Key Information

Photographer

Evan Yorke Nepean

Collection

Evan Yorke Nepean

Date of Photo

September - December 1936

Region

Lhasa > Kundeling > Kesar Lhakhang

Accession number

2001.35.396.22.2

Image Dimensions

90 x 58 mm

An altar possibly in Kesar Lakhang near Kundeling in Lhasa showing an image of Tsongkhapa? seated on elaborately ornamented throne and with textile emblems hanging from the ceiling. The page in Nepean's album on which this image appears [see Same Image As] is head 'Chinese Temple Near Lhasa' suggesting that it is the Kesar Lakhang to which Nepean is referring

Further Information

Photographic Process

Print silver

Date Acquired

Loaned August 2002

Donated by

Judy Goldthorp

Expedition

British Diplomatic Mission to Lhasa 1936-37

Photo also owned by

Lady Nepean

This Image also appears in another collection

2001.35.103.1

Other Information

Notes on print/mount - 'Buddha Altar' [MS 30/07/2006]

Other Information - Dates

Other Information - Dates: This photograph may have been taken on December 10th 1936 when all the Mission staff visited Kundeling Monastery for the Disease Chasing Ceremony and to take tea with the Abbot [see Lhasa Mission Diary for this date]. Hugh Richardson also comments in his personal letters that the staff members also visited Kesar Temple on this day [see Bodleian Library, Hugh Richardson Archive MS Or. Richardson 3 folio 49 for description [MS 30/07/2006]

Other Information - Description: "On the summit of a little rocky spur behind Gundeling lies a curious building with a ridged European roof. This is the Chinese temple dedicated to Kesar, a Tibetan King who lived in the third or fourth century - that is before the introduction of Buddhism to Tibet. This almost fabulous King forms the subject of the most famous Tibetan epic, which can be recited by some nomads for days on end without repetition. In character this temple is quite unlike any other that we saw. In a large open building facing the west were two images of horses, made of wood and brightly painted; they were several times as large as Tibetan ponies. In the temple itself were many life-sized armoured figures standing up and holding weapons instead of in the conventional attitudes" ['Lhasa: The Holy City', F. Spencer Chapman, London: Chatto & Windus, 1938, pp. 205-6] [MS 08/04/2006]

For Citation use:
The Tibet Album. "An altar in Kesar Lakhang?" 05 Dec. 2006. The Pitt Rivers Museum. <http://tibet.prm.ox.ac.uk/photo_2001.35.396.22.2.html>.

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An altar in Kesar Lakhang?