1998.285.245 (Glass negative)
1998.285.245 (Glass negative)
Rabden Lepcha?
Sir Charles Bell
March 14th 1921?
Lhasa > Lhalu House
1998.285.245
120 x 163 mm
Negative glass plate gelatin , Negative Half Plate
Donated 1983
St Antony's College, Oxford.
Sir Charles Bell's Mission to Lhasa 1920-21
Royal Central Asiatic Society
See H.213
BL.H.213a
Manual Catalogues - Bell's List of Illustrations entry: "[No. of chapter] XXXVI. [Subject of Chapter] Oracles [Subject of Illustration] H. 213 (l) The Chang Shambala prophecy. Incarnations of Buddha defeating the Muhammedan world conquerors. A picture in Lhalu house. [Remarks] L.202"
Other Information - Description: Bell visited the Lhalu mansion on Monday 14th March 1921. He describes the experience at some length in his diary for that day. For the full entry, see 1998.285.112 and 1998.285.114: 'We visited Lhalu mansion. The two Dukes (Kung), father and son, have died recently and none of the family are living in it. It is given over to servants, lacks cleanliness and has a general air of desolation. The mother and wife of the elder Duke - the younger died when sixteen years old, - live elsewhere in Lhasa. They cannot stand living in Lhasa after their bereavements, and even contemplate making over all the property to the Dalai Lama. // The house was largely rebuilt a few years ago and to this fact Palhese attributes the family misfortunes. He recalls the Tibetan saying, "If a house is rebuilt, the pillar falls," a saying which betokens the death of a member of the family. // ... One of the main rooms we see has whitewashed walls and photographs, mostly of Chinese worth[ies?] hung very high on the walls, which are otherwise perfectly bare. A particularly cheerless room, and we can think no better of it, even when we are gravely informed that it is the 'English Room' being furnished in the English style. I wonder from what desolate Indian bungalow the idea can have been taken. // ... In one of the chapels the paintings (tang-ka) are on very fine Chinese silk. In the rooms, nearly all of them, are valuable old pieces of china and cloisonne, three or four pieces in each room. Non-religious paintings ar on the walls of many rooms, these are after the Chinese style. The religious paintings (tang-ka) are of course all after the Tibetan style. // ... Lhalu is regarded as one of the beauties of Lhasa, and so it is. But at present it is unhappy, desolate" [pp.34-38]
Other Information - Related Images: Bell does not distinguish between 1998.285.245 and 1998.285.246 in his list of illustrations and both may be referenced by the caption for H.213 [MS 8/6/2004]
For Citation use:
The Tibet Album.
"Painting seen in Lhalu Mansion"
05 Dec. 2006. The Pitt Rivers Museum.
<http://tibet.prm.ox.ac.uk/photo_1998.285.245.html>.
For more information about photographic usage or to order prints, please visit the The Pitt Rivers Museum.
© The Pitt Rivers Museum
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