– Joaquim Magalhães de Castro
Father António de Andrade will resume the very same route on June 17, 1625, this time accompanied by the confrere Gonçalo de Souza. The destination would be reached on 18 August, and Souza returned to India shortly after.
On September 10, António de Andrade writes a letter reporting this second trip to Tibet. The year 1626 would be a fruitful one. While in Lisbon, Andrade’s first letter was printed under the title New Discovery of Gram Cathayo or Kingdoms of Tibet, written on November 8, 1624. The priests Estevão Cacela and Joao Cabral left Cochin for Central Tibet somewhere between March 15 or April 30, 1626, determined to set up a Catholic mission there similar to the one at Tsaparang.
At that time, led by Manuel Marques, Fathers João de Oliveira, Francisco Godinho and Alan dos Anjos (from his real name Alain de Beauchere, since he was a Frenchman of nationality) went to the kingdom. They are the ones who on April 12 will lay the foundation stone on what will become the Tsaparang Church dedicated to Our Lady of Hope.
On July 12, Hugli’s first letter from Estevao Cacela is dispatched, and on August 2, he and his companion João Cabral leave Bengal for the north.
The month of August marks the sending of two reports from the Tibetan mission: one from Andrade (the third from his personal account), and another from Father João Godinho. Reports sent, it should be noted, one day apart. When, in October, Cacela and Cabral reach Cooch Bihar, Manuel Marques leaves Tsaparang for India, as this season is marked by successive round trips.
These were epic journeys, made under difficult conditions and often costing the lives of those who made them. From 1626 to 1627 the king of Guge, who had welcomed the Portuguese priests so well, began a persecution of the local monks, which in the medium term will determine the future of the Catholic mission. Creating such a pole of Christendom in such inhospitable lands was a feat, but not enough, for the following spring a mission station would be established in the even more remote village of Rutok, on the border between Ladakh and Ngari, namely Western Tibet.
Perched on a hill overlooking Pangong Lake and at an altitude of 4,000 meters, Rutok is characterized by its layered, whitewashed houses, all walled. At the top of the hill is a grand palace and several red-painted monasteries marking Buddhist territory.
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