New Year ceremony at Nechung

New Year ceremony at Nechung

1998.157.73 (Transparency colour)

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Key Information

Photographer

Frederick Spencer Chapman

Collection

Frederick Spencer Chapman

Date of Photo

February 14th 1937

Region

Lhasa Area > Nechung

Accession number

1998.157.73

Image Dimensions

60 X 90

Nechung monastery at the dance held early in the Tibetan New Year when the oracle foretells coming events as a preliminary to the start of the Great Prayer the following day. Drepung Monastery can be seen in the background. Officials can be seen entering the courtyard to take their seats in the background on the left. Crowds seated in front of photographer looking towards the main entrance of the temple. Drepung Monastery can be seen in the background

Further Information

Activity

Dancing , Ritual Activity

Photographic Process

Transparency Colour

Date Acquired

Donated 1994

Donated by

Faith Spencer Chapman

Expedition

British Diplomatic Mission to Lhasa 1936-37

Photo also owned by

Frederick Spencer Chapman

Previous Pitt Rivers Museum Number

SC.T.1.73

Other Information

In Negative - '2 LSCT 667/24' has been written in pencil along the right side of the negative on the reverse side [MS 07/04/2006]

Technical Information - This image has been copied in reverse and requires flipping in order to see it the correct way round [MS 07/04/2006]

Other Information - Description: "On the following day, 14th February, all the officials, including the Regent and Prime Minister, had to go to the monastery of the State Oracle. We had not been invited to attend this, but Tsarong thought it would be a good chance for me to get some photographs, and offered to take me with him and to look after me. // ... Tsarong found a place for me just beside the entrance but beneath the cloister roof, so I was fairly inconspicuous and the light was excellent. I collected a small table to stand on so that I could take photographs above the heads of the crowd who half-filled the court" ['Lhasa: The Holy City', F. Spencer Chapman, London: Chatto & Windus, 1938, pp. 315-6; for full description see p. 315 ff] [MS 22/03/2006]

Other Information - Cultural Background


Other Information - Cultural Background: Hugh Richardson, in a letter to his parents, commented on this event “I would like to have gone but if one goes officially the Tibetan Govt has to make special arrangements” [Bodleian Library, Richardson Archive, MS Or Richardson 3 folio 64] [MS 22/03/2006]

For Citation use:
The Tibet Album. "New Year ceremony at Nechung" 05 Dec. 2006. The Pitt Rivers Museum. <http://tibet.prm.ox.ac.uk/photo_1998.157.73.html>.

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