IDNO

P.96955.WIL

Description

Formal group portrait including, from left to right, Dzasa Dasang Dadul Tsarong, Mrs Pema Dolkar Tsarong, Jigme Taring, Margaret Williamson (Peggy), Frederick Williamson, Dundul, Mary (Rinchen Dolma Tering), and Bahadur Norbhu Dhondup. The Williamson’s dog, Bruce, is at the front of the group.
Both Tsarong and Norbhu wear official silk brocade robes held in at the waist by a sash. The robes are folded across the chest and fastened under the right arm, and the sleeves are cut very long to cover the hands. A long earring is worn in the left ear. Jigme wears a uniform, a long earring in the left ear, and his hair in a top knot with an ornament.
Mrs Tsarong and Mary wear chuba (long sleeveless gowns), silk blouses, and horizontally striped aprons. Ga-u (amulet boxes) are worn from the neck, and official Y-shaped headdresses of the Lhasa style, to which the women’s own hair and false hair-pieces, as well as ornaments, are attached.
The group are seated and standing in the gardens of Dekyi-Lingka.

On Cech’s list describing prints:
“(58-135 where taken in Lhasa.)
60. “At Dekyi-lingka 20.8.33 (Peggy)”
60c. “At Dekyi-Lingka 20.8.33 Tsarong, Jigme, Frederick Williamson, Norbhu, Mrs. Tsarong, Peggy, Dundul, Mary”
See ww: Tsarong, Dandul [sic], Mary, Jigme, Norbhu
See GTH: Tibet: Aristocracy - male dress, female dress.” [printed text]
For more information see Cech’s list.

Place

C Asia; Tibet; Lhasa; Dekyi Lingka

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

Dzasa Dasang Dadul Tsarong; Jigme Taring; Frederick Williamson; Bahadur Norbhu Dhondup; Pema Dolkar Tsarong; Margaret Williamson (Peggy); Dundul; Mary (Rinchen Dolma Taring)

Photographer

Williamson, Margaret

Collector / Expedition

Date

20 August 1933

Collection Name

Williamson Collection

Source

Williamson, Margaret

Format

Print Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

Place: Dekyilingka is the location of the “house in Lhasa lent to the British Mission by Kundeling monastery served as the headquarters of the 1936 British Mission to Lhasa. Dekyilingka translates as the 'Happy Garden'.” [Source: The Tebit Album, http://tibet.prm.ox.ac.uk/glossary.php#Shol, JD 14/5/2008]

Named Person: See Biographies for listing on Dzasa Dasang Dadul Tsarong (Tibetan). [Source: Cech’s list, JD 15/5/2008]

Named Person: See Biographies for listing on Jigme Taring (Tibetan). [Source: Cech’s list, JD 15/5/2008]

Named Person: See Biographies for listing on Mary Rinchen Dolma Taring (Tibetan). [Source: Cech’s list, JD 15/5/2008]

Clothing: “Women wore long sleeve-less gowns (chuba) and silk blouses. Over this they word approns striped horizontally with red, green, yellow and white, the top corners of which were of heavily flowered gold braid. Only married women wore aprons. The main jewellery comprised an amulet box (ga’u) suspended from a necklace. These contained charms written on a piece of paper which is folded, covered with cloth and bound with coloured threads arranged in a geometrical pattern. Amulet boxes were frequently ornamented with turquoises, rubies and diamonds and hung from necklaces of coral and agate beads. On official occassions they wore either Y-shaped or hoop-shaped headdresses (depending on whether you were a Lhasa or a Gyantse/Shigatse noblewoman, respectively). The size and number of corals, pearls and turquoises decorating these headdresses would be determined by the wealth of the woman’s family. In the case of the Lhasa headdress, it was attached to a specially constructed ‘horn’ shaped structure incoporating the woman’s own hair and false hair-pieces.” [Source: Cech’s list, JD 15/5/2008]

Publication: Photograph published in Williamson, Margaret, 1987. Memoirs of a Political Officer’s Wife (Wisdom Publication, London) on plates between pp. 96-97 with the following caption:
“At Dekyi Lingka. Standing: Tsarong Dzasa, Jigme Taring, Derrick, Norbhu. Seated: Mrs Tsarong, self, Mary Taring, and Dundul.” [JD 16/5/2008]

Transcription: 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]

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Jocelyne Dudding 15/5/2008]