IDNO

N.103720.WIL

Description

A view of the Yutok bridge with the Potala in the background. On the left a small group of people walk along the road leading up to the bridge. In the foreground is the wet, marshy ground that the bridge crosses.

Place

C Asia; Tibet; Lhasa; Chokpori Hill

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

Photographer

Williamson, Frederick

Collector / Expedition

Date

5 September 1933

Collection Name

Williamson Collection

Source

Williamson, Margaret

Format

Film Negative Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

N.103690.WIL - N.103724.WIL were found on Frederick Williamson's film, ref FW.53, in a box labelled Leica Films 40 - 60.

Related Image: On Cech’s list describing print P.97040.WIL:
“(58-135 where taken in Lhasa.)
114. “Chokpo-ri and Yutok bridge from E. 5.9.33”.” [printed text]
For more information see Cech’s list.

Place: The Yutok bridge is one of the noted features of Lhasa and crosses a former channel of the Kyi (or Kyichu), a river that flows just south of Lhasa and eventually joins the Tsangpo (the upper course of the Brahmaputra) roughly 38 miles to the South-West. [Source: http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Lhasa, CJ 20/08/2008]

Place: The Potala palace. Construction of the palace began in earnest in 1645 during the reign of the great 5th Dalai Lama. By 1648 the White Palace was completed. To finish the rest of the building, known as the Red palace, the chief adviser, Desi Sangye Gyatso, had to conceal the Dalai Lama’s death and pretend that he was in prolonged retreat. The Red Palace was completed in 1694, 12 years after the Dalai Lama’s death. The building is named after Mt. Potala in South India, one of the holy mountains of the Hindu god Shiva. The Buddhists, however, dedicated this mountain to Avalokiteshvara , the bodhisattva of compassion and gave the name ‘Potala’ to the Pure Land where Avalokiteshvara resides. The Potala has served as the home of successive Dalai Lamas and their monastic staff from the time of the Fifth until the present Dalai Lama, the 14th. From the latter half of the eighteenth century, it has been used as a winter palace, The Norbu lingka being the palace where the rulers would retreat in the summer months. [Source: Cech’s list, CJ 22/08/2008]

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Caspian James 29/8/2008]