Key Information

Photographer

Frederick Spencer Chapman

Collection

Hugh E. Richardson

Date of Photo

December 24th 1936?

Region

Lhasa Area > Norbu Lingka >

Accession number

BMR.86.1.4.2

The Dalai Lama's throne at the Norbu Lingka. An image of the 13th Dalai Lama in the background; water bowls as offerings, flowers, butter lamp on the top of the central ornament.

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

C.20.10 [view film roll]

Related Collections

F. S. Chapman Collection in the Pitt Rivers Museum

This Image also appears in another collection

1998.131.331

Other Information

Notes on print/mount - 'Norbhu Lingka' has been written beneath the image in the album in pencil, apparently not by Hugh Richardson [MS 10/06/2006]

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]: 'Long. Top throne with DL’s image [Norbu Lingka]'; PRM Manuscripts Collection: ‘List of Tibetan Prints and Negatives’ - Book 2: ‘9/4 - A life size image of the Dalai Lama in a palace of the Norbhu Lingka’ [MS 21/03/2006]

Other Information - Album: This image appears alongside one other of the interior of the Norbu Lingka on page 4 of Hugh Richardson's album 'Lhasa 1936' [MS 10/06/2006]

Other Information - Related Images

Other Information - Related Images: Images prefixed with 'C.20' comprise a group of images taken at a ceremony at the Jokhang and in the Norbu Lingka. The images from the Jokhang are not in the PRM collection, but it is possible to date these to December 24th 1936. It seems likely that Chapman may have made a visit to the Norbu Lingka on the same day to take some further images of the interior there. They seem almost certainly to have been taken in the week before January 1937 [MS 18/03/2006]

Other Information - Description: "In one room [of the Norbu Lingka], which had a floor of polished wooden blocks, was a life-size image of the Dalai Lama himself, mitred and swathed in rich vestments like a bishop, sitting on a throne with a silken canopy above his head. The walls of these newer palaces were completely covered in paintings, many of them topical, the work of Chinese artists. There were paddle steamers crossing lakes, a crowd of people traversing an arched stone bridge, as well as birds, animals, and flowers" ['Lhasa: The Holy City', F. Spencer Chapman, London: Chatto & Windus, 1938, p. 185] [MS 21/03/2006]

For Citation use:
The Tibet Album. "Image of Dalai Lama, Norbu Lingka" 05 Dec. 2006. The British Museum. <http://tibet.prm.ox.ac.uk/photo_BMR.86.1.4.2.html>.

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The Pitt Rivers Museum

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Image of Dalai Lama, Norbu Lingka