Did Jesus die in Kashmir, India? (Part 1)

The theory about Jesus surviving crucifixion and coming to India is quite a thought provoking matter. It is a controversial subject. Though it is just a theory and not the gospel truth, the purpose of this writings are just to uncover some reasons leading to people believing that Jesus actually came to India & died in Kashmir. Truth, myth or fallacy is up to the reader's own discernment. They are not my own views. Just the findings of some people who are involved in the pursuit of their own truth who are trying to put the history to acid test & to verify it's authencity .

First, we have a Russian scholar, Nicolas Notovich who suggested this in his book titled "The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ". Secondly, we have Holgar Kersten's, a German scholar who came out with his 2 best-sellers titiled, "Jesus Lived in India" and "The Jesus Conspiracy" which dwells on Jesus's life beyond Central Asia.

Next, we have Subhrajit Mitra, a scriptwriter-director for National Geographic and Discovery Channel, who has been largely influenced by the above German scholar's (Holgar Kersten) best sellers. Subhrajit has been so influenced, that he decided to do a documentary film entitled "The Unknown Story of the Messiah" which actually lives off the popular alternative theory that Jesus actually had travelled to India after crucifixion, along with Mother Mary, studied Hinduism and Buddhism, and died in Kashmir where he was entombed.

(Subhrajit has sourced references from the Bhavishya Mahapurana, which records an encounter between King Shalivahana and Jesus near Srinagar, long after crucifixion.)

Meanwhile, in Kashmir, a monument hails that is religious in nature. The locals call it "The the tomb of Jesus." The precise location of this "Jesus" tomb is in the Khanyar district of Srinagar, which is the capital of Kashmir. The tomb is called the Rozabal, which means the prophet's tomb, and Jesus' name is given as Yuza Asaf. The following images were taken December 2006 provided by an individual who visited the tomb and was able to take these photos. (Photography is generally prohibited in and around the tomb).

(The tomb above purports to be the tomb of Jesus and the claim is that he didn't die on the cross, but after his wounds healed he traveled to Kashmir, where he married, had children, and died of old age.)

Video: The Tomb of Jesus in Kashmir, India. (BBC research documentary)


The fourth is a 100 paged book titled "Jesus Died In Kashmir" by Andreas Faber-Kaiser, and it was published in London in 1978. The first chapter gives an account of Jesus' boyhood trip: he is supposed to have gone to Kashmir at the age of 13 to study Buddhism. His gospel of love pleased the Buddhists, but the Hindus saw it as a challenge to the caste system and the power of the brahmins. Jesus moved to Persia, but the Zoroastrian priests also saw him as a threat and escorted him out of their city. At that point Jesus returned to Israel. This story came to the author through an Indian scholar who, during a stay in a Russian monastery, found a diary written in the last century by two missionaries. The diary was written in German, which unfortunately the Indian was unable to read, but he noticed on one page the names "Nicholai Notovich"(the Russian scholar, the 1st "evidence") and "San Issa" so he photographed the facing pages and had them translated when he returned home.

According to these pages, Nicholai Notovich was travelling in the northern part of Kashmir, which is known as little Tibet, and there in a lamasery, in exchange for an alarm clock and a thermometer, was told the story of "Issa, a son of Israel" who visited the lamasery about 2000 years ago. Issa (or Isa or Yuza, as we will see later) is a version of the name Jesus, just as Jesus is the Anglicized version of a name that is something like Yeshua, or Joshua.

The second chapter of the book sustains that an examination of the Turin Shroud proves that Jesus was still alive when he was taken from the cross. The contention is that if he died on the cross that "all the blood would have coagulated in the lower parts of his body" and that he would not have bled when wrapped in the shroud.

The third chapter says that the ten lost tribes of Israel are to be found among the Afgans, Kashmiri, and other eastern nations. To demonstrate this, the author gives a chart showing similarities between various Hebrew words and place names in Afganistan and Kashmir.

Next, the author tells the story of Jesus' travels after the crucifixion. After the crucifixion wounds were healed, Jesus set out with his mother Mary and the apostle Thomas in search of the ten lost tribes of Israel. Mary died in Pakistan, not far from the Kashmir border. Mary's tomb is near Murree in Pakistan, about 100 miles west of Srinagar at a place known as Pindi Point. Jesus continued on to Kashmir, while Thomas moved to southern India where he died after establishing a Christian community. The tombs of all three exist and are venerated by pilgrims of various faiths.

What assumption can one make based on these so called "clues" of Jesus surviving crucifixion, travelling to India & dying in Kashmir? Are these hard enough to be called as evidence or is it just mere rubbish made by people out there to confuse the followers of Christianity? If it is true that this is the motive of unscrupulous people out there to wreak havoc in the history of Christianity, I don't see how it has succeeded so far. Perhaps, an archeologist could shed some light & verify the authencity of these claims?

Next in the Part Two, my posting continues to delve deeper in this subject with some input from BBC : Did Jesus go to India & dies in Kashmir, India? (Part 2) follows.........