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