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The International Prester John Project: How A Global Legend Was Created Across Six Centuries

Dalai Lama

Dalai Lama signifies the historical title of the Tibetan spiritual leader of the Gelug (youngest and most dominant) branch of Tibetan Buddhism. Gendrun Drup (1391-1474) was considered the first Dalai Lama.

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History of the Three Kings
Historia Trium Regum (b. 1375)

John of Hildesheim's Historia Trium Regum links Prester John, St. Thomas, and the Three Magi in a single text for the first time. It was originally written in Latin– though no extant copies survive. There exists an early English translation from which Brewer excerpts the relevant Prester John material

As Hamilton (p. 181, n. 63) notes, Hildesheim "claimed to have based his work on French translations made at Acre of 'caldayce et hebrayce scriptos' brought there from India." Hamilton also mentions that Hildesheim likely consulted the collected writings concerning the Magi housed in Cologne's cathedral. Numerous manuscripts containing the English translation survive, the earliest which date to the first half of the fifteenth century.

The dating of the original text is difficult, especially because its authorship was ascribed to John of Hildesheim a century after his death by Johannes Trithemius (1462-1516). Hamilton refers to the text as an early thirteenth century text, but it seems safer to date the text as written before the death of John of Hildesheim, which occurred in 1375.

The Historia Trium Regum provides a cohesive story that links the historical Magi with the current political reality in Europe, which includes the legend of Prester John. Hildesheim based his story on the Gospel accounts of the three kings as well as the apocryphal commentary on Matthew known as the Opus Imperfectum (5th century).

Some time after returning to the East after visiting the infant Christ, these kings (Melchior, Balthasar, and 'Jasper') are converted to Christianity by the Apostle Thomas, who served as the. When Thomas died, these Magi then selected an heir to serve as spiritual Patriarch of the Indies. They also elect a secular ruler to act as rex et sacerdos, and they call this leader "Priest John," so-called in reverence to John the Evangelist. In the narrative, Prester John, here called "Preter Johan" the secular ruler of India, rules in tandem with a “Patriarch Thomas":
Than these thre kynges archebysshoppes and other bysshoppes of comyn [common] assent of all the people chose an other man that was dyscrete to be lord and gouerner of all the people in temporalte. And for this cause that yf ony [any] man wolde ryse or tempte agaynst the patryarke Thomas or agaynst that lawe of god yf so were that the patryarke myght not rule hym by the spyrytuall lawe, than sholde this lorde of temporall lawe chastyse hym by his power. So this lorde sholde not be called a kynge or emperour, but he sholde be called Preter Johan. And the cause is this. For the thre kynges were preestes and of theyr possessyons they made hym lorde. For there is no degree so hygh as preesthode is in all the worlde, nor so worthy. Also he is called Preter Johan in worshyp of saynt Johan the euangelyst [the evangelist] that was a preest the moost specyall chosen and loued of god almyghty. Whan all this was done these thre kynges assygned the patryarke Thomas and Preter Johan, that one to be chefe gouernour in spyrytualte, and that other to be chefe lorde in temporalte for euemlore. And so these same lordes and gouemours of Inde ben [are] called unto these dayes. (qtd. in Brewer, p. 209)

Thus Prester John becomes a title, an idea echoed in Parzival and Younger Titurel, and an idea that anticpates the Prester John as Dalai Lama narrative path.

The narrative also extrapolates on the Magi legends, which had circulated around Germany since the time of the original Prester John Letter.

It is also notable that Hildesheim refers to Prester John's son, King David, as an enemy to the Mongols.

For more on the connection between the Prester John and Magi traditions, see Hamilton.

Read an early English translation online.
EARLY HIGHLIGHTS
The process of comprehensive and accurate cataloguing to find these answers remains ongoing. The results thus far are quite encouraging. Some highlights include:

Texts/Authors: over 100

Author Origin Countries (17): Greece, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Norway, Flanders, Turkey, England, Iceland, Portugal, Scotland, Russia, Netherlands, Syria, Ethiopia, Belgium

Languages (20): Latin, Hebrew, Greek, Syriac, Arabic, Persian, Old Norse, Old Icelandic, Old Russian, Middle High German, Old French, Anglo-Norman, Italian, Castilian, Catalan, Middle Scots, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, and English

Kingdom Locations (12+): Syria, Christian India, Turkey, Mongolia, Turkestan, Baghdad, China, Ethiopia, Russia, Nubia, Benin, Japan

Alternate Names for Prester John: Presbyter Iohannes, Patriarch John, King John, Prete Ianni, Presto Giovanni, Preste Juan, Prestre Johan, Presbytero-Johanides, Tsar-Priest John, Prete Ianne, Johannes Africanus, Bel Gian, Praeciosus Iohannes, Preste Ioam, Belul Jan, Jonanam, Presbyter Bedigian, Prestigian, Precious John

Alternate Titles: King David, King George, King of the Abexi, Kofar al-Turak, Keeper of the Grail, King Voddomaradeg, Senapo, King Ogané, Christien de Sentour

Historical Personages: Patriarch of Nubia, Abyssinia, Cathay, or India; Ethiopian Emperors (Eskender, Jan), John the Presbyter of Syria, Yeh-lu Tashi, Georgian General Orbelian, Ung Khan, Chinggis Khan, Wedem Ra’ad, King Gorguz of Ongut Turks, Oni of Ife, Zar’a Yakob, Dalai Lama
Russia
German scientist and geographer Johann Gottlieb Georgi (1729-1802) discusses earlier failed theories as to the identity of Prester John and offers his own argument: that Prester John and the Dalai Lama are the same person. He documents these ideas in his 1780 Russia, or, a Complete Historical Account of all the Nations which Compose that Empire.

Georgi begins his passage by citing earlier accounts of Prester John that proved incorrect, including those of John of Plano Carpini, William of Rubruck, and Marco Polo. After discussing the failures of the Portuguese to correctly identify Prester John, Georgi offers his theory (qtd. in Brewer, pp. 267-279):
But we must first proceed to give some accounts of Dalai Lama. He lives in a pagoda on the mountain Potala, which, according to the Jesuit Gaubil, is under 290 6' northern latitude, and 250 58' western longitude from Pekin [i.e. Beijing].

His followers explain the nature of his immortality in the following manner: that his soul, afier the death of his body, passes into another human body which is born exactly at that time, and this man is the new Dalai Lama. (Others relate that they keep a young man in the pagoda during the life of the Dalai Lama, who is to succeed him).

Almost all the nations of the East, except the Mohammedans, believe the metempsychosis as the most important article of their faith; especially the Indians, the inhabitants of Tibet, and Ava [?], the Perguans [?], Siamese, Mongouls, all the Kalmucs [Kalmyks], and the greatest part of the Chinese and Japanese. According to the doctrine of the metempsychosis, the soul is always in action, and never at rest· for no soonef does she leave her old habitation but she enters a new one. The Dal~i Lama being a divine person, he can find no bener lodging than the body of his successor; or, properly not the 50u l1 but the Fo residing in the Dalai Lama which passes into his successor...

...The name Pretre Jean, or Juan, was mistakenly heard by the first Europeans that visited tbese regions. And their fancy working upon it, formed many extravagant ideas which were received and cherished in Europe. These travellers perceived a certain resemblance between the sound of a word in the Mongolian and Tibetan languages with that of a French, Italian, and Portuguese word. Unused to the study of languages, they imagined that such words as had a similar sound must have likewise the same signification in the language of Tibet and of the Mongouls which they bore in some of the European. This idea being once received, many fantastical etymologIes and fables naturally arose, as that about a certain Indian Johannes Presbyter, etc.

Now, if we can admit that the missionaries of the Nestorians came into these countries (which almost every competent judge in such matters will allow) then the Nestorian patriarch and Prester John are one person; at least according to the rules of etymology. And this Prester John being a Christian, he must have been the Catholicus of the Nestorians; or perhaps only a bishop sent by the Catholicus, who in these distant regions assumed a greater title than was strictly due to him. In the pursuit of these enquiries we shall find this Prester Jobn, or this Nestorian Catholicus, to be likewise one and the same with the Dalai Lama...

...All these circumstances seem sufficiently to prove that the Catholicus, Preste Gehan, and Dalai, are only one person.
An Historical Dictionary Thomas Broughton's 1742 Historical Dictionary of all Religions from the Creation of the World to the Present Times contains an entry on Prester John which says "see Dalai-Lama," continuing a 17th-18th century trend to link the two figures. See also Jodocus Crull's The Antient and Present State of Muscovy.