Key Information

Photographer

Frederick Spencer Chapman

Collection

Hugh E. Richardson

Date of Photo

November 22nd 1936

Region

Lhasa > Potala > 13th Dalai Lama's Tomb

Accession number

BMR.86.1.14.1

Copper pagoda covering the 13th Dalai Lama's tomb on the roof of the Potala Palace. Water spouts visible on the right

Further Information

Photographic Process

Print gelatin silver

Expedition

British Diplomatic Mission to Lhasa 1936-37

Photo also owned by

Donated to the British Museum in 1986 by Hugh E. Richardson

Previous Catologue Number

C.18.20 [view film roll]

Related Collections

F. S. Chapman Collection in the Pitt Rivers Museum

This Image also appears in another collection

1998.131.309

Other Information

Notes on print/mount - 'Roof of Dalai Lama's tomb' and 'PS 3420628?' have been written beneath the image in the album in pencil, apparently not by Hugh Richardson [MS 10/06/2006]

Manual Catalogues -

Manual Catalogues - Caption in Chapman's hand-written list of negatives made whilst on the Mission to Lhasa, 1936-7 [See PRM Manuscripts Collection]: 'Tomb of last Dalai Lama'; PRM Manuscripts Collection: ‘List of Tibetan Prints and Negatives’ - Book 2: ‘6/1 - Golden pagoda covering shrine of the “Great Thirteenth” and last Dalai Lama who died in 1933 - not counting the present one who was discovered in 1938’ [MS 18/03/2006]

Other Information - Album: This image appears alongside three others of the Potala, Sera and Chakpori on page 14 of Hugh Richardson's album 'Lhasa 1936' [MS 10/06/2006]

Other Information - Related Images

Other Information - Related Images: Images prefixed with 'C.18' comprise a group of negatives containing images of the mission personnel, the Dalai Lamas’ tombs and Potala. They were all taken on November 22nd on the day of the second official visit of the Mission party to the Potala [MS 18/03/2006]

Other Information - Setting

Other Information - Setting: This photograph was taken on November 22nd 1936. In the official Mission Diary Brigadier Philip Neame wrote on September 6th 1936, following the first visit of the Mission party to the Potala: "We went on to the topmost roof of the Potala and saw the gold covered pagoda like roofs of all the past Dalai Lamas' mausoleaums. Finally we saw the last Dalai Lama's (the 13th incarnation) recently completed tomband shrine. This is the most striking thing in the Potala." In his book Lhasa the Holy City [London: Chatto & Windus 1938; reprinted London: Readers Union Ltd., 1940] Chapman describes this tomb more fully: "[The tomb] of the last Dalai Lama had only recently been completed, and in proportion to his greatness it far exceeds all the others in splendour. It is interesting to see that the work done in Lhasa today is apparently indistinguishable from similar work carried out at various times since the seventeenth century, when the palace, in its present form, was built. // Considerable structural alteration has been necessary to fit in this tomb, which rises through three complete stories of the building. It can be seen ... that the part which lies to the left (or west) of the central red portion has been rebuilt; and as it is now incorporated in the especially holy part of the Potala, it has been painted red. It is a great pity that the chorten is not housed in a larger room so that one could stand back and see it in its entirety" [1940, pp. 178-9] [MS 11/4/2005]

For Citation use:
The Tibet Album. "13th Dalai Lama's tomb, Potala" 05 Dec. 2006. The British Museum. <http://tibet.prm.ox.ac.uk/photo_BMR.86.1.14.1.html>.

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13th Dalai Lama's tomb, Potala