Key Information

Photographer

Rabden Lepcha

Collection

Sir Charles Bell

Date of Photo

1920-1921

Region

Lhasa > Barkhor

Accession number

1998.285.317

Image Dimensions

120 x 163 mm

Two Mongolian traders in Lhasa. Surrounded by a crowd of people.

Further Information

Photographic Process

Negative glass plate gelatin , Negative Half Plate

Date Acquired

Donated 1983

Donated by

St Antony's College, Oxford.

Copy difference

Image shortened at the sides

Expedition

Sir Charles Bell's Mission to Lhasa 1920-21

Photo also owned by

Royal Central Asiatic Society

Revised Photographer

Rabden Lepcha?

Previous Catologue Number

H.288

Previous Pitt Rivers Museum Number

BL.H.288

Published

'The People of Tibet', Sir Charles Bell, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1928 [view list of illustrations]

Manual Catalogues -

Manual Catalogues - Bell's List of Illustrations entry: "[No. of chapter] LII. [Subject of Chapter] Tribes to the North [Subject of Illustration] H.288 (h) Two Mongolian traders in Lhasa."

Contemporary Publication -

Contemporary Publication - Published in 'The People of Tibet', Bell, C. A., Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1928, facing p.122:"Two Mongol merchants in Lhasa." [MS 10/9/2004]

Other Information - Cultural Background

Other Information - Cultural Background: Bell's Diary for 16th July 1921:" Palha Kenchen came to tea with me. He says that the Mongolian caravan will begin to arrive at Lhasa in about a fortnight's time and will continue to arrive for about a month. A large number of ponies of the Si-lung breed will arrive; they are strong and do well in Lhasa and Tibet. The Mongolian ponies do not do well here, nor do those from Ili in Turkestan, which are taller than Silung or Tibetan ponies and more nearly resemble Indian country-breeds of the Mongols who arrive in this caravan. Some will return to their country in the winter caravan; others will stay a whole year in Tibet and return with the summer caravan of next year, which will leave Lhasa about the end of the seventh Tibetan month or during the eighth. Thus they will avoid the time of flood in the rivers and will find grass and food supplies in the Chang Tang." [Diary Vol. XI, p.43-44]

For Citation use:
The Tibet Album. "Mongolian traders in Lhasa" 05 Dec. 2006. The Pitt Rivers Museum. <http://tibet.prm.ox.ac.uk/photo_1998.285.317.html>.

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