Image- Nicolas Notovitch

Painting and Sketches/Nicolas Notovitch

Nicolas Notovitch

A Lost Years image

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Nicolas Notovitch might well have disappeared from history if it were not for the Tibetan documents he allegedly discovered and had translated in a Himis monastery. He is not referenced in the 2008 Encyclopedia Britannica and any mention of him on the internet always refers to him in context to his book The Unknown Years of Jesus Christ.

He was born in the Crimea in 1858 but no one knows when or where he died
as a record of his death has not been located.
He was probably born a Jew but converted to Russian Orthodoxy.
He may or may not have been a war correspondent, but it is agreed he was a journalist and wrote in Russian and French at least 11-12 books—primarily dealing with politics of Russia. He was known then by the elite of Europe for they studied his books. Some of the titles include Russia and the English Alliance: A Historical and Political Study; The Czar, His Army and Navy; and
The Pacification of Europe and Nicholas II.
However, the one book that brought him unusual fame was the same and only religious book he is known to write.
But it was enough to get his footprint off the beach and his initials chiseled into the rock.

After the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-78 Notovich traveled around the near east: India, Afghanistan and elsewhere to finally land in a Tibetan monastery in Himis. There Notovich contends the chief lama there made available to him some documents that relate to the travels of Jesus in India and elsewhere. Notovitch had the old manuscripts translated then published into a book entitled the
Unknown life of Jesus Christ.

This book generated immediate attention and enduring controversy.
It challenged the longstanding tradition that Jesus stayed in Israel all his life.
Perhaps the biggest problem was no one could confirm the existence of the documents or that even that Notovitch visited the monastery. Follow up visits by various investigators shortly after publication
could not verify Notovitch’s claim.

Notovitch was branded as a fraud and endlessly criticized. However, Notovitch did not spend much time mounting a defense but faded back into obscurity. A more detailed dissertation of that controversy is discussed here. The Notovitch story might have ended there—if it were not for subsequent sightings of the elusive Issa manuscripts.