THAT BUDDHISTIC “LIFE OF CHRIST.”
By Editor
SOME interesting speculation has been indulged in regarding a reputed wonderful find in a Buddhist monastery in the Himalayas, of a life of Christ, or “Issa,” that is 1,694 years old. The reputed find was made by one M. Notovitch, a Russian traveler, in the monastery of Hemis, near Leh, the chief town of the province of Ladakh, in the Cashmere. A French translation has been made of it, and it represents “Issa” as sojourning among the Buddhists before he began his preaching in Galilee. The story has been received with distrust, and the manuscript pronounced a probable fake. In the Evening Post, New York, July 3, appears a letter from a Moravian missionary in Leh, which seems to confirm this view of M. Notovitch's story. The following is the letter in full:— LEH, LADAKH, via IRINAGER, North India, May 15, 1894. SIR: My attention has been drawn to a notice in your paper (number and date not mentioned), that a certain Nicholas Notovitch, when traveling in Ladakh, broke his leg near Hemis Monastery, and was nursed by the monks, who showed him a Pali manuscript, being a “life of Issa,” a saint much venerated by Thibetan Buddhists. This work proved to be a life of Jesus Christ, and has been published in a French translation. This information, more than which has not reached me, is rather vague; but I must beg to draw your attention to the following facts:— 1. I have been resident in Leh since November, 1890. Since that time no person named Notovitch has visited Ladakh. 2. Scientific visitors invariably call for information of all kinds on the Moravian missionaries, who live close to the garden set apart for the use of travelers. The official record of the mission, extending from 1885 onward, contains many names of such visitors, but the name Notovitch is not to be found. 3. The Hemis Monastery is only twenty miles from Leh. It is incredible that any traveler could have met with an accident, and have been nursed by the monks, instead of being brought by an easy road to Leh, where he would have had proper attention at the hands of the medical officer in charge of the British dispensary. I have examined the medical register from 1882 onward without finding Notovitch mentioned. 4. Careful inquiry among the inhabitants has failed to elicit any information about such an accident having happened anywhere in Ladakh within the last twenty years. 5. Issa is the Mohammedan name for Jesus, and the Buddhists do not venerate him in any way at all. 6. The monks assert that their old books were destroyed by the Dogras fifty years ago. Their present books are all new editions. 7. Pali is absolutely unknown in Ladakh; not a single person can read the language. The monks could not possibly know what a Pali volume contained, even supposing it to exist. 8. The Hemis Monastery has for the last forty years been frequently visited by Moravian missionaries. The existence of a volume written in a character so totally different from Sanscrit and Thibetan as Pali is could not have remained hidden. Your readers will now be able to form an opinion as to the authenticity of this purported discovery. I remain, sir, yours truly, F. B. SHAWE, Moravian Missionary.