17 Years in Tibet: Where Did Jesus Wander?
Every year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the Festival of the Passover. When he was 12 years old, they went up to the festival, according to the custom. After the festival was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it… After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions and all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.” (Luke, II, 41 – 46)
The Finding of the Savior in the Temple by William Holman Hunt (1860) Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (Public Domain)
Jesus’ Lost Years
And then what? What happened to the 'Divine Child' after he was found teaching the elders in the temple, amazing all with his enlightened knowledge? His trace is lost in the Canonical Gospels, until he reappears around the age of 30. Where was Jesus before the "... 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar [ from 14 to 37 A.D. ] when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea and Herod was governor of the district of Galilee "(Luke, III, 1), until the time during which "Jesus Himself, when He began [His work] was about 30 years old." (Luke, III, 23)?
Where did a man who left an indelible mark on the history of civilization, culture and the lives of a large part of the Western world spend those very long 17 years? This was a man whose conception and birth are said to have taken place in the most unusual circumstances, when wise magi from the east come to pay homage to him, and whose almost every moment of his last three years of earthly existence is recorded. This was a man who since his 13th birthday, has lost his 18th, 20th and 25th birthdays to oblivion, only to enter the public arena when at the age of 30, "he came therefore from Galilee to Jordan by John, to be baptized by him" (Matthew, III, 13).
Al-Maghtas ruins on the Jordanian side of the Jordan River are the location for the baptism of Jesus and the ministry of John the Baptist. (CC BY-SA 2.5)
Could this man be, Yuzu Asaph, whom Professor Fida M. Hassnain - former director of the Archaeological Museum of Kashmir - describes in his essay 'In the footsteps of Jesus the Essene,' as Issa or Jeoshua?
The Notorious Nicolas Notovitch
In 1894, a certain Nicolas Notovitch, born in Crimea in 1858, considered by some to be a doctor and by others to be a journalist and writer – an author of 11 books, some on history and politics - published 'The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ', based on his experiences of traveling to Ladakh, a region of Kashmir, bordered by Tibet in the east.
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