Tibet, Tartary and Mongolia; their Social and Political Condition, and the Religion of Boodh, as there Existing, by Henry T. Prinsep Esq. Second Edition (Wm. H. Allen & Co. London 1852)
Pages 12-14. ‘The earliest travels into Tibet Proper which have been transmitted to us, are those of the Jesuit fathers, Grueber and Dorville, who returned from China by that route in A.D. 1661, just four hundred years after Marco Polo’s journey westward. They were the first Christians of Europe who are known to have penetrated into the populous parts of Tibet; for Marco Polo’s journey was, as we have stated, to the north-west, by the sources of the Oxus. Father Grueber was much struck with the extraordinary similitude he found, as well in the doctrine, as in the rituals, of the Boodhists of Lassa to those of his own Romish faith. He noticed first, that the dress of Lamas corresponded with that handed down to us in ancient paintings, as the dress of the Apostles. 2nd. That the discipline of the monasteries, and of the different orders of Lamas or priests, bore the same resemblance to that of the Romish church. 3rd. That the notion of an incarnation was common to both, so also the belief in paradise and purgatory. 4th. He remarked that they made suffrages, alms, prayers, and sacrifices for the dead, like the Roman Catholics. 5th. That they had convents, filled with monks and friars, to the number of 30,000, near Lassa, who all made the three vows of poverty, obedience, and chastity, like Roman monks, besides other vows. And 6th, that they had confessors, licensed by the superior Lamas, or bishops; and so empowered to receive confessions, and to impose penances, and give absolution. Besides all this, there was found the practice of using holy water, of singing service in alternation, of praying for the dead, and a perfect similarity in the costumes of the great and superior Lamas to those of the different orders of the Romish hierarchy. These early missionaries, further, were led to conclude, from what they saw and heard, that the ancient books of the Lamas contained traces of the Christian religion, which must, they thought, have been preached in Tibet in the time of the Apostles.’
Then concerning the advent of a Saviour, the author H. T. Prinsep writes in the same book (Tibet, Tartary and Mongolia) on page 171:
‘The general expectation of the birth of a great prophet, Redeemer, or Saviour, which is alluded to even by Tacitus, as prevailing at the period when the founder of the Christian religion appeared, was, there can be no doubt, of Boodhistic origin, and not at all confined to Jews, or based only on the prophecies of their Scripture.’
As a foot-note on page 171 the author further wrote:
‘The advent of another Boodh a thousand years after Gotama, or Sakhya Muni, is distinctly prophesied in the Pitakattayan and Attha-katha. Gotama declares himself to be the twenty-fifth Boodh, and says, “Bagawa Metteyo is yet to come.” The name Metteyo bears an extraordinary resemblance to Messiah.’