A LAND OF MYSTERY

New Zealand Tablet, 14 April 1910, Page 579

A LAND OF MYSTERY

The veil of mystery which hung over the Forbidden Land (Tibet) has been lifted by the Younghusband mission (writes 1 Catholicus ’ in the Herald of India), but still there appears to be a popular belief that it is a sealed book to Europe. This is erroneous. No doubt, on account of the difficulty of access, Tibet was long a terra incognita to Europeans, but, as a matter of fact, many Europeans mostly Catholic missionaries—have lived in Tibet from as early a time as the 14th century. The first European visitors to the country were Catholic priests. Friar Odoric of Pardemone reached Lhasa in 1328, travelling from Cathay. Three centuries afterwards, Father Antonio Andrada, of the Society of Jesus, travelling from India, entered Tibet, on the west. Then went Fathers Grueber and D’Orville, who, after visiting Lhasa, came to India, through Nepal. In the 18th century many Capuchin friars passed freely between Delhi and Lhasa, by way either of Nepal or Kashmir. Some of them settled in the Tibetan capital and carried on quiet missionary work. The materials furnished by them, prepared the. ground-work of the celebrated ‘ Alp’habetum Tibetanum.’ The English traveller, George Bogle, who ' went to Tibet on an embassy from Warren Hastings in 1774, received valuable assistance from Catholic missionaries. The barbarous habits of Tibetans prevented organised missionary labors, but conversions were undoubtedly made by Catholic Fathers. In 1623-24 a Jesuit related the story of a Tibetan King disposed to - embrace Christianity. This has lately been verified by Mr. A. H. Francke, of the Moravian Mission, who was deputed by the

Government of India to make an archaeological tour in British ©stern Tibet. Mr. Prancke has not only found the name of this particular king inscribed on votive tablets, but has also seen a short prayer inscribed on a tablet expressing his dissatisfaction with Buddhism. All- this goes to show that there is nothing ever so difficult that a l . J l eur k ather will not attempt and succeed in accomplishing for the glory of the Holy Catholic Church. The history of the Society of Jesus is, indeed, the history of an endless series of triumphs wrought by faith and selfienunciation. Has not' Macaulay said that ‘in spite of oceans and deserts, of hunger and pestilence, of spies and. penal laws, of dungeons and racks, of gibbets and quartering blocks,' Jesuits are to be found in every part of the globe, making converts, and preaching and disputing in tongues of which no other nation of the West would understand a word? Who knows that we may not yet hear of a Catholic Cathedral and a St. Xavier’s College overlooking the palace of the Dalai Lama at Potala?