Key Information

Photographer

Frederick Spencer Chapman

Collection

Hugh E. Richardson

Date of Photo

January 1937

Region

Lhasa Area >

Accession number

BMR.86.1.22.4

Yak caravan. Their empty pack saddles suggest that the caravan is returning from a journey in which they have delivered their loads but this could also be a nomad yak herd that is being put out to pasture whilst the group visits Lhasa. Another group of animals can be seen in the far distance on the right hand side of the image. The caravan is seen walking across a low, barren plain that rises abruptly to steep mountains in the background. The man on the extreme left is carrying a long sword or stick, which would be used to guide the caravan

Further Information

Photographic Process

Print gelatin silver

Expedition

British Diplomatic Mission to Lhasa 1936-37

Photo also owned by

Donated to the British Museum in 1986 by Hugh E. Richardson

Previous Catologue Number

9.4

Related Collections

F. S. Chapman Collection in the Pitt Rivers Museum

This Image also appears in another collection

1998.131.217

Manual Catalogues -

Manual Catalogues - Caption in Chapman's hand-written list of negatives made whilst on the Mission to Lhasa, 1936-7 [See PRM Manuscripts Collection]: 'Yaks coming home in evening across plain: hills behind'; PRM Manuscripts Collection: ‘List of Tibetan Prints and Negatives’ - Book 4: ‘2/3 - Herd of yaks, led by a white one on Lhasa plain’ [MS 13/03/2006]

Other Information - Album: This image appears alongside three others on page 22 of Hugh Richardson's album 'Lhasa 1936' [MS 12/06/2006]

Other Information - Related Images

Other Information - Related Images: Images prefixed with '9' comprise a group of negatives containing images of Trisum sampa, yaks on Sera plain, Sera monastery and Khampa people and all seem to have been taken in January 1937 [MS 13/03/2006]

Other Information - Dates

Other Information - Dates: It is possible that this photograph was taken on January 7th 1937 as Chapman describes in the official Mission Diary for this date how he went out to take photographs of a group of nomads who had recently arrived in Lhasa, commenting on their tendency to place their yak herds out to graze on the Sera plain. He comments in the Diary for : "Although we visited their tents at dawn many of the men had already set off with yak-loads of salt and yak-dung - representing their taxes to be delivered at the Potala. There were still a few yaks and grey and dun-coloured dzos (yaks crossed with cattle) picketed to yak-hair ropes; but most of the herd, numbering several hundred, had already been taken out to find what grazing they could on the sandy barren-looking Sera plain" [MS 17/3/2005]

Other Information - Cultural Background

Other Information - Cultural Background: This is likely to be merchants' caravan because the man on the far left is carrying a long sword, which may have been used to protect the caravan. The pack saddles are made of wood with a woollen blanket underneath. [TS 21/1/2005]

For Citation use:
The Tibet Album. "Yaks on Sera plain" 05 Dec. 2006. The British Museum. <http://tibet.prm.ox.ac.uk/photo_BMR.86.1.22.4.html>.

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The Pitt Rivers Museum

The British Museum

Yaks on Sera plain