Skip to main content

Local community say no - Jesus is not buried in Kashmir




For centuries, and recently in the light of new books and films, people claim that Jesus Christ was buried in Kashmir. Is this true? The local community says no (dna, India, February 1, 2016).

The local community in Srinigar have long remembered claims that Kashmir’s Rozabal shrine is the burial place of Jesus of Nazareth. It is said that Jesus survived the crucifixion and spent the rest of his years in Kashmir, and that the shrine was his final resting place.

Kashmiri scholar, Shoib-Bin Mukhtar, who lives near the shrine, says that Ghulam Ahmad Mirza, the founder of the Ahmadiyah religion, initiated the ‘Jesus theory’ in his 19th-century book Raz-i-Haqiqat by stating that Jesus was buried at Rozabal Khanyar. Mirza based his claim on an ‘investigative report’ by his follower Mawlawi Abd Allah Sahab Kashmiri. The local community has always refuted this, stating at the time that Jesus is not buried in Kashmir.

In the 1990s American author Suzanne Olsson went to Kashmir to collect DNA genetic evidence from the shrine. The local community objected to her attempts to dig up the shrine and the police were called over the issue. In 2005 she published a book called Jesus in Kashmir: The Lost Tomb. Dan Brown’s 2003 book The Da Vinci Code and the 2006 movie alluded to the theory and further fueled the debate.

Fida Hassnain, Kashmiri author of Jesus in Kashmir, also claims that Jesus is buried at Rozabal, because it was mentioned in the local history long before Mirza’s manuscript. The shrine of Muslim saints, Hazrat Youza Asif and Syed Naseer-ud-Din, are also receiving attention because Hassnain claims that Youza Asif is not an Arabic or Muslim name. He claims that it is a Hebrew name, which he says proves that Jesus is buried in Kashmir.

The Rozabal shrine, in the Old City, is open on the 13th day of each month. The site bans the taking of photographs and videos.

The local community maintain that the shrine is attracting attention for the wrong reasons. They say the shrine is becoming a commercial attraction designed to make money from tourists, and that tourists are viewing it as an attraction erroneously – often making surreptitious attempts to take photographs.

The caretakers of the shrine launched a campaign to reject the ‘Jesus theory’ by giving lessons to visitors about the shrine, the site, and its history and religion. In an attempt to clear the myth, the local community installed a notice board with quoted verses from the Q’ran and the Bible that disprove the ‘Jesus theory.’

The century-old controversy continues, while the local community insist that the answer is no, Jesus is not buried in Kashmir.


http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-christ-s-tomb-in-kaskmir-rozabal-shrine-in-spotlight-over-century-old-debate-2172873


MARTINA NICOLLS is the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The acacia thorn trees of Kenya

There are nearly 800 species of acacia trees in the world, and most don’t have thorns. The famous "whistling thorn tree" and the Umbrella Thorn tree of Kenya are species of acacia that do have thorns, or spines. Giraffes and other herbivores normally eat thorny acacia foliage, but leave the whistling thorn alone. Usually spines are no deterrent to giraffes. Their long tongues are adapted to strip the leaves from the branches despite the thorns. The thorny acacia like dry and hot conditions. The thorns typically occur in pairs and are 5-8 centimetres (2-3 inches) long. Spines can be straight or curved depending on the species. MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Suda...
1 comment
Read more

Hop on hop off bus tourism comes to Tbilisi, Georgia

City Sightseeing buses have arrived in Tbilisi. The iconic red double-decker buses, a feature of many cities around the world since the company was established in Seville, Spain in 1999, is now in six continents and almost 100 cities. The company established its Tbilisi business in November 2013, with its operations commencing in February 2014. The 90-minute tour stops at 11 major locations in Tbilisi (with 2 to 5 minute waiting times at each location): the Old City (where it commences), Freedom Square, Rose Revolution Square, Marjanishvili Square, the Dry Bridge, Konka, Avlabari, Metekhi, Akhundov Museum, the Sulfur Baths, and European Square. Passengers can hop off at any stop and see the sights, hopping back onto the next bus at any time. Alternatively, passengers can remain on the bus for the whole tour and take photographs when the bus stops at each location. There are one day (24-hour) passes (for 35 lari – about $20) and 48-hour passes for 55 lari, with family d...
2 comments
Read more

The Knight in the Panther Skin by Shota Rustaveli (2015 translation): book review

The Knight in the Panther Skin (12th century, this edition 2015) is a recent translation by American poet and author, Lyn Coffin. The author, Shota Rustaveli, is Georgia’s most loved poet. This poem is mammoth, a magnum opus – it is 1,656 verses long, separated by chapters. But readers, don’t give up, because every verse is worth reading. It is akin to 1001 Arabian Knights, Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, or Shakespearean poetry. King Rostevan of Arabia has a daughter, Tinatin. She loves the knight Avtandil and he loves her. Verse 368 from Avtandil: ‘The doctor’s could do nothing. A dark twilight on my heart now pressed, I was on fire because of love, but nobody knew or guessed. They blamed my blood. The king decided bleeding my arm would be best; I let it be done to hide the suffering I had not confessed.’ But a knight in panther skin is seen weeping, and subsequently kills the king’s soldiers, sparing the king. Before Tinatin weds Avtandil she r...
Post a Comment
Read more