IDNO

P.96648.WIL

Description

On Cech’s list describing prints:
"F. W. became Political Officer in Sikkim on January 4th, 1933.
(Photos 53-75: in and around Paro MPOW: 70-73)
69. "Dances at Paro guest-house 25.6.33"
See gi: paro
69b. "Ghost dance". This is the dur-bdag dance." [printed text]
For more information see Cech’s list.

Place

S Asia; Bhutan; Paro

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

Photographer

Williamson, Frederick

Collector / Expedition

Date

25 June 1933

Collection Name

Williamson Collection

Source

Williamson, Margaret

Format

Print Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

Context: The dru-bdag dance or the "masters of the cemetery. Protectors of the cemetery field. These are skeleton dancers of highest rank and consequently wear the diadem with five or three miniature skulls. To their mask representing the human skull is attached a height of ear piece of rainbow coloured fans.[Source: Tibetan Religious Dance, Mouton, Dawa Dem 16/9/2008]

The transcription of this album by Mark Turin and Sara Shneiderman was carried out with reference to Krystina Cech’s catalogue list alone. Alex Nadin has since revised their cataloguing by systematically matching their records to the images. Margaret Williamson’s handwritten captions for photographs have now been transcribed into the Inscription field, and Cech’s descriptions appear in the Description field. Correct entries for Place, Named Person and Other Nos. have also been entered by Alex Nadin. [Sudeshna Guha 29/10/2002]

Publication: The photograph has been digitised for the European Collected Library of Artistic Performance (ECLAP) and is accessible on the portal http://www.eclap.eu/drupal/. [SG 31/10/2012]