João Cabral was a
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
Jesuit missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...
, who, along with
Estêvão Cacella
Estêvão Cacella (1585–1630) was a Portuguese Jesuit missionary.
Life
Cacella was born in Aviz, Portugal, in 1585, joined the Jesuits at the age of nineteen, and sailed for India in 1614 where he worked for some years in Kerala. In 1626, Fath ...
, were the first
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
ans to enter
Bhutan
Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainou ...
in 1627.
The following year he became the first European to visit neighboring
Nepal
Nepal (; ne, :ne:नेपाल, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne,
सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in S ...
and the Sikkim region of India.
Cabral was born in Celorico da Beira,
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
, in 1599. In 1615 he joined the Society of Jesus, and on September 5, 1626 he left for the Tibetan planes in the hopes of finding the mythic Kingdom of Shambala and spreading the Christian faith. After pushing through with both his plans, he returned to India and continued his missionary career in Malaka, Macau and Japan.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cabral, Joao
1599 births
People from Celorico da Beira
Year of death unknown
Portuguese explorers
Explorers of the Himalayas
Explorers of Central Asia
Roman Catholic missionaries in Bhutan
17th-century Portuguese Jesuits
1620s in Bhutan
17th-century explorers
Portuguese Roman Catholic missionaries
Roman Catholic missionaries in Nepal
Roman Catholic missionaries in India
Roman Catholic missionaries in China
Roman Catholic missionaries in Malaysia
Jesuit missionaries in India
Explorers of India
Explorers of Nepal