Capuchin Capers

The lastest foray of Christian missionaries into South Asia began with the arrival of Vasco de Gama on the Indian coast some 500 years ago. As the Catholic missionaries worked their way northward, they heard that there were some lost Christian communities in Tibet. Considering the travel conditions of the time, they made daring probes into the high plateau. By 1626, the Jesuits had established the first Christian church in Tsapang, on the banks of Sutlej in the western Tibetan kingdom of Guge. In 1628, another church appeared in Sighaste, eastern Tibet. Jesuit priest John Carabal was the first non-Asian to set foot in Nepal that year, on his way from Sighaste to Bengal.

After the suppression of the Jesuits by Rome, the responsibility for Tibet was assigned to the Capuchin missionaries in 1703. At first, their attention was focused on Tibet, and it was only when strong Lamaistic opposition daunted the missionaries' will that they turned their attention to Nepal. Incidentally, the first Nepalis to be converted to Christianity were some Kathmandu merchants in Lhasa.