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124 - JESUS IN INDIA: A ROAD MAP OF HIS LOST YEARS

Frank Jacobs on June 3, 2007, 6:34 PM
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ABOUT STRANGE MAPS

Frank Jacobs loves maps, but finds most atlases too predictable. He collects and comments on all kinds of intriguing maps real, fictional, and what-if onesand has been writing the Strange Maps blog since 2006, first on WordPress and now for Big Think. His map "US States Renamed For Countries With Similar GDPs" has been viewed more than 587,000 times. An anthology of maps from this blog was published by Penguin in 2009 and can be purchased from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Frank can be reached at strangemaps@gmail.com.
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If I recall correctly from my quite incomplete study of the Bible, Jesus biography is missing a big chunk in the middle: nothing is known of his doings between ages 12 and 30. Some have speculated that Jesus must have travelled to the East in those formative years, achieving and imparting wisdom along the way. In Srinagar, in the Indian state of Kashmir, theres even a shrine of which it is said that it is Jesus tomb implying that he didnt die on the cross, nor did he go to heaven (as claimed by the Muslims). The Roza Bal shrine is revered by Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists. The Muslim sect of the Ahmadiyyas positively identifies the shrine as the tomb of Yuz Asaf i.e. Jesus. Other beliefs about Yuz Asaf include that: he married a woman called Meryem (Mary), who bore him a number of children; until recently, the shrine was guarded by the descendants of the sage buried in the tomb. he lived to be about 110 years old his mother Mary died when he was 38 and is buried in Mai Mari da Ashtan in the town of Murree (Pakistan) Apart from figuring prominently in Ahmadiyya religious practice, the Indian Jesus has been adopted by some in the New Age movement and by others seeking to distinguish Jesus teachings from his divinity. Some find in the story of Jesus eastward wanderings proof of links between Judeo-Christian and Buddhist teachings. This map, documenting Jesus supposed trek from Jerusalem over Tehran and Kabul to Srinagar, taken from this Ahmadiyya website.

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http://bigthink.com/ideas/21175[15/06/2011 12:50:50]

124 - Jesus In India: A Road Map of His Lost Years | Strange Maps | Big Think
Tags: 1st Century Map, asia, Indian Subcontinent
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on June 4, 2007, 3:46 AM

Jesus went even further east, dying in Aomori, northern Japan, where his grave is... Can we start counting the graves? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/5326614.stm

on June 4, 2007, 12:25 PM

Two reasons this is highly improbably: 1. 11 out of 12 of his apostles were eventually executed because they kept insisting he rose from the dead. So they knew he was really in India, but they just kept agitating until they were killed anyway? Why? For the fun of it? 2. Buddha, Confucious, Mohammed, we know where all their graves are. Why? Because they were so bloody famous that people REMEMBERED WHERE THEY BURIED THEM. We remember where Jesus was buried also, but somehow he's the only major world religion founder whose tomb is empty. Hmmmmm...

on June 4, 2007, 11:45 PM

@ John: Buddha is not a person, but the highest state of enlightenment and 28 people are said to have reached it. The historical founder of Buddhism, Siddhrtha Gautama, was cremated after his death (which date is uncertain), so there's no grave. Confucius was a philosopher, not a religious leader.

on June 5, 2007, 8:53 AM

Though a trip to India would explain some of the eastern saying he has in the gospel of thomas.

on June 6, 2007, 4:49 AM

Whats the fun of looking for a grave! you won't find him in there anyway. Lets invest the energies in something related to those alive. No?

on June 8, 2007, 4:54 AM

John M: Jesus was not a famous person at the time of his death. It took decades before he became famous.

on June 8, 2007, 2:43 PM

Re: #2 Sorry, John M, but there is no evidence that the "apostles" actually existed,

http://bigthink.com/ideas/21175[15/06/2011 12:50:50]

124 - Jesus In India: A Road Map of His Lost Years | Strange Maps | Big Think much less that most of them were "martyred," especially since each apostle has several conflicting traditions about their deaths. "We remember where Jesus was buried" -- right: Your choice of three different places. Are you sure the tombs of those other religious figures have bodies?

on June 12, 2007, 4:16 AM

Muslims believe that Jesus was not killed on the cross. The Quran says :"yet they did not slay him, neither crucified him, only a likeness of that was shown to them." Jesus is still alive with God. By the way, most Mulims do not accept the Ahmadi movement followers as Muslims because they have views different from them. You can check the Wikipedia article about Jesus.

on June 12, 2007, 2:44 PM

[...] Jesus trip to India [...]

on June 12, 2007, 3:09 PM

CortxVortx - Have you been paying attention regarding the existence of the apostles? Peter's tomb has been found in Rome, pretty much where tradition had it, under the high altar of St. Peter's Basilica. You can find the details of the archeological proofs in John Evangelist Walshs book, The Bones of St. Peter. Ah well, a lot of people just make stuff up about how inconvenient people didn't really exist. They usually call that tactic "orwellian".

on June 12, 2007, 3:25 PM

John M makes a fairly unremarkable orthodox statement and encounters all the usual partial truths in response. People just have these lines on disk, which they spit out whenever the subject gets near them. As to Jesus and Eastern thought, Chesterton said it best: "She was one of those people who told you that Christianity and Buddhism taught the same thing - especially Buddhism."

on June 18, 2007, 5:25 AM

[...] ms propuestas interesantes en Strange Maps: desde el supuesto recorrido que realiz Jess en los aos en la poca de su vida que la Biblia parece ignorar, hasta un [...]

on June 19, 2007, 4:55 AM

Mapa de los aos perdidos de Jesucristo Siempre se ha especulado (y no con mucha base) sobre los aos de la vida no pblica de Jesucristo, que van desde los 12 a los 30 aos. Se ha dicho de todo, y una de las teoras ms famosas es la que afirma que pas esos aos en la India, que era...

on June 21, 2007, 11:58 AM

Surprisingly, no one has mentioned a novel about this very topic. It's very funny, and although a wishy-washy Christian might find it offensive, it amused my Jewish husband and I (a Christian) so much we bought the book and have read it aloud together more than once. Written by Christopher Moore, it's titled, "Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal." It tells of their childhood together and their journey east in search of the three wise men. And along the way it includes some excellent lessons.

on June 27, 2007, 5:03 AM

http://bigthink.com/ideas/21175[15/06/2011 12:50:50]

124 - Jesus In India: A Road Map of His Lost Years | Strange Maps | Big Think Actually Thomas's travels to India would explain "eastern saying he has in the gospel of thomas" and not Jesus's possible trip. I have actually visited the said tomb and it's a bit dingey, not frequented that often, difficult to enter and smells slightly of urine. The theory told to me by the local who took it upon himself to show me around was after Jesus was resurected he didn't ascend to heaven but instead travelled to India to live out his life with Mary it much the same way as was depected in the film The Last Temptation of Christ.

on July 6, 2007, 10:56 AM

Great post, man. Great post. Always wondered where he went off to. Always wondered how he turnes water into wine. Always wondered why he always wore the same pair of sandals.

on July 12, 2007, 2:05 PM

I've been to Jesus' alleged tomb in Srinigar in Kashmir. They've built a mosque around it and it is quite beautiful. I couldn't think of a nicer place to spend eternity.

on September 19, 2007, 1:55 AM

If you ask me this is all foolishness to attract tourists. Jesus promised after his death he would rise and then come back, he said not even he himself knows the time only the father. When the apostles saw him rise to heaven they made it up? For What reason? There are atleast two places claiming to have Jesus body inside a tomb, Shingho in Japan and now this place Srinigar. Both places are claiming they are telling the truth about having Jesus's body in their tombs. Jesus can't be buried in two places at once, so who's telling the truth? Then in Srinigar they are claiming Jesus lived to be 110 years old and in Shingho they are claiming he lived to be 106 and died there. Which one is it? I find it funny that a man who was crucified, died, and then rose was seen traveling east after his resurection and no one from the holy land bothered to travel to see how true it is. This is all just something to attract tourists to make these towns or villages some money.

on October 1, 2007, 1:21 AM

It is very probably that Jesus returned to his home of spiritual teachers in India where he was trained during his young days. Jesus was as a child very attached to spirituality and he was for sure attracted to many stories he listened about ancient holly land of India told by merchants who in those days come from India to Palestina. For very eager kid, as was young Jesus, who looked for spiritual wisdom in those days it was not impossible to reach India from Palestina traveling by merchants. After many years spent in learning and practicing Vedic bhakti spiritual process and after He become fully enlightened personality, Jesus naturally wanted to help spiritually his fellow-peasants from his youth and therefore He returned to his birth place. But in his birth land Jesus wisdom was not wellcommed and Jesus was almost killed for spreading eternal spiritual teachings (his revolutionary message usurped some political levels and therefore his elimination was wanted) . After He survived death penalty it was logical that Jesus escaped further eventual death treaths by going to remote land he gained his spiritual edication India. God dont need nor blood nor death for anybodies spiritual salvation and God specially grant His special mercy upon His preachers whom He protects. Preacher of Jesus rank would enjoy all Gods protection and therefore would be almost immposible to even hurt Him what to speak of killing Him. Yes, Jesus suffered a lot, as every spiritual master have to suffer for sins of His accepted disciples due to accepted bad karma of such disciples, but for sure Jesus didnt die on the cross. Nor God wanted Jesus death on the cross. All of such ignorant ideas are constructed by later gentile (Jesus was born and raised in his early days as a jew) church speculators beggining with st. Paul who never saw Jesus during His lifetime. Paulinism was rooted in paganism which existed with all such ideas as goddying-savior, eternal punishment, etc. much before christianity. Paul cunningly attached known paganistic elements to His picture of Jesus becouse He (Paul) preached to pagans; Paul idea was that pagans will be attracted to only such (paganistic) Jesus. Movement which sustained for some time original Jesus teachings was Jewish Christianity but it was proclaimed as heretic by latter

http://bigthink.com/ideas/21175[15/06/2011 12:50:50]

124 - Jesus In India: A Road Map of His Lost Years | Strange Maps | Big Think gentile church. Therefore original teachings of Jesus was destorted into paganistic idea and nowadays we cant know much about it. But we could know for sure that it was not some wierd paganistic idea, full of blood, suffering, cross or eternal hell, but it was idea of complete surrender to God in loving servitorship. It is very probably that Jesus returned to his home of spiritual teachers in India where he was trained during his young days. Jesus was as a child very attached to spirituality and he was for sure attracted to many stories he listened about ancient holly land of India told by merchants who in those days come from India to Palestina. For very eager kid, as was young Jesus, looking for spiritual wisdom in those days it was not impossible to reach India from Palestina. After many years spent in learning and practicing Vedic bhakti spiritual process and after He become fully enlightened personality, Jesus naturally wanted to help spiritually

on November 22, 2007, 11:33 AM

The book (linked in this post) The Rozabal Line says that "A triple conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in a given year was very rare indeed. This conjunction in which the two planets seemed to almost touch one another occurred on May 29th, October 3rd and finally on December 5th in the year 7 B.C." and that three Buddhist wise men observing this astronomical miracle were convinced that a reincarnation of Buddha had arrived on Earth. These three wise men found Jesus and took him to India to tutor him in spirituality. This accounts for the "lost years". The author, Shawn Haigins, says that the very same process of discovering a "reincarnation" was adopted in 1935 when Tibetan Buddhists were searching for Tenzin Gyatso, the Dalai Lama.

on December 9, 2007, 3:13 PM

It's incredible that anybody could walk that distance, and the fact that Jesus probably walked this route makes it all the more valuable. I wonder how many devout Christians are going to use this map today.

on February 27, 2008, 6:16 AM

It's a pretty normal map. I mean, I could have drawn it quite easily :) As for Jesus' early years, it's pretty common known that he was a carpenter and was doing what carpenters did during those times before he started being a Rabbi. This is evident from the Gospels themselves, where a lot of people that he would have been in contact with seem to remember him (like his home town etc.) He would have needed to finance a trip like this himself, and what for? To learn what the Eastern's said? He could have done that quite easily through books and scrolls at the time anyway. It's a real conspiracy theory, but it actually backs any real evidence. Most historians really don't believe it (incidentally, most historians also do not back up this idea that Jesus and his disciples didn't even exist.) You have to have a heck of a lot of evidence to prove that, and most of the conspiracy theorists have come up with pretty much nothing (except theories.)

on April 22, 2008, 5:35 AM

Wow! When I first read your post I was reminded of the novel entitled The Da Vinci Code. I said to myself, Not again. This made me wonder about your religion, too. Not that Im a close-minded person but if Jesus indeed married someone or didnt die on a cross, then these things could have been investigated. Where are the children? Why arent they coming out to defend their father Jesus? Whats inside the tomb? If its indeed where Jesus was buried then the Catholic Church could have investigated it and turned it into a world heritage. Its just frustrating that some people have nothing else to do but cause a stir.

on May 18, 2008, 11:15 AM

Please visit my blog too...I studied the lost years of Jesus for several years...Will be updating every week... http://jesusofeastandwest.blogspot.com/

http://bigthink.com/ideas/21175[15/06/2011 12:50:50]

124 - Jesus In India: A Road Map of His Lost Years | Strange Maps | Big Think

on July 15, 2008, 4:59 PM

Jesus, mas de 2000years de su muerte y resurreccion hasta estos tiempos sigue siendo tema de que hablar si hubiera sido otro profeta mas como muchos dicen creo que no estuviera en tema de la gente y ya lo hubieran olvidado,pues si hubieran encontrado su tumba ya se hubiera olvidado,a que vino a este mundo, recordemos que las declaraciones de Jesus son mas controversiales que cualquier otro hombre en la historia del mundo,recordemos que casi todos aceptamos que existe un Dios pero en aquellos tiempos nadien declaro ni buda ,ni confucius, ni muhamed ,nadien que era el hijo de Dios con la autoridad como lo hizo Jesucristo.

on August 13, 2008, 6:11 PM

@ Asch : do you not think the other way around , and translation of the ayah yuo doing goes like this Al-Nisa' Chapter 4 : Verse 158 And for their saying, 'We did slay the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah;' whereas they slew him not, nor did they bring about his death upon the cross, but he was made to appear to them like one crucified; and those who differ therein are certainly in a state of doubt about it; they have no certain knowledge thereof, but only pursue a conjecture; and they did not arrive at a certainty concerning it. and is this verse not sketches kashmir [23:51] And We made the son of Mary and his mother a Sign, and gave them shelter on an elevated land of green valleys and springs of running water.

on November 6, 2008, 12:12 PM

It is quite easy to speculate where Jesus MIGHT have traveled during what so many are calling His "lost years." History is not written about people who are not at the forefront of controversy. Many things that have been stated here are wrong. Jesus public ministry did not start until he was 30 years old, so facts about his lost years are all speculated. The one mention of His adventure at 12 years old was learned from Mary, His mother, who relayed it only to Luke because he was trying to put together a complete account of His life. Jesus did not have any life out of the ordinary until His public ministry started. Not to mention, India by about 185 BC became an increasingly hostile area having moved from the Maurya Empire into 4 other empires: the Chera, Chola, Pandyan, and Satavahan Empires. During times like these, countries are not known as places to visit but to stay away from; and in addition, India most likely were exporting goods which means trade was easier with other countries like Israel so countries would send out people not bring them in. The Magi who visited Jesus at His birth were able to come because export and international travel was easier for native Indians. Also, these Magi did not take Jesus with them to train Him. Certain accounts have the Magi leaving Jesus where they found Him. At this time in History, Eastern traditions in understanding met with Greek traditions of understanding. Jesus did not need to leave His country to learn what could be learned in His own neighborhood. The Indo-Greek Kingdom founded by Demetrius of Alexander about 185 ensured this for Israelis.

on March 2, 2009, 5:36 AM

I would say that Jesus came to India for a rock concert and for promoting his latest album- My Sacrifice. He sold out shows. Then him, Krishna , Mohammad, and Buddha got together and started a group called K.M.B.J-Kind Mortals Barely Jest. They won their first grammy for that classic number- "Just call ny name and I'll be there" and ended their collaboration with the tear-jerking "You are not alone".

on May 11, 2009, 3:39 AM

thanks for this map..goodluck

on May 17, 2009, 1:25 AM

http://bigthink.com/ideas/21175[15/06/2011 12:50:50]

124 - Jesus In India: A Road Map of His Lost Years | Strange Maps | Big Think merci

on June 12, 2009, 5:35 PM

teekkr ederim

on July 3, 2009, 12:16 AM

Vielen Dank

on July 4, 2009, 2:58 AM

Muchas gracias

on August 12, 2009, 2:25 PM

Good map.

on August 17, 2009, 9:21 PM

As vidas anteriores de Jesus... Jesus segundo os sbios videntes foi Josu, que sucedeu Moiss, o condutor do povo hebreu terra nova, foi o profeta Eliseu, mago sucessor do profeta Elias (reencarnao de Moiss), foi ainda o rei Salomo, o rei sbio, e por fim foi Jesus. ......

on November 25, 2009, 2:00 AM

Let me ask you this question: When you happened to be famous, and the crowds in your hometown started to wonder each other, "Is this not him the son of so and so, whose parents we know exactly?", what initial knowledge about you do you think this wonder was based on? When Jesus became famous, the crowds wondered, "Is this not Jesus the son of Joseph the carpenter?" On what previous knowledge about Jesus do you think they questioned? On the knowledge that Jesus was around his father all the time, helping his father making your wardrobe! Jesus didn't have the lost years as the world speculated. He's there, helping his father making furnitures. He's not lost to India or Tibet or everywhere. Such thing is a mind-wandering of people who don't read bible with spirit but with mind. Lost in mind-wandering, like habitual us. Why I dare to tell you this? Because this is the truth Jesus spoke in my heart when I asked him: "Where were you actually, Lord, during those unwritten years?" So, why don't you start having conversations with Jesus and confirms with him what you have discovered in your mind-wandering, a habit we inherited from Cain as a punishment to his murdering sin.

on January 4, 2010, 8:30 PM

Why are there so many narrow minded religious freaks out there, it absolutley beggars belief. How do people know that Jesus never visited India? Were they there or something? The Middle East and India are very close geographically, so why not? The bottom line is that these Idiots cant accept theories differing from their own narrow views, they argue about facts, completely ignoring the reasoning that their own 'facts' are based on other Writers' opinions (not on their own research, as they would love you to believe). The truth, is that Jesus

http://bigthink.com/ideas/21175[15/06/2011 12:50:50]

124 - Jesus In India: A Road Map of His Lost Years | Strange Maps | Big Think is a very controversial subject, but an open mind should be kept as to his movements during his glorious and inspirational life. He may have quite possibly influenced more than just a couple of religions, and that may have been acheived via travel. We dont honestly know. please stop being so cocksure of your opinions.

on April 11, 2010, 6:22 PM

Lee- Pot meet Kettle... It is natural to be curious about what isn't written. Whether Jesus did or didn't travel to India doesn't bother me a bit.

on April 19, 2010, 4:14 AM

ALL THIS ACCUMLATED HISTORY BLOWS MY MIND, I HAVE TRAVELED ALL OVER INDIA, SHRINAGAR, LADAK, TIBET,DARGELING,AND DOWN THE SOUTH, HOME OF THOMAS. THANKS.

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