Alguém sabia disto além dos neozelandeses?????
EH!EH!!EH!!!


ANTONIO del ANDRADE
he first European to visit Tibet was the Portuguese Jesuit, Antonio del Andrade. Born in Portugal in 1581, he entered the Jesuit order and at the age of 19 was sent to South India to complete his training. Ordained at the College of St Paul in Goa, he was sent to the Moghul mission in Agra. In 1624 he accompanied the Emperor Jahangir to Lahore where he met a group of Hindu pilgrims travelling towardsTibet. Andrade had long wished to travel to Tibet so he seized the chance to travel with the pilgrims and set out for the Himalaya. Proceeding by way of Hadwar and the gorge of the Alaknanda he reached Badrinath on the northern slopes of the Himalaya. Travelling via the Mana pass he was the first European to cross the Himalaya and descend into Tibet. The thirty one page account of his journeys published in 1626 remains applicable almost four hundred years later:
Immediately beyond this place there rise lofty mountains, behind which lies an awful desert, which is passable only during two months of the year. The journey requires twenty days. As there is an entire absence of trees and plants here, there are no human habitations, and the snowfall is almost uninterrupted; there being no fuel travellers live on roasted barley meal, which they mix with water and drink, taking with them nothing that requires fuel to cook.
Antonio del Andrade, as quoted in, Wessels, C, S.J.
Early Jesuit Travellers in Central Asia 1603 - 1721
Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, 1924
Abandoned by his guides and with only two Christian companions Andrade continued northwards despite heavy snow, intense cold and problems with altitude.
Our feet were frozen and swollen, so much so that we did not feel it when later on they touched a piece of red-hot iron….to this must be added a great aversion to food of any kind, and a violent thirst which could hardly be quenched by eating snow.
ibid
He arrived in Tsaparang (‘Great Residence’) early August 1624 when the kingdom was thriving. Then as now it was a dry infertile region with most of the food imported. However, it is not likely that modern-day travellers would accept the Kashmiri explanation for the region’s barren nature.
From the supplies, such as corn, rice, fruit, grapes which were sent me by the king’s order I cannot but conclude that Tibet is a fertile country, but then the capital is a great exception, for it is the most barren spot I ever saw. ... The food is mainly imported, even figs, peaches and wine, and all his has to come twelve days’ journey..... On account of the sterility of the country, Kashmir merchants say that hell lies just underneath it.
ibid
Despite the harsh environment and isolation, there is no doubt that the kingdom was flourishing. He relates that a caravan of more than 200 traders arrived carrying coarse silks and a great quantity of porcelain from China, an event which was said to happen every year.
During this first stay Andrade was favourably regarded by the king who sent him a departure gift of 2,000 rare figs and a letter of safe conduct. This not only assisted his departure but guaranteed freedom of worship and hinted at the religious intolerance that was to be the downfall of Gu-ge only fifty-six years later.
......we give him full authority to teach us a holy law. .....We shall not allow anyone to molest him in this, and we shall issue orders that he be given a site and all the help needed to build a house of prayer. Moreover, we shall give no credence to any malicious accusations of the Moors against the Padres, because we know that, as they have no law (religion), they oppose those who follow the truth.
ibid
Andrade stayed only twenty five days in Guge and by November was back in Agra writing an account of his travels for publication in Lisbon. A year later he was back in Tsaparang with a Jesuit group. On Easterday, April 12th 1626 he laid the foundation stone of the first Christian church in Tibet. The king had provided an excellent site, close to his palace well positioned to receive the morning sun. To ensure greater privacy a road was shifted to avoid the church area. Andrade set about establishing his mission, communicating his comments in letters back to Goa. In one of these he became the first to publish to the world the ubiquitous Tibetan mantra ‘Om mani padme hum’. Murmured from every lip, wafted onto the winds by countless prayer flags and with a gaze unblinking from the carved stones atop every pass, the echo of this invocation permeates the great spaces of Tibet. Andrade was unable to offer a translation as none of the lamas could furnish a reasonable explanation to all his questions. Other authors offer interpretations of this mantra.
"It will be one of the most flourishing (missions)..." Andrade wrote in 1627 with what was to prove misplaced optimism. The Tsaparang mission was not a success. Brother Manuel Marques, who had accompanied Andrade on his initial mission was still there in 1642 but by 1650 the mission was abandoned. There were several reasons for failure. There had always been opposition from the Jesuits in Goa and those sent to Tibet after Andrade's death lacked his vision and vigor. Of more significance was the overthrow of the Guge kingdom in 1630 which led to a loss of royal patronage and the eventual terminal decline of Guge.
The king’s favourable attitude towards the Jesuits stirred hostility in the local clergy and an eighteen year war with Ladakh further weakened the royal position. Andrade was recalled to Goa in 1629 and the next year a revolution saw king and family carried of to Leh and the kingdom conquered. Christians, numbering about 400 (some authorities think this figure wildly inflated) were singled out for retribution; many were reduced to slavery or had to share the king’s exile.
Although the house and church of the missionaries was sacked there was no loss of life. The missionaries re-established themselves but in such changed circumstance that by 1650 the Tsaparang mission had foundered.
Andrade had died suddenly in 1634 while preparing to return to Tibet. It is thought he was poisoned. The stories vary. One says that he was poisoned by a servant, the son of someone Andrade was planning to report to the Inquisition, while contemporary accounts suggest either a Portuguese man or ‘the Mohammedans’ as responsible.
A great explorer from more modern times had this to say of Andrade:
He stands like a milestone on the highroad of the centuries, a boundary cliff in the stream of time, and he marks the point from which the history of Tibetan exploration really begins.
Hedin, S Trans-HimalayaVol III, 1913
http://www.greenkiwi.co.nz/footprints/frames/gu.htm