Key Information

Photographer

Rabden Lepcha?

Collection

Sir Charles Bell

Date of Photo

April 1921?

Region

Lhasa Area > Sera

Accession number

1998.286.246

Image Dimensions

78 x 103 mm

Sera Monastery showing Sera Peak hermitage, high up the face of the hill.

Further Information

Photographic Process

Negative Quarter Plate

Date Acquired

Donated 1983

Donated by

St Antony's College, Oxford

Expedition

Sir Charles Bell's Mission to Lhasa 1920-21

Previous Catologue Number

Q.235

Previous Pitt Rivers Museum Number

BL.Q.235

Related Collections

British Library, Oriental and India Office Collections

Manual Catalogues -

Manual Catalogues - Bell's List of Illustrations entry: "[No. of chapter] L. [Subject of Chapter] Lhasa [Subject of Illustration] Q235 (ae) Sera Monastery showing "Sera Peak" hermitage, high up the face of the hill."

Contemporary Publication -

Contemporary Publication - Published in 'The Religion of Tibet', Bell, C. A., Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1931, facing p.7 (top):"Se-ra Monastery. High above it are rooms for meditation."

Other Information - Dates

Other Information - Dates: In his Diary for April 1st 1921 Bell describes a small hermitage that he has heard about on the mountains to the east of Sera monastery [Diary Vol. IX, pp. 70-73]. This photograph was probably taken on request subsequent to the conversations that he had had on this subject, possibly by Rabden Lepcha, as there is no indication in his Diaries that Bell himself visited this place. It seems to have been a typical tactic adopted by Bell that he would ask for visual referents to be made to support information that he had gained in conversation [MS 03/03/2006]

For Citation use:
The Tibet Album. "Sera Monastery" 05 Dec. 2006. The Pitt Rivers Museum. <http://tibet.prm.ox.ac.uk/photo_1998.286.246.html>.

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