The First Capuchin Mission to Tibet: Fr. Domenico da Fano's Report of 1713

The Capuchin missionary Domenico da Fano (1674–1728) presented a report to the Propaganda Fide in 1713 based on his experiences in the Tibet mission from 1707 until 1711 when this mission was temporarily abandoned, principally due to lack of funds. The Report (Relazione) was the first detailed description of Tibet by a resident European observer since 1624, and it resulted in new funding and manpower for the mission, in which da Fano served as Prefect in Lhasa from 1714 to 1722. In the introduction to this first English translation of da Fano's Report, we assess the background of the Capuchin mission and da Fano's contributions to it and touch on some of the highlights of the Report and its detailed account of the economy, agriculture, lifestyle, and politics of Tibet. Special attention is given to his conception of Tibetan Buddhism as having many similarities to Roman Catholicism, and especially to his view of the Buddhist Three Precious Objects of Refuge (dkon mchog gsum; triratna) as analogous to the Trinitarian doctrine of Christianity.