Tourists stand outside the Rozabal Shrine.
SRINAGAR, INDIAN-ADMINISTERED KASHMIR – In the heart of the busy, old city of Srinagar, a small single-story shrine lies hidden in a maze of alleys. A fence hides the small compound hide it further from view.
One sign warns that photography is prohibited. A second declares the site to be the burial ground of Muslim saints Yuz Azaf and Syed Naseerudin. The third sign makes an ambiguous reference to the Quran, the Bible and the final moments in the life of Jesus Christ.
The signs give clues to the controversy surrounding the tombs inside the compound of the Rozabal Shrine.
At the shrine, a small, open window faces the street. A rose is on the windowsill. Passersby stop and pray while peeping into the window. Currency notes and coins tossed in by devotees are scattered on the floor.
Unlike most shrines here, the Rozabal Shrine is open only on the 13th of Islamic months for prayers. And it is always closed to tourists, thanks to a controversy that has brought unwanted international attention to the shrine.
The Rozabal Shrine owes its international fame to a disputed belief that Jesus Christ is buried here, thanks to a blurb in the famed tourist guide Lonely Planet and a host of theories that claim Jesus spent much of his life in India.
Kashmir Valley is home to hundreds of shrines, small and large, scattered across its landscape. Throngs of visitors crowd many of them year-round. But the Rozabal Shrine is different. Internationally, it is likely one of the best-known shrines, yet it attracts the fewest visitors. These days, no tourists are allowed even near the site.
Until eight years ago, the shrine was relatively unknown. Then, the Lonely Planet Travel Guide wrote about the shrine and suggested some believed it was the final resting place of Jesus Christ. The mention brought a flock of Western tourists into the otherwise silent alleys of the area.
Local residents became angry about the influx of visitors because many said the claim contradicted their religion and devalued the saints buried inside.
Islamic scholars argue that the Quran says Jesus did not die, but rather was taken up to Allah. So the idea that Jesus is buried there amounts to blasphemy, according to locals.
As the number of foreign visitors to Rozabal continued to rise, one visitor was a controversial U.S.-based writer, who claimed to be a descendent of Jesus. Her requests to exhume the remains prompted caretakers to make an unusual decision – to close the shrine, at least to foreigners. Eight years later, local leaders say nothing has changed or will change.
“It is over eight years now since we had to close the shrine,” says Mohammad Amin Ringshawl, the president of the local mosque committee that looks after the shrine. “We were facing lots of problems with people coming to say that Jesus is buried here. It is against the teachings of [the] Quran.”
Lonely Planet has since added a disclaimer to its entry about the alleged tomb of Jesus in its latest edition for India, warning about the controversy.
One local youth, who would not give his name, says he speaks for the whole community when he tells foreigners to leave the shrine area.
“This is a shrine of a Muslim saint, and that is all you need to know – nothing more, nothing less,” he says. “This is our shrine. We can get killed or kill if someone tries to lay claim on it.”
Locals often harass tour guides, and members of the media have received much criticism in the past for drawing attention to the shrine.
Although Lonely Planet may have popularized the notion of Jesus coming to India, it is certainly not a new notion. More than a century ago, Louis Jacolliot, a French barrister, colonial judge, author and lecturer, first wrote about the theory that Jesus lived in India in his book published in 1869. In 1890, Nicolas Notovitch, a Russian author, wrote a book in which he described Jesus’ coming to India and living and studying Buddhism there during the years that are unaccounted for in traditional texts.
Several more modern theories support the view that Jesus traveled to India, and probably Kashmir, during his lifetime, citing the missing details of Jesus’ life from ages 12 to 30. The theory supporting the view that Rozabal is also the tomb of Jesus suggests that Jesus survived the crucifixion and traveled east and ended up in Kashmir, where he was respected as a preacher and died in old age. Fida Hassnain, a renowned Kashmiri historian and scholar, supports that theory.
Hassnain says Rozabal is home to the tomb of Jesus, citing the alignment of the grave and details from the era of Yuz Azaf, a saint who is believed to have lived around 30 A.D., long before the rise of Islam.
Hassnain says that the direction of Yuz Azaf’s grave is east-west, which is in line with Jewish tradition rather than the north-south tradition of Islam. Hassnain has co-authored books on the subject with Suzanne Olsson, a researcher in New York who claims to be the 59th descendent of Jesus.
Still, Hassnain is in the minority here. The claims that Jesus is buried here angers local Christians and Muslims alike.
In 2002, the situation at Rozabal escalated. Olsson visited Kashmir and proposed that the remains of the controversial figure be exhumed so DNA tests could be performed. Local residents flew into an uproar that continues today.
According to Ringshawl, of the local mosque association, Olsson approached the mosque committee about exhuming the body. Ringshawl says the committee feared she would plant evidence to support her theory in the tomb if given access. From then on, the tomb has been closed to foreigners.
“We feared she might succeed in putting something [in] the shrine by other means, which may corroborate her claim, so we closed the shrine,” says Ringshawl, adding that they filed a report at the local police station and had her visa canceled.
Today, Olsson is working on a project called “The DNA of God Project,” which is not limited to Rozabal but also includes other related graves in Pakistan and Tibet, according to her Web site.
According to her site, Olsson, who did not return requests for comment, wants to carry out a comprehensive archaeological survey at each site known to have religious importance and analyze any DNA that can be recovered from bone fragments or other available objects.
Despite the fact that Olsson’s visit was more than eight years ago, Kashmiri locals say the debate rages on. Mosque authorities say they do not want to risk opening the shrine to foreigners.
These days, the occasional tourist group still stops by the Rozabal Shrine. Their presence irks local residents and the tensions remain.
