IDNO

P.96964.WIL

Description

Group portrait in the gardens of Dekyi Lingka, including from left to right, Bahadur Norbhu Dhondup reading a scroll? or map?, Changlochen, Margaret Williamson, and Mary (Rinchen Dolma Tering) standing together, and Tsarong and Dundul standing slightly forward of the others. The Williamson’s dog, Bruce, is standing in the background.
Tsarong, Changlochen, 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.
Mary wears a chuba (long sleeveless gowns), silk blouse, and a horizontally striped apron. A ga-u (amulet box) is worn from the neck, and official Y-shaped headdress of the Lhasa style, to which her own hair and false hair-pieces, as well as ornaments, are attached. [JD 15/5/2008]

On Cech’s list describing prints:
“(58-135 where taken in Lhasa.)
64. “At Dekyi-lingka 20.8.33”
64a. “Norbhu, Chang-lo-chen, Peggy, Mary, Tsarong, Dundul”
See ww: Norbhu, Chang-lo-chen, Mary, Tsarong, Dundul” [printed text]
For more information see Cech’s list.

Place

C Asia; Tibet; Lhasa; Dekyi Lingka

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

Bahadur Norbhu Dhondup; Changlochen; Margaret Williamson (Peggy); Mary (Rinchen Dolma Tering); Tsarong; Dundul

Photographer

Williamson, Frederick

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]

Named Person: See Biographies for listing on Changlochen (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]

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]