Key Information

Photographer

Evan Yorke Nepean

Collection

Frederick Spencer Chapman

Date of Photo

November 29th 1936

Named Person

Frederick Spencer Chapman

Region

Lhasa > Kyichu

Accession number

1998.131.399

Image Dimensions

93 x 61

Frederick Spencer Chapman with rolled up trousers standing in by the Kyichu with the Potala in the background. On this day, a Sunday and therefore a day off for the Mission staff, he and a number of others crossed the Kyichu at the ferry crossing to visit a ruined fort some miles out of Lhasa

Further Information

Photographic Process

Negative film nitrate

Date Acquired

Donated 1994

Donated by

Faith Spencer Chapman

Expedition

British Diplomatic Mission to Lhasa 1936-37

Photo also owned by

Frederick Spencer Chapman

Revised Photographer

Evan Yorke Nepean

Previous Catologue Number

YN.51

Previous Pitt Rivers Museum Number

SC.T.2.399

This Image also appears in another collection

1998.131.708 2001.35.396.39.2 2001.35.210.1

Other Information

In Negative - 'YN 51' has been scratched into the bottom left hand corner of the negative [MS 22/03/2006]

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

Research publication - Clare Harris and Tsering Shakya (eds.), 'Seeing Lhasa: British Depictions of the Tibetan Capital 1936-1947', Chicago: Serindia Publications, 2003, p.24.

Other Information - Cultural Background

Other Information - Cultural Background: Frederick Spencer Chapman standing in the Kyi Chu river with the Potala Palace in the background. This is one of the least formal shots taken during the 1936 British Mission to Lhasa. Taking a break from their duties, Spencer Chapman and Evan Nepean went swimming in the Kyi Chu river (which flows along the outskirts of Lhasa). They then photographed one another on the river bank with their shirts off. Spencer Chapman often walked in the countryside around Lhasa bird-spotting, collecting botanical specimens and taking photographs [CH 2003]

For Citation use:
The Tibet Album. "Frederick Spencer Chapman by Kyichu" 05 Dec. 2006. The Pitt Rivers Museum. <http://tibet.prm.ox.ac.uk/photo_1998.131.399.html>.

For more information about photographic usage or to order prints, please visit the The Pitt Rivers Museum.