Controversial since it was first published in 1890, Nicolas Notovitch's The Unknown Life of Jesus relates that Jesus Christ spent at least part of the years of his life unaccounted for in the Bible--from the age of 13 to 29--teaching and studying in India and other parts of Asia. Notovitch was on an extended journey through the Orient...to study the customs and habits of the inhabitants of India. During his travels, he visited a Buddhist monastery near Mulbek, close to the Wakha River. Here a Lama told him that Jesus, whom the Buddhists called Issa, had visited the region and that there were...

There is much speculation about where and how Jesus spent his twenties. The bible does not tell us anything about his life during this time. This book by the Russian doctor Nicolas Notovitch is the source of the idea that he might have spent this time in India. The book contains a travelogue of the authors trip through India. Whilst convalescing from a broken leg an ancient manuscript is read to him about Issa. The manunscript allegedly tells of Jesus (Issa) as he treks through India studying the Vedas and Buddhism before he returns to Israel and take up his ministry as it is described in the...