Key Information

Photographer

Frederick Spencer Chapman

Collection

Frederick Spencer Chapman

Date of Photo

October 20th 1936

Region

Lhasa >

Accession number

1998.131.385

Image Dimensions

124 x 170

The Lhasa United football team who challenged the British Mission to a game of football. The Mission team called themselves the Mission Marmots. Lhasa United included players from a number of Tibetan, Ladaki and Nepalese sides

Further Information

Photographic Process

Print gelatin silver

Date Acquired

Donated 1994

Donated by

Faith Spencer Chapman

Expedition

British Diplomatic Mission to Lhasa 1936-37

Photo also owned by

Frederick Spencer Chapman

Previous Catologue Number

C.8.26 [view film roll]

Previous Pitt Rivers Museum Number

SC.T.2.385

Other Information

Notes on print/mount - The back of this print is covered with crop and reproduction marks and instructions. The caption 'Lhasa United Football Team' has been written on the back in pencil, as has the reference 'C.8.26' [MS 22/03/2006]

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]: 'Football teams - theirs'; PRM Manuscripts Collection: ‘List of Tibetan Prints and Negatives’ - Book 3: ‘23/2 - Lhasa united - Nepali, Tibetans, Sikkimese and Ladakis’ [MS 22/03/2006]

Research publication - Clare Harris and Tsering Shakya (eds.), 'Seeing Lhasa: British Depictions of the Tibetan Capital 1936-1947', Chicago: Serindia Publications, 2003, p.58

Exhibition - This image appeared in the 2003 Temporary Exhibition at the Pitt Rivers "Seeing Lhasa: British Depictions of the Tibetan Capital 1936-1947"

Other Information - Related Images

Other Information - Related Images: Images prefixed with 'C.8' comprise a group of negatives containing images of the Potala and Lhasa, officials coming through Pargo Kaling, the Turquoise Bridge, Tsarong, Trimon, views from and of Sera, a woman washing clothes, a shepherd with a sling and football teams. They seem to have been taken October 13th - 20th 1936 [MS 16/03/2006]

Other Information - Description: Members of the Lhasa United football team. Chapman describes this match against Lhasa United in October 1936: “Together with a crowd of supporters, our opponents were already there, turned out in garish harlequin-coloured silk shirts with L.U. sewn on to the pockets. They were a remarkable looking team, and certainly needed to be “United”! There was a tough looking Nepali soldier, a Chinese tailor, three bearded Ladakhis wearing red fezes – the most hirsute being the goalkeeper, a Sikkimese clerk of Pangda-Tsang’s, and five Tibetan officials, including our friends Yuto, Surkang-Se, and Taring Dzongpon. The latter still had their charm-boxes on top of their heads, so were precluded from heading the ball” ['Lhasa: The Holy City', F. Spencer Chapman, London: Chatto & Windus, 1938, p. 269] [CH 2003]

Other Information - Related Images

Other Information - Setting

Other Information - Setting: "Today we were challenged to a game of 'Soccer' by Lhasa United, a team picked from Tibetan, Ladaki (Mohammedan) and Nepalese sides. // They turned out in garish Harlequin-coloured shirts. After a good, clean, hard game the Mission Marmots (as we call ourselves) won by scoring the only goal of the day. The goal was so small that the only hope of scoring was to go through oneself with the ball. Playing at 11,800 feet is not as much of an ordeal as one would imagine, and we appeared to be no more breathless than our opponents. // We now practice nearly every day and are thinking of picking up a number of seven-a-side teams to keep ourselves in training" ['Lhasa Mission, 1936: Diary of Events', part VIII p. 2, written by Chapman] [MS 22/03/2006]

For Citation use:
The Tibet Album. "Lhasa United football team" 05 Dec. 2006. The Pitt Rivers Museum. <http://tibet.prm.ox.ac.uk/photo_1998.131.385.html>.

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