1998.285.313.1 (Glass negative)
Raw Image
Rabden Lepcha
Sir Charles Bell
End of March or early April 1921
Lhasa
1998.285.313.1
120 x 163 mm
Negative glass plate gelatin , Negative Half Plate
Donated 1983
St Antony's College, Oxford.
Lantern
Sir Charles Bell's Mission to Lhasa 1920-21
Royal Central Asiatic Society
Rabden Lepcha
H.284
BL.H.284
Manual Catalogues - Bell's List of Illustrations entry: "[No. of chapter] LI. [Subject of Chapter] Tribes to the East [Subject of Illustration] H.284 Golok man and his wife, back view. On the woman's back large engraved discs of silver; turquoises and corals down her hair. [Remarks] L.262 (Y in L)"
Other Information - Cultural Background: Entry from Bell's diary for 4th April 1921 [pp. 76-77]: ‘Rabden, though at last successful, has found great difficulty in getting the Golokpas [?] to allow him to photograph them. “They are men of power (wang-chem-po)” he says; “When I ask them to let me take their photographs, they refuse curtly, saying that there is no such custom with them”. Palhese tells me that the Golokpas are prosperous as a rule, for besides trading in other districts they gain wealth by robbing outsiders in their own. In Lhasa a Golok man will sometimes snatch something off a stall in the market and make a bolt for it. Such are usually captured, but sometimes effect an escape with their booty. The people of Nya-rong are also much given to robbery, ranking perhaps second among Tibetan tribes in this respect, the Golokpas being first’ [MS 1/6/2004]
For Citation use:
The Tibet Album.
"Golok man and his wife"
05 Dec. 2006. The Pitt Rivers Museum.
<http://tibet.prm.ox.ac.uk/photo_1998.285.313.1.html>.
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