For much of the Western world, Tibet occupies a peculiar place in the imagination. It is less a country than an idea, a Shangri-La nestled among the clouds, populated by peaceful monks and enlightened masters who preserved an ancient wisdom that the modern world has lost.
The imagery is effective: colorful prayer flags flutter against Himalayan peaks. Monasteries are perched on impossible cliffs while the Dalai Lama writes bestsellers about happiness and the cultivation of inner peace. Tibet has come to represent wisdom, spiritual purity, and light.
There is some truth in that image. Tibetan Buddhism has produced an extraordinary religious and philosophical tradition. Sadly, since the 1950s, Tibetan culture has suffered terribly under Chinese Communist rule. Beijing’s record of repression in Tibet, including restrictions on religious practice and cultural expression, is horrific and should not be minimized.
But acknowledging that history does not require romanticizing the Tibet that existed before Chinese Communist domination. The older Tibet was a deeply hierarchical society, with powerful religious and political institutions, struggles for power, and episodes of violent religious intolerance. One part of that history is particularly uncomfortable for Western admirers of Tibetan spirituality: the treatment of Catholic missionaries and Tibetan Christians.
A recent article by JD Flynn in The Pillar, “Fr. Maurice, the news, and going mufti,” draws attention to this neglected history through the life and death of Blessed Maurice Tornay. Flynn’s account is worth reading because Tornay’s story places the sanitized version of Tibet into a more realistic perspective.
Catholic missionaries attempting to establish themselves in Tibetan regions encountered hostility long before Tornay arrived, both in the 17th century and more recently. The Catholic community at Yerkalo endured repeated destruction: historical accounts from the Tibet mission record that the mission was destroyed in 1887. During the anti-Christian violence of 1905, four missionaries of the Paris Foreign Missions Society and eleven Christians from Yerkalo were massacred by emissaries of the lamas, and the residence and chapel were burned. (Mission Thibet)
Among the missionaries killed during the upheaval was Fr. Jean-André Soulié, a French priest who had spent years working in eastern Tibet and was also known for his botanical work. Historical accounts describe him as having been captured, tortured, and shot by lamas during the 1905 revolt. (Wikipedia)
The violence was not confined to 1905. In 1914, Fr. Jean-Théodore Monbeig, another French missionary working in the Tibetan borderlands, was killed by Tibetan rebels near Litang, not long after helping revive the Christian community at Bathang. Mission Thibet records his death as part of the continuing violence faced by Catholic missions in the region. (Mission Thibet)
This history matters because it reveals something easily obscured by the modern mythology surrounding Tibet. Buddhist institutions could aggressively defend territory, wealth, authority, and religious conformity. Monks were not always detached contemplatives standing outside ordinary struggles for power. In some Tibetan regions, monastic authorities participated directly in the expulsion, coercion, and killing of Christians.
Maurice Tornay was born in Switzerland in 1910 and eventually belonged to the Canons Regular of the Great St. Bernard. He traveled to Asia as a young religious and eventually devoted himself to the Tibetan mission. Pope John Paul II would later describe him as a missionary who learned the Tibetan language, grew attached to the country, and regarded it as a second homeland. (Vatican)
That detail is important because Tornay dearly wanted to live among Tibetans. His story cannot be reduced to a cliched narrative of an arrogant European who despised the culture he was attempting to evangelize. But wanting to live among the Tibetans did not mean the religious authorities wanted him there.
Tornay eventually became responsible for the Catholic community at Yerkalo, also known as Yanjing, a remote settlement in Kham, the eastern Tibetan region along the upper Mekong River. Today Yerkalo lies within Mangkang County in the Tibet Autonomous Region, near the borders of present-day Yunnan and Sichuan. Its location made the mission particularly unusual. The borderlands of eastern Tibet had long been contested between Tibetan and Chinese authorities, and Yerkalo itself had experienced periods of Chinese administration. In 1932, however, a local lama from Sogun monastery disarmed the Chinese troops, expelled the Chinese sub-prefect, and took control of the local administration. According to Mission Thibet, the territory subsequently came under Tibetan authority. Yerkalo therefore became the only Catholic missionary post situated in territory then under the Tibetan government in Lhasa. (Mission Thibet)
That distinction is important because the conflict that followed cannot simply be attributed to Chinese authorities. In January 1946, local Buddhist monks invaded the Catholic mission and forcibly expelled Tornay from Yerkalo. Mission records describe the Christians who remained behind as being mistreated and compelled to submit to Lamaist religious rites. (Mission Thibet)
In his Pillar article, Flynn recounts that Tornay’s Catholic parishioners were prevented from gathering for prayer and that some faced coercion to abandon Christianity. Tornay nevertheless continued trying to communicate with and support the Catholics he had been forced to leave behind.
Unable to return to his parish, Tornay eventually decided on an extraordinary course of action. He would go to Lhasa and appeal directly to the Dalai Lama for religious toleration for Tibetan Christians. He disguised himself as a Tibetan and joined a caravan, hoping to reach the Tibetan capital without attracting attention. Unfortunately, he never made it.
On August 11, 1949, Tornay and his Tibetan Catholic companion, Casimir Sandjrou, were killed while traveling toward Lhasa. JD Flynn’s account states that Tibetan Buddhist monks seized Tornay and killed both men before they could reach the capital. Vatican records identify Tornay as a martyr and record his death at To Thong, Tibet, on August 11, 1949. (The Pillar) (Vatican) Pope John Paul II beatified Maurice Tornay on May 16, 1993. (Vatican)
The significance of Tornay’s story extends beyond the fate of just one missionary. Western perceptions of religion have often been shaped by a striking imbalance: Christianity is viewed through the darkest episodes of its institutional history, while Asian religions are frequently presented through an idealized lens. Christianity carries the entire weight of European history, with its crusades, inquisitions, colonialism, corrupt clergy, and institutional abuses. Tibetan Buddhism, by contrast, is often detached from the societies and political institutions in which it developed and presented primarily through meditation, compassion, mystical philosophy, and carefully selected teachings.
That is not a fair historical comparison. Tibetan Buddhist monasteries possessed great political authority and economic power. When another religion entered their territory and attracted converts, the resulting conflict could challenge both religious authority and the existing social order.
The historical persecution of Christians by Tibetan authorities makes Tibet’s Shangri-La myth much harder to sustain. Tibetan history may showcase profound contemplative traditions, but it also contains political struggles, religious coercion, and great cruelty.
Maurice Tornay belongs to that history. So do the Tibetan Christians who continued practicing a religion that powerful people around them wanted extinguished.
Source acknowledgment: This article was inspired by JD Flynn’s “Fr. Maurice, the news, and going mufti,” published in The Pillar on August 11, 2026. Flynn’s account prompted further research into the history of Catholicism in Tibet. Historical details were independently checked where possible against Vatican records and accounts preserved by Mission Thibet. Claims drawn specifically from Flynn’s reporting are attributed to him in the text.