Key Information

Photographer

Hugh E. Richardson

Collection

Hugh Richardson

Date of Photo

1950

Region

Lhasa Area > Nyethang

Accession number

2001.59.2.70.1

Image Dimensions

43 X 54 mm

Figure of a seated Buddha Shakyamuni in a decorated niche at Nyethang Drolma Lhakhang. It is clothed in silk and two white scarves (khatag) are crossed across his chest. A table with bowls of water offerings are placed in front of it. The standing figure beside it is of a female Tara deity.

Further Information

Photographic Process

Negative film nitrate

Date Acquired

Donated August 2001

Donated by

The executors of the estate of Hugh E. Richardson

Expedition

Hugh E. Richardson

Manual Catalogues -

Manual Catalogues - Notes on front of negative album in Richardson's hand in white: '2' 'Ramagang, 'Ushang, Tshurphu rgyal, Misc pillars'. On the reverse of negative album written in blue ink on white labels in Richardson's hand: 'Hu zhang, Pa blon chen, Pha bong ka, Nyenchen thang lho, Rva sgreng, Khro 'brug, etc. etc.' [KC 10/3/2006]

Manual Catalogues -

Manual Catalogues - - Notes on negative index - 'Dolma Lhakang Netang' (sNye thang sgrol ma lha khang)

Manual Catalogues -

Manual Catalogues - Richardson Hand List. 'Album No. 2 [no.] 48. Images in Sgrol-ma Lha-khang at Snye-thang.'

Other Information - Description: The central image of Buddha Shakyamuni with Tara at right side. The image of the Buddha is said to have been constructed in 1288. (TS)

Other Information - Background: See Hugh Richardson, "Some Monasteries, Temples and Fortresses in Tibet before 1950", in High Peaks, Pure Earth, Collected Writings on Tibetan History and Culture, London, 1998. Serindia Publications. p. 314 for a description of the site.

Other Information - Dates

Other Information - Dates: Although Richardson first went to Nyethang in 1936, the date of 1950 for this image is derived from Richardson’s negative album No.4, the cover of which is marked with ‘Lhobrag 1950’. There are 16 images which share the same batch development number and seem to relate to a trip that Richardson took in this year. His preference for using 6x4.5 images, the smallest exposure size possible using his Zeiss Super Ikonta camera, seems to have returned only towards the end of his time in Tibet, possibly to maximise the number of images that he could take on each roll of film (16 using a film plane mask of this size or 8 at 6x9 cm) and this also suggests that the image wa taken at the end rather than the beginning of his residence in Tibet [MS 17/12/2005]

For Citation use:
The Tibet Album. "Shakyamuni Buddha and Tara statues at Nyethang" 05 Dec. 2006. The Pitt Rivers Museum. <http://tibet.prm.ox.ac.uk/photo_2001.59.2.70.1.html>.

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