The Daily Express of 29 May 1926 publishes the following paragraph with very bold headings:
Christ as a pilgrim to the Far East
Manuscript found in a monastery
Missionary work among low castes
Laws of Buddha
The Daily Express Correspondent, New York, Friday, 28 May [1926]:
“Professor Nicholas Roerich, who is leading an art and archeological expedition into Central Asia, has found, says the ‘New York Sun’, a Buddhist manuscript in the Hemis Monastery, Little Tibet, written in the Tibetan language, asserting that Jesus Christ, called ‘Issa’, left Palestine as a young man and joined a caravan bound for India, where he preached to the Sudras and Vicias, the lowest of the castes. He also studied Buddhism and returned home in his twenty-ninth year.
“Hemis Monastery is said to be twenty-seven miles from Leh, one of the larger cities of Ladak [now Ladakh].
“Professor Roerich with Mrs Roerich and a son, who accompanied him on the expedition, is now believed to be somewhere in Central Asia, but his exact whereabouts are unknown.
“Details of the discovery reached here in the form of manuscripts for a forthcoming book by the professor, which is expected to be published in the autumn.
“One of the quotations from the Buddhist manuscript, which Professor Roerich believes to be at least 1,500 years old, is as follows:
“‘Issa secretly left his parents with some merchants of Jerusalem and turned toward India to become perfected in the Divine Word and to study the laws of the Great Buddha.’
“Another quotation says:
“‘Issa reached his twenty-ninth year when he returned to Israel.’
“Another part of the manuscript refers to ‘Issa’s’ trial by the ‘ruler of Jerusalem’, also referred to as ‘Pilate.’ The manuscript says:
“‘A spy approached Issa saying, “Teacher, should we fulfil the will of Caesar or await the approaching deliverance?” Issa, recognising the disguised servant, said, “I have not said unto you that you would be delivered, but I have said that the soul immersed in sin would be delivered.”
How he heard
“The Roerich Expedition, financed by the Roerich and Corona Mundi International Art Centre, left New York three years ago, primarily to study Tibetan art and collect art treasures.
“Professor Roerich is said to have heard of the Hemis manuscript from friendly lamas at Darjeeling in 1924. He organised an expedition through Ladak into Leh, where, he says, lamas pointed out traditional landmarks where Issa preached to multitudes.
“The expedition, after securing access to the manuscript, proceeded to Khotan, where they were held captive until the Dectai of Khotan, impelled by influence from Chinese and American sources, allowed the expedition to depart for Chinese Turkestan, after depriving them of their arms. This was the last heard from them.”
Jesus travelled to India after the crucifixion
We do not think it right to say that Jesus Christ travelled to India before his crucifixion, for there was at that time no necessity for it.
It appears that when the Jews of Palestine rejected him, and, according to their belief, crucified him, (although it is a fact that he was mysteriously saved from the accursed death on the cross by God), he thought that he had done his duty towards the people who in spite of all his sympathetic efforts to save them had proved themselves so thoroughly corrupt in heart that they were utterly unfit to receive his sublime message.
In his disappointment, therefore, he turned to God, who informed him that the ten lost tribes of the Israelites had gone to India and it was only at this revelation of God that he turned to the East, where a number of the Israelites had already accepted Buddhism. He must, therefore, have turned his attention naturally to the Buddhists.
Now the leaders of Buddhism, who at that time were expecting the advent of the Buddha again and who, finding that the prophecies of their scriptures were fulfilled by the titles and teachings of Jesus Christ, declared that he was the expected Buddha.
It might also possibly have happened that the teachings and titles of Jesus Christ were attributed, consciously or unconsciously, in those very days to the Buddha, for the Hindus have not always been very exact in keeping historical records.
As the life of the Buddha had not been written by that time, there was considerable opportunity to attribute for pious motives, whatever they liked to the Buddha.
(Transcribed and edited by Al Hakam from the original English, published in the August 1926 issue of The Review of Religions)