentary on the Hemis Monastery. I was offered to be Associate Producer. The Channel Four management was ready to spend any amount to get the sensational story filmed on spot. Finally, Peter flew once again to Tibet. He stayed in the new five star hotel there. Tibet has tremendously progressed. In fact, last year Pervez Dewan, who had been the Commissioner Secretary Tourism when I was the Director General, also visited Tibet. He has written a book about his journey. According to him Lahasa is more advanced than any European city in regard to infrastructure such as Airport, Railway Station etc. The Tibet of old days has disappeared. Chinese have revolutionised everything.

Peter again met Taksang Rinpoche but was unable to get the authority letter. We seemed to have come to a dead end. Still we decided to make one more try in Leh and this time John also accompanied us. But again there was no success. It seemed the manuscript was destined to remain hidden. After that I lost touch with both Peter and John. During my subsequent visits I again tried to broach the subject with senior people in Ladakh but no one has been able to help and the mystery continues. Sometime back, the Hemis people set up a Museum and took out some important artefacts for display. However, the most precious artefacts and manuscripts continue to remain hidden somewhere in the secret chambers of the Monastery. May be sometime in future the lamas decide to bring these out for confirming the authenticity of the Hemis and Jesus story. Till that time even the Jesus in Srinagar story will also continue to be only a myth without any proof or confirmation. A mystifying story for foreign tourists!