A Christian decorating a Church in Jammu, India, December 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Channi Anand) CHANNI ANAND / AP There is, in Europe, a whole literature referring to a supposed stay of Jesus in India, Kashmir and in Tibet, dating mainly from the end of the 19th century. A legend which illustrates the paradoxical perception that the West has of the East, made of repulsion-domination and fascination-seduction. The first aspect was expressed economically and militarily: occupation of India and China, creation of “India companies” by Westerners, colonial racism… At the same time, the Orient fascinates: land of spirituality, its languages , such as Sanskrit, exert a tremendous attraction, because they are considered the original languages. This general context favored the emergence, in the West, of the myth of an Eastern Jesus. With modern science, Enlightenment philosophy and secularization, the Churches can no longer claim a monopoly on meaning and truth. Their grip on society is loosening… But spiritual thirst does not subside: it metamorphoses, becoming less ecclesial, less dogmatic. Even the Churches know their “modernists”, their “liberals”. A boon for esotericism, which will thus give rise to a literature marked by the Orient. It is in this esoteric crucible that the legend was born. You have 86.71% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
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