1998.286.24 (Glass negative)
1998.286.24 (Glass negative)
Sir Charles Bell or Rabden Lepcha?
Sir Charles Bell
Summer 1921
Lhasa > Jokhang > Smallpox Doring
1998.286.24
80 x 103
Administration
Negative Quarter Plate
Donated 1983
St Antony's College, Oxford
Varnish Intensifier Notches on right side
Sir Charles Bell's Mission to Lhasa 1920-21
Q.21
BL.Q.21b
British Library, Oriental and India Office Collections
Manual Catalogues - Bell's List of Illustrations entry: "[No. of chapter] IV. [Subject of Chapter] History up to 1900 [Subject of Illustration] Q.21 (j). Ditto in summer, 2 views [ref: Q.20 - Smallpox edict near Tsuk La-Kang, in winter, containing instructions for segregation during smallpox epidemics]. [Remarks] L.26"
In Negative - It is not clear whether it is a clear (but now yellowing) varnish which has been applied to the negative or whether the negative has been subjected to an intensifying process. [MS 4/8/2004]
Other Information - Related Images: Bell does not distinguish in his List of Illustrations between 1998.286.23 and 1998.286.24 and both may be referenced by his caption for Q.21 [MS 4/8/2004]
Contemporary Publication - Published in 'The Religion of Tibet', Bell, C. A., Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1931, facing p.134 (bottom):"The 'Tree of Sorrow'."
Other Information - Cultural Background: Bell's diary for 29th July 1921:" Lhack-cho orderly, one of my Tibetan orderlies, calls the weeping willow "Sorrow Tree" ( Nyan-gen shing ). Many of the people believe that when the 5th D[alai] L[ama] died, the branches of the weeping willows bent down and have bent down ever since. Formerly they stood up." [Diary Vol. XI, p.64]
Other Information - Cultural Background: Bell's diary for 30th July 1921:" Per Tsendron "The weeping willow trees are called 'Chinese willows' ( Gya chang ). Since the 5th D[alai] L[ama]'s death all the trees and flowers have frooped a little. The Cho U-tra over the Small Pox Edict in Lhasa, is a Chinese willow." [diary Vol. XI, p.65]
Other Information - Manual Catalogues: Curatorial notes in an old photocopied version of Bell's List of Illustrations state under the caption for Q.21 "(Tree of sorrow on env [envelope])". This suggests that when the negatives came into the PRM they were in envelopes. If this image is also intended to identify a 'Tree of Sorrow' in the courtyard, this could explain why the site was re-photographed either to capture the tree in foliage or to reveal the Doring beneath the tree when the leaves had fallen [MS 4/8/2004]
For Citation use:
The Tibet Album.
"Smallpox edict pillar, Jokhang"
05 Dec. 2006. The Pitt Rivers Museum.
<http://tibet.prm.ox.ac.uk/photo_1998.286.24.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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