Key Information

Photographer

Frederick Spencer Chapman?

Collection

Hugh E. Richardson

Date of Photo

November 15th 1936?

Region

Lhasa Area > Drepung

Accession number

BMR.86.1.20.4

A view from a nearby hillside showing the proximity of Drepung Monastery in the distance to Nechung Oracle Temple in the middle distance

Further Information

Photographic Process

Print gelatin silver

Expedition

British Diplomatic Mission to Lhasa 1936-37

Photo also owned by

Donated to the British Museum in 1986 by Hugh E. Richardson

Related Collections

F. S. Chapman Collection in the Pitt Rivers Museum

Other Information

Notes on print/mount - 'Drepung and Nechung' has been written under the photograph in the album in pencil. The image also has an asterisk placed next to it [MS 25/08/2006]

Other Information - Album: This photograph appears with three others of the main monasteries outside Lhasa on page 20 of the Album [MS 25/08/2006]

Other Information - Dates

Other Information - Dates: The mission diary for November 15th 1936 states: "Chapman climbed three thousand feet up the mountain overlooking Drepung in order to photograph a bird's eye view of this immense monastery, and to collect seeds of certain rare gentians and primulas which we found flowering there some weeks ago. There were many snowcock on the higher slopes; there were successfully filmed" ['Lhasa Mission, 1936: Diary of Events', Part IX p. 2, written by Chapman]. The images taken on this day [prefixed with C.12. in the PRM Chapman collections] seem to have been taken from the vantage point Chapman has adopted in this image. It may be, therefore, that this photograph was taken on this day and that, in fact, Nepean accompanied him on this trek. This may have been the case also in that Nepean seems to have been responsible for taking quite a lot of cine film on the mission, which is referred to here [MS 21/03/2006]

For Citation use:
The Tibet Album. "Drepung Monastery and Nechung Oracle Temple" 05 Dec. 2006. The British Museum. <http://tibet.prm.ox.ac.uk/photo_BMR.86.1.20.4.html>.

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