Key Information

Photographer

Rabden Lepcha?

Collection

Sir Charles Bell

Date of Photo

April 17th 1921?

Named Person

Ragashar Family

Region

Lhasa > Ragashar House

Accession number

1998.285.115.2

Image Dimensions

81 x 81 mm

Ragashar, his brother (both seated), Ragashar's wife standing next to Ragashar's brother. Two male members of household standing behind. Also two female members of the household, one wearing several ornaments.

Further Information

Photographic Process

Lantern Slide

Date Acquired

Donated 1983

Donated by

St Antony's College, Oxford.

Expedition

Sir Charles Bell's Mission to Lhasa 1920-21

Photo also owned by

Royal Central Asiatic Society

Previous Catologue Number

L.74

Previous Pitt Rivers Museum Number

BL.H.102b

Manual Catalogues -

Manual Catalogues - Bell's List of Illustrations entry for H.102: "[No. of chapter] XVI. [Subject of Chapter] The Aristocracy. [Subject of Illustration] H102 (l) (left to Right) Rakashar, his brother, both seated. Rakashar's wife. Servants behind. [remarks] L.74 [Lantern slide 74] (Y in L)"

Technical Information - Bell does not distinguish in his List of Illustrations between H102a and H102b [1998.285.113 and 1998.285.115]. However, 1998.285.115 appears to be a re-photograph of a print from 1998.285.113, although zooming in and cropping the image to enhance the centrality of the figures. As a result, 1998.285.115 has a slightly more grainy texture. The lantern slide seems to have been made using this cropped negative image, which has then been projected through an enlarger [MS 23/8/2004]

Notes on print/mount - '23' has been written in black ink. This slide seems to have been used as slide 23 in the lecture 'A Year in Lhasa', which was first presented at the Royal Geographical Society on 3rd December 1923. The text, with a lesser number of images, was later published in The Geographical Journal of February 1924. Bell may also have presented this lecture on other occasions about which we have no information at present.[MS 23/8/2004]

Other Information - People

Other Information - People: Bell's diary entry for 24th March 1921: "Palhese tells me that Rakashar is descended from another of the old kings before Song-tsen Gampo's time, known as 'Cha-pa', 'The Bird'. Both these families [Rakashar and Lha-gyal-ri] are believed to be descended in unbroken descent through the male lines from these earliest ancestors. The heads of the Lha-gyal-ri and Rakashar family are greeted by their tenants with obeisances accorded only to Lamas and they are looked on as Lamas. They do indeed marry, but so did the 'Religious Kings'. When a head of these families dies, a tomb is made encased in silver, just as those of the D[alai] L[ama]s are encased in gold. So says Palhese" [MS 1/6/2004]

For Citation use:
The Tibet Album. "Ragashar and his wife, with group" 05 Dec. 2006. The Pitt Rivers Museum. <http://tibet.prm.ox.ac.uk/photo_1998.285.115.2.html>.

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