Heart of Asia by Nicholas Roerich, 1st ed.

Heart of Asia, Nicholas Roerich. Roerich Museum Press, New York. First edition, 1929. 1930 reprint. Good condition. Cover has stains, soiling, and discolorations, wear at corners. Foxing (spots) at fore edges. Name and address of former owner on front free endpaper. Tanned, unmarked pages, with significant foxing at the beginning of Part II.

Nicholas Roerich was a Russian painter, writer, archaeologist, and philosopher who traveled extensively in Asia, including India and Tibet. He contributed nearly two dozen articles to Paramahansa Yogananda’s magazines, East West and Inner Culture, including one titled “Christ Legends in Asia,” and when he died in 1947, an In Memoriam of Dr. Roerich was included in the March-April 1948 issue of East-West magazine.

During his travels in India and Tibet, he came across documents about Issa (Jesus) and his time spent in the region during his “lost years” from ages 12 to 30. In Sri Yogananda’s book The Second Coming of Christ, he cites Roerich’s mention of this in both Heart of Asia and Altai-Himalaya. On page 82, he quotes from Heart of Asia (p 22): “In Srinagar we first encountered the curious legend about Christ’s visit to this place. Afterwards we saw how widely spread in India, in Ladak and in Central Asia, was the legend of the visit of Christ to these parts during his long absence, quoted in the Gospel.”