1936 - 1937 Mission Diary

The official diary of the Gould mission to Lhasa sent by the British government. Read more about the mission diary.

November 13th, 14th and 15th, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

see photographs below

Seven-a-side football. Very hard games.

Gould, Richardson and Chapman rode out to Drepung. On the marshes beside the road there are immense flocks of Bar-headed geese, Brahminy ducks and Mallard. Skeins of the geese with their lavender and black and white plumage, set off by orange beaks and legs, look very beautiful against the clear blue sky as they circle round with harsh 'honking' cries.

Chapman climbed three thousand feet up the mountain over-looking Drepung in order to photograph a bird's eye view of this immense Monastery, and to collect seeds of certain rare gentians and primulas which we found flowering there some weeks ago. There were many snowcock on 'the higher slopes; these were successfully filmed in colour.

Author: Frederick Spencer Chapman [see handwritten annotations in Diary by Hugh Richardson in MS. Or. Richardson 2, Bodleian Libary, Department of Oriental Collections, University of Oxford]

Page Reference: Pt IX p.2

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