Treaty pillar outside the Jokhang in Lhasa

Treaty pillar outside the Jokhang in Lhasa

2001.59.2.71.1 (Film negative)

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Key Information

Photographer

Hugh E. Richardson

Collection

Hugh Richardson

Date of Photo

1950

Region

Lhasa > Jokhang > Doring

Accession number

2001.59.2.71.1

Image Dimensions

43 X 54 mm

The Treaty pillar outside the Jokhang in Lhasa with the text of the Sino-Tibetan treaty of 821-2 . It is enclosed by a wall and there is a large overhanging willow tree in the background. In front there are some packing cases and a bag with a man and a girl beside it. On the right there is an awning with a shop stall and the shopkeeper standing in front of it. On the left there is a woman with a child and a sheep being used as a pack animal.

Further Information

Photographic Process

Negative film nitrate

Date Acquired

Donated August 2001

Donated by

The executors of the estate of Hugh E. Richardson

Expedition

Hugh E. Richardson

Manual Catalogues -

Manual Catalogues - Notes on front of negative album in Richardson's hand in white: '2' 'Ramagang, 'Ushang, Tshurphu rgyal, Misc pillars'. On the reverse of negative album written in blue ink on white labels in Richardson's hand: 'Hu zhang, Pa blon chen, Pha bong ka, Nyenchen thang lho, Rva sgreng, Khro 'brug, etc. etc.' [KC 10/3/2006]

Manual Catalogues -


Manual Catalogues - Notes on negative index - Folio 71/72. 'Treaty Pillar at Tsug lag khang'.

Manual Catalogues -

Manual Catalogues - Richardson Hand List. 'Album No. 2 [no.] 50. Inscribed pillar near Jo-khang at Lhasa recording bilingual treaty between Tibet and China 821/822 A.D."

Research publication - David Snellgrove and Huge Richardson, A Cultural History of Tibet, London: George Weidenfeld and Nicolson, Ltd. 1968. p.38, "The stone pillar in Lhasa which bears a bilingual inscription recording the treaty made in 821/822 between China and Tibet". [TS 22/3/2005][TS 31/3/2005]

Research publication - H. E. Richardson, High Peaks, Pure Earth' , London, Serindia Publications, 1998, plate 10. "Treaty pillar of 821-2 in front of the Jokhang at Lhasa. See also Plate 24." [KC 09/11/2006]

Other Information - History: For a full translation of and commentary on the inscription see H. E. Richardson, A Corpus of Early Tibetan Inscriptions , London, 1985. Royal Asiatic Society, pp:106-143. Richardson remarks that "The bilingual inscription on a stone pillar outside the Jo-khang at Lhasa recording a treaty between Tibet and China is probably the most widely known and in many ways the most important of the early inscriptions from Tibet. ... " (p. 106)

Other Information - Dates

Other Information - Dates: The date of 1950 for this image is derived from Richardson’s negative album No.4, the cover of which is marked with ‘Lhobrag 1950’. There are 16 images, of Chidesho, Gongkhar Dzong, Lhasa Post Office, Nesar, Yamdrok Tso and Shabsha, Karmaling Chu, Lhobrag, which share the same batch development number and seem to relate to a trip that Richardson took in this year. His preference for using 6x4.5 images, the smallest exposure size possible using his Zeiss Super Ikonta camera, seems to have returned only towards the end of his time in Tibet, possibly to maximise the number of images that he could take on each roll of film (16 using a film plane mask of this size or 8 at 6x9 cm) and this also suggests that the image wa taken at the end rather than the beginning of his residence in Tibet [MS 17/12/2005]

For Citation use:
The Tibet Album. "Treaty pillar outside the Jokhang in Lhasa" 05 Dec. 2006. The Pitt Rivers Museum. <http://tibet.prm.ox.ac.uk/photo_2001.59.2.71.1.html>.

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