Monastic buildings of Drepung monastery

Monastic buildings of Drepung monastery

1999.23.1.20.4 (Album Print black & white)

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Key Information

Photographer

H. Staunton ?

Collection

Harry Staunton

Date of Photo

1940 - 1941

Region

Lhasa Area > Drepung monastery

Accession number

1999.23.1.20.4

Image Dimensions

115 x 87 mm

Monastic buildings of Drepung monastery. There is a group of monks on the left of the picture. The building in the foreground appears to have a turf roof.

Further Information

Photographic Process

Print gelatin silver

Date Acquired

Donated 1999

Donated by

Diana Hughes

Expedition

H. Staunton

Photo also owned by

Diana Hughes

Other Information

Notes on album mount - "Drepung monastery 7,700 monks" is written in pencil in capital letters on the album page. [KC 30/12/2005]

Other Information - Related Images


Other Information - Related Images: 1999.23.1.17.1, 1999.23.1.20.3

Other Information - Setting


Other Information - Setting: F Spencer Chapman writes about Drepung monastery in Lhasa: The Holy City, 1938, London:Chatto and Windus, p. 195, "In the vicinity of Lhasa the great monasteries of Drepung, Sera and Ganden, known as the Three Pillars of the State, contain some 20,000 monks. ... Drepung is supposed to house 7700 monks, but sometimes as many as 10,000 live there. The name Dre-pung literally means 'the pile of rice', which is what the monastery resembles as its tiers of whitewashed buildings lie one behind the otheron a sloping site at the head of a wedge-shaped valley. Looked at from a distance Drepung resembles a large fortified city rather than a single monastery, and it is only when one climbs the steep mountain slopes behind it and looksdown on to its innumerable ramifications that one gets a true idea of its immense size. Looked at from below it is foreshortened and many of the buildings are dwarfed or hidden."

For Citation use:
The Tibet Album. "Monastic buildings of Drepung monastery" 05 Dec. 2006. The Pitt Rivers Museum. <http://tibet.prm.ox.ac.uk/photo_1999.23.1.20.4.html>.

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