Key Information

Photographer

H. Staunton ?

Collection

Harry Staunton

Date of Photo

1940 - 1941

Region

Lhasa Area > Trisam

Accession number

1999.23.2.40

Image Dimensions

112 x 67 mm

Trisam iron bridge with people and animals crossing it. There is a prayer flag on the bridge and a wooden ladder in the centre leading down to the river bed below.

Further Information

Photographic Process

Print gelatin silver

Date Acquired

Donated 1999

Donated by

Diana Hughes

Expedition

H. Staunton

Photo also owned by

Diana Hughes

Other Information

Notes on print/mount - "Velox" is stamped on the back of the print in black ink as is the number 619 in red ink. [KC 7/11/2005]

Manual Catalogues -

Manual Catalogues - Richardson remarked: "Trisam sampa = Trisam bridge; iron bridge over the Tolung river where it meets the Kyichu. Tsarong and a monk plus Jigmey Taring built it." [Hugh Richardson in conversation with Roger Croston, detailed in H. Staunton undated Related Documents File, PRM Manuscript Collections] [KC 7/11/2005]

Other Information: Setting - Rinchen Dolma Taring writes in Daughter of Tibet , 1983 (Third Reprint) New Delhi, R. N. Sachdev. p.126: "During the Earth-Tiger Year (1938) he [Jigme] was busy helping Tsarong to build the first iron bridge in Tibet, about seven miles outside Lhasa." [KC 7/11/2005]

Other Information: Setting - Dundul Namgyal Tsarong writes in In the Service of His Country , 2000 Ithaca: Snow Lion Publications pp. 94-95: "... he [Tsarong] received a sanction for the construction [of the bridge]. The manufacturing contract ws given to to Burn & Co., Calcutta. The fabricated steel structures were carried by men under great hardship across the Himalayas. The time consumed in bringing the materials was much greater than the time taken in the actual construction work itself. ...The first section of the bridge was completed long before the rainy season of 1936 ... The middle section was completed in 1937 and the last section in 1938. At the time of completion there was an opening ceremony, which the Regent Reting and his ministers came from Lhasa to attend. It was a great feat in the history of Tibetan bridge construction and the Regent offered scarves and gifts to congratulate Father ad the rest of the construction staff." [KC 7/11/2005]

Other Information - According to T. this bridge is now in ruins and there is a new Chinese bridge nearby. [KC 7/11/2005]

For Citation use:
The Tibet Album. "Trisam bridge" 05 Dec. 2006. The Pitt Rivers Museum. <http://tibet.prm.ox.ac.uk/photo_1999.23.2.40.html>.

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Trisam bridge