Goa, the Rome of the East
India's 20 million Catholics don't seem to mind that their faith looks pretty European.
UNESCO identifies World Heritage Sites for their special significance in global consciousness. They earn that status either for their natural beauty or else for their role in human history and culture. India has over 40 such sites, which naturally include such imperishable splendors as the Taj Mahal and Delhi’s Red Fort. Surprisingly for Western observers, another star attraction is a spectacular cluster of Christian buildings that commemorate a heroic phase of mission.
This site is properly known as the Churches and Convents of Goa. Although the European settlement of Goa dates from 1510, Portuguese adventurers had been active in the area for decades before that. They retained their military dominance until the late 17th century, when they were displaced by other European powers. Even so, Goa remained the capital of Portuguese colonial power until 1961, when it was forcibly annexed by the new Indian nation.
Initially, those European newcomers had little idea of the complex religious world into which they were entering beyond a vague sense that there might be ancient Christian communities somewhere in those parts. Some Portuguese took a good while to work out that the local Hindu temples were not in fact exotic (if startlingly deviant) Christian churches and that the ornate multi-limbed statues of Hindu deities were not really figures of unknown saints.
