Tsurphu scroll

Tsurphu scroll

2001.59.6.57.1 (Film negative)

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Key Information

Photographer

Hugh E. Richardson

Collection

Hugh Richardson

Date of Photo

1949

Region

Tolung Valley Region > Tsurphu

Accession number

2001.59.6.57.1

Image Dimensions

43 X 54 mm

The Tsurphu scroll describing the visit of Deshin Shekpa to China in 1407. It clearly shows the five different scripts (Chinese, Tibetan, Arabic, Mongol and Uighur) used.

Further Information

Photographic Process

Negative film nitrate

Date Acquired

Donated August 2001

Donated by

The executors of the estate of Hugh E. Richardson

Expedition

Hugh E. Richardson

Other Information

In Negative - '6.57'

Manual Catalogues -


Manual Catalogues - Notes on front of negative album - '6' 'JOMOLHARI; [illegible]; TSURPHU; NAPSO DORING'; Notes on back of negative album: 'JOMOLHARI; CHARSADDA; PESHAWAR; ABBOTABAD [?sic]; KULU; TSURPHU SCROLL & MSS.; GARDEN'; Notes on spine: 'JOMOLHARI; NWFP; TSURPHU SCROLL'

Manual Catalogues -


Manual Catalogues - Notes on negative index - Folio. 57. 'do.' [Tsurphu Scroll].

Research publication - Hugh E. Richardson, High Peaks, Pure Earth , 1998, London: Serindia Publications, Plate 91. "The Great Scroll, Mtshur-phu." [KC 10/11/2006]

Other Information - Historical background:
Richardson discusses this scroll in High Peaks, Pure Earth , H. E. Richardson, London, Serindia Publications, 1998, p. 345 and provides a translation of it on pp. 359-366. It describes the visit of Deshin Shekpa, the 5th incarnation of the Karmapa Lama, to China in 1407. "The events of the ensuing visit are described at length in a remarkable imperial decree which was shown to me in Mtshur-phu in 1949. It is contained in a silk-backed scroll some 50 feet long by 2.5 feet high composed of sections of text beautifully written in five scripts - Chinese, Tibetan, Arabic, Mongol and Uighur - alternating with panels painted in the meticulously elegant Ming style. The inscriptions record the miracles performed by the lama on 22 different days and the paintings illustrate those occurences, day by day." (p.345) [KC 05/11/2006]

For Citation use:
The Tibet Album. "Tsurphu scroll " 05 Dec. 2006. The Pitt Rivers Museum. <http://tibet.prm.ox.ac.uk/photo_2001.59.6.57.1.html>.

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