In the late 1880s, a Russian explorer named Nicolas Notovitch was cared for by Tibetan monks in a monastery in Ladakh after being thrown from a horse. While he was there, a sympathetic Buddhist monk translated for him a fascinating Tibetan manuscript that described a visit to Kashmir in northern India by a young man from the land of Israel. The man's name was Issa (very close to Isha or Yeshu, the Indian pronunciations of Jesus' name).
According to the text, Issa ran away from home at the age of thirteen. He made his way along the well-traveled Silk Road to India, where he spent twelve years studying with both Hindu and Buddhist teachers. By the time he completed the long trek back to Palestine, he was 29 years old. The manuscript gives various fascinating details about Issa's stay in the east.
In 1922, Swami Abhedananda, an Indian monk from the Oriental Seminary in Calcutta, visited Tibet and saw the manuscript. He brought back a translation he worked on with the help of a Tibetan lama.
Before Western scholars heard about the stunning find and could reach the monastery to examine it for themselves, the Chinese army invaded Tibet. During the devastating destruction of Tibetan Buddhist monasteries that followed, this amazing manuscript disappeared.
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