It is a commonly-held belief among Christians and Muslims that Jesus(as) rose to heaven, and that his body was never buried. However, recent media coverage has brought the attention of the world to the Rozabal Tomb in Kashmir, said to contain the body of one Yuz Asaf, a name supposedly adopted by Jesus(as) when he was in India. This has reignited widespread debate on this topic. Local tradition states that the entombed was a prophet of Ahl-al-Kitab, or People of the Book (traditionally Christians and Jews), and his name was ‘Isa – the Qur’anic name for Jesus(as).
The proposed burial-place of Jesus(as) in Srinagar, Kashmir, is known to the locals as Rozabal, meaning the ‘Honoured Tomb’. It is known as the tomb of this very Yuz Asaf. The word ‘Yuz’ stands for Yuzu (meaning Jesus), and ‘Asaf’ in Hebrew means gatherer, namely, one who was to collect the lost sheep of Israel. It is said that the Prophet Yuz Asaf arrived from Syria about two thousand years ago.
The question of the identity of Yuz Asaf, however, is a controversial issue. Is Yuz Asaf a name adopted by Jesus Christ(as) when in India? Could this be the tomb of Jesus Christ(as), or is Yuz Asaf as the current caretakers of the tomb have begun to insist, a Muslim saint with no connection to Jesus(as)?
Easter News Coverage
In Easter 2010, several international news organisations and mainstream newspapers around the world ran stories on the Rozabal Tomb in Srinagar, Kashmir. The articles all stated a large increase in the number of visitors to the tomb in Kashmir in recent times. The news organisations, which included the BBC1, The Times in Britain2 and The Times of India3, suggested that there were two main reasons for the increased interest. One is that the latest version of the Lonely Planet travel guide for Kashmir mentions the rumor of the Rozabal Tomb as ‘the Jesus tomb’, inspiring many curious travellers to visit. Secondly, a popular thriller, The Rozabal Line, the plot of which centres on the idea that Rozabal is the tomb of Jesus(as), has enjoyed success in recent months, especially within India4.
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