Key Information

Photographer

Arthur Hopkinson

Collection

A. J. Hopkinson

Date of Photo

December 31st 1927?

Region

Gyantse > Palkhor Chode

Accession number

BMH.E.86.1

Image Dimensions

115 x 85

A scene inside the monastery compound of Palkhor Chode at Gyantse. Religious buildings and the precinct wall can be seen in the background. Women and children, some with large baskets on their backs occupy themselves in the street below the photographer

Further Information

Photographic Process

Negative film nitrate

Expedition

A. J. Hopkinson's Tour of Duty as British Trade Agent, Gyantse, 1927-28

Other Information

In Negative - 'E86' has been written on the bottom edge of the negative in blue-black ink. The top edge of the negative has been very crudely cut and there perforations, caused either by a blade or by a fault in the camera, on the bottom edge of this portrait format image [MS 31/07/2006]

Manual Catalogues -

Manual Catalogues - [Caption in A. J. Hopkinson's negative album 'Tibet E']: 'Main street' [MS 04/05/2006]

Other Information - Description: [Extract from taped interview, Richard Blurton and Mrs Hopkinson] '86 - a street inside the monastery compound at Gyantse. A large chorten and teh Palkor Chorten (to the left) are seen; in the background is the monastery precinct wall' [MS 29/07/2006]

Other Information - Dates

Other Information - Dates: This photograph was probably taken on December 31st 1927. On this day Hopkinson commented in his journal that his ponies had to be rested and “so I went photographing round Gyantse ... some people came up and asked me to go into their house to photo them. ... I was amused to find the walls papered by 1927 Weekly times editions - bought they said at the Fort. Also there was a photo of a Tibetan who’d been to England, got up in cowboy style, with chaps, on a huge artificial horse this shape [line drawing inserted in text]. I also photod [ sic ] some rather jungly Kham-bas, going on pilgrimage from Kham via Lhassa to Shigatse. It took three months they said from Kham to Lhassa, and they expected me to produce the picture immediately I had pressed the button” [A. J. Hopkinson Archive, OIOC British Library, Mss Eur D998/54, Journal Letters from Gyantse and Various Camps, 1927-28, commencing December 30th 1927, Gyantse, pages 4-5]. Also comments that he tried to photograph some criminals, who kept laughing and was accompanied on the way back by a young monk from Drepung [ibid., p. 5]

For Citation use:
The Tibet Album. "Scene in Palkhor Chode, Gyantse" 05 Dec. 2006. The British Museum. <http://tibet.prm.ox.ac.uk/photo_BMH.E.86.1.html>.

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