Hermitage caves and shrines at Yerpa

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2001.59.10.96.2 (Print)

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Key Information

Photographer

Hugh E. Richardson

Collection

Hugh Richardson

Date of Photo

May 8th 1937

Region

Lhasa Area > Dra Yerpa

Accession number

2001.59.10.96.2

Image Dimensions

88 x 60 mm

View of of the hermitage cave dwellings, shrines and reliquary monuments (chorten) of Yerpa set into the mountainside.

Further Information

Photographic Process

Print silver

Date Acquired

Donated August 2001

Donated by

The executors of the estate of Hugh E. Richardson

Expedition

Hugh E. Richardson

Other Information

Notes on print - 'Brag yer-pa' (in ink), 'Yer pa 14 (a)' (in pencil) and 'Yak' (?) partially erased.

Other Information - Location: Richardson describes the site in
High Peaks, Pure Earth , London, Serindia Publications, 1998, "Four miles east of Lhasa itself stands the little monastery of Ri-skya , and beyond it the foundation of Brag Yer-pa (1937, 1948, 1950), lying at the head of a unexpectantly green an pleasant valley about twelve miles norht-east of Lhasa. The sheer cliff face is honeycombed with caves to which monks from the city came for meditation. It is a place of ancient sanctity and has been inhabited reputedly since the time of Srong-brtsan Sgam-po, whose cave with his image and those of his wives is high up on the cliff, reached only by a ladder. ... Near the foot of the hill in a small stone building was a large bronze bell in the T'ang style bearing in early north Indian characters the Buddhist formula ye dharma hetuprabhava etc and another sloka in Tibetan." (pp 305-6)

Other Information - Dates

Other Information - Dates: Hugh Richardson's interest in photographing inscription pillars and historical sites seems to have been particularly accute during the period 1948-50, although he states in A Corpus of Early Tibetan Inscriptions [Hertford: Stephen Austin and Sons, 1985, p.72] that he visited this site two miles out of Lhasa on many occasions [MS 16/12/2005]

For Citation use:
The Tibet Album. "Hermitage caves and shrines at Yerpa" 05 Dec. 2006. The Pitt Rivers Museum. <http://tibet.prm.ox.ac.uk/photo_2001.59.10.96.2.html>.

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