1936 - 1937 Mission Diary

The official diary of the Gould mission to Lhasa sent by the British government. Read more about the mission diary.

September 21st, Monday, Lhasa.

see photographs below

We lunched with the Regent. A very pleasant informal party, to which he had had the forethought to invite Tsarong Dzasa who was a great help. The Regent is most unaffected and simple and gives the impression of being rather tired of the greatness thrust upon him. He was very pleased with the Public Address amplifier which we took to demonstrate to him.

The microphone was set up in the garden and the amplifiers near to the house. Norbhu and Tsarong spoke into it to his great delight; then some gramophone records were played. Nothing but the loudest possible noise would satisfy the Regent. Later he went and spoke into the microphone himself, at first rather selfconsciously, but gradually found great amusement in the sound of his own voice booming back at him.

The lunch was, if anything more extensive than any we have yet been given. It began with sweetmeat balls in milk, flavoured with rose water, and ended with a tray of traditional Tibetan food; joints of mutton, raw meat in chillies, and a towering mass of barley meal paste decorated with ornaments of butter. This last course is not meant to be eaten but as a customary display of the real staple foods of Tibet.

Author: Hugh Richardson [see handwritten annotations in Diary by Hugh Richardson in MS. Or. Richardson 2, Bodleian Libary, Department of Oriental Collections, University of Oxford]

Page Reference: Pt VI p.4