[bctt tweet=”Did #unicorns really roam the earth? #spirituality #dalailama” username=”divinelotusheal”]

While reading Secret Lives of the Dalai Lama: The Untold Story of the Holy Men Who Shaped Tibet, from Pre-history to the Present Day (affiliate text link, read the full policy here) by Alexander Norman (Doubleday Press) I came across something that surprised and shocked me.  Here is the summation of what I read:

In October of 1661, Father Johannes Grueber, a 38 year old Jesuit priest, reached Lhasa, the capitol of Tibet, as part of a large traveling party exploring the Eastern region for the first time. He is credited as being among the first Europeans to set foot in the holy city. Unfortunately Grueber did not have the gift of gab, never writing a journal or book recounting his travels.

But another Jesuit priest, Athanasius Kircher, author of a celebrated comprehensive text on China, recounts what Grueber shared with him through occasional letter writing back and forth.

Kircher states that Grueber and his traveling party were “refreshed by the strange and wonderful sight” of the wildlife they encountered, the “tigers, lions, elephants, rhinoceri, leopards, sylvestran bulls, and unicorns,” the last of which, he adds, “are a certain type of horned ass.”

So, if this account is to be believed, could my childhood wish be true? Do, or did at one point, unicorns really exist? I know it is almost impossible to base an opinion on one distant hear say text… but…

 

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