2001.35.375.1 (Print Black & White)
2001.35.375.1 (Print Black & White)
Frederick Spencer Chapman
Evan Yorke Nepean
October 4th 1936?
Lhasa > Dekyi Lingka
2001.35.375.1
106 x 72 mm
Print silver
Loaned August 2002
Judy Goldthorp
British Diplomatic Mission to Lhasa 1936-37
Lady Nepean
CY.20 [view film roll]
Notes on print/mount: ''; [ink no:] 56; [pencil no:] CY/16 [sic - should be CY.20 [MS 08/08/2006]]; [blue no:] 53E'. [KC 08/08/2006]
Manual Catalogues - Caption in Chapman's hand-written list of negatives made whilst on the Mission to Lhasa, 1936-7 [See PRM Manuscripts Collection]: 'Wireless tent' [MS 08/08/2006]
Research publication - Clare Harris and Tsering Shakya (eds.) 2003 'Seeing Lhasa: British Depictions of the Tibetan Capital 1936-1947' (Serindia Publications, Chicago). Page 84.
Exhibition - This image appeared in the 2003 Temporary Exhibition at the Pitt Rivers "Seeing Lhasa: British Depictions of the Tibetan Capital 1936-1947"
Biographical Information - Evan Nepean’s tent in the garden of the Dekyi Lingka (the British Mission house). As the house was not large enough to house all the members of the mission the lower ranking officers set up their tents in the garden. Evan Nepean and Sidney Dagg were responsible for the telegraph equipment brought to Lhasa by the British in 1936. As there was no electricity supply to the Dekyi Lingka they charged up their generators in the houses of Tibetan friends (such as Ringang). Along with carrying out his official duties of communication, Nepean contacted a number of amateur enthusiasts around the world with his call signal AC4YN. Before this the only telegraph machine in Lhasa was owned by the Chinese and so the presence of the British equipment undermined their monopoly on the flow of information in and out of the city. [CH 2003]
Biographical Information - Evan Nepean (1909-2002) was a member of the Royal Corps of Signals and was posted to Lhasa in 1936 to work for Gould. Along with Dagg his job was to set up and operate the portable wireless which the British took with them. This had a great impact in curbing the power of the Chinese Mission as it provided another route through which information could be sent into and out of Lhasa. As well as this Nepean and Dagg were in charge of entertainment setting up PA systems and film shows for the various Tibetans with whom the British interacted. He was also an amateur photographer often accompanying and assisting Spencer Chapman on his photographic excursions. Nepean compiled a personal album of photographs from his time in Lhasa. He was only in the city for three months before being re-posted. [CH 2003]
Other Information - Related Images: Images prefixed with 'CY' taken during the 1936-7 British Mission to Lhasa under Sir Basil Gould comprise a group of negatives containing images of wireless, chang girls broadcasting, lunch party with Dagg, Chapman, Gyaltsen, Rupon, kitchen tent at Regent’s departure and picnic. They seem to have been taken during the period October 3rd - 6th 1936 [MS 08/08/2006]
For Citation use:
The Tibet Album.
"Nepean's tent with wireless"
05 Dec. 2006. The Pitt Rivers Museum.
<http://tibet.prm.ox.ac.uk/photo_2001.35.375.1.html>.
For more information about photographic usage or to order prints, please visit the The Pitt Rivers Museum.
© The Pitt Rivers Museum
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