Jesus in the Himalayas

I caught part of this documentary on Discovery HD yesterday. It seemed interesting enough, so I recorded it on DVR, and watched the full program today.

It investigated the possibility that Jesus may have travelled through the silk road to India and Tibet before he began his ministry, and after his crucifixion. Nothing conclusive was reached, but it offered up some possible evidence, chief among them were:

1. A tomb in Kashmir purported to be the tomb of Jesus after his crucifixion, because a small cross was found within it, and there was a food sculpture that seems to depict wounds on the foot that could correspond to Jesus' wounds from the crucifixion.
2. An ancient manuscript that detailed the life of Saint Issa, whose story was very similar to the life of Jesus as depicted in the Bible (except the part about traveling to India and Tibet).
3. The similarities between the Buddhist prayer beads--the Japa mala, and the Catholic rosary beads. Both have 108 beads, and these are the only religions with prayer beads.
   

The most important of these arguments is the ancient manuscript, according to the program. Unfortunately, it has long since vanished, not long after its translation was transcribed by Nicolas Notovitch. This document is what sparked the idea that Jesus went to India and Tibet. Without it, there is no way to prove that any of this actually happened. I don't know that even with it, would it offer irrefutable proof that this Issa is the same as Jesus.

The problem I have with the tomb theory is that it had a cross. The cross didn't become associated with Christianity until the second century AD, so there's no reason why Jesus would be buried with one.

The program then states both the Japa mala and the rosary have 108 beads. But this is not true--while the Japa mala traditionally does have 108 beads, rosary beads typically have 150.

It then further states that Christianity (Catholicism) and Buddhism are the only religions to use prayer beads, implying that Jesus brought the idea of using prayer beads to his followers due to influence from Buddhism. Yet this is also untrue, as there are several other religions that use prayer beads. Also, it is said that rosary beads were brought to St. Dominic by the Virgin Mary, not Jesus.