Bronze bell hanging at the entrance of the Utse, Samye

Bronze bell hanging at the entrance of the Utse, Samye

2001.59.13.40.1 (Film negative)

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Key Information

Photographer

Hugh E. Richardson

Collection

Hugh Richardson

Date of Photo

1949

Region

Tsangpo Valley Region > Samye

Accession number

2001.59.13.40.1

Image Dimensions

85 x 60 mm

The bronze bell hanging at the entrance to the Utse temple at Samye monastery. There are carved pillars either side of it and a decorated and painted door frame of the temple behind it. Directly below it is the figure of a guardian deity. On the left of the photograph a textile hanging can be seen which was a common form of protection of painted surfaces from the sun.

Further Information

Photographic Process

Negative film nitrate

Date Acquired

Donated August 2001

Donated by

The executors of the estate of Hugh E. Richardson

Expedition

Richardson's 1949 tour of the Yarlung and Chyongye valleys

Manual Catalogues -

Manual Catalogues - Notes on negative album - 'NYEMO. SAMYE. YARLUNG. RGYAL.' is written on the cover of this blue negative album in white in Richardson's hand. [KC 24/3/2006]

Manual Catalogues -


Manual Catalogues - Notes on Blue negative album index - No. 40. 'Bell Cong'.

Manual Catalogues -


Manual Catalogues - Richardson's handlist: 'Blue Album. [No.] 40. 'Inscribed bell (cong) at Bsam-yas of similar date'.

Other Information - Background: Richardson visited Samye in 1949 and describes the site in High Peaks, Pure Earth , London, Serindia Publications, 1998, p. 315-6. "About twenty-six miles downstream [of Gong-dkar Rdzong] on the north bank [of the Tsangpo] is Bsam-yas (1949), "Beyond Imagining", the oldest, most famous, most beautiful and most numinous of Tibetan monasteries. Founded in 779 by Padmasambhava and the Indian pundit Santaraksita under the patronage of the King Khri Srong-lde-brtsan, it was conceived as the realization of an ideal universe in the form of a mandala. The spacious precinct is surrounded by a high wall representing the ocean, with a differently shaped temple at each of the cardinal points for continents and smaller island temples on either side. Some way inside the wall are four large mchod-rten , each in the colour appropriate to its geogaphical position - red at the south-west, black at the north-west, blue at the north-east, and white at the south-east. At the centre, enclosed in a high wall piercwed by doors on the east, south, north and west, stands, foursquare, the great dbu-rtse or gtsug-lag-khang , the symbol of Mount Me-ru, the centre of the universe. ..."

Other Information - History: Richardson describes this pillar and translates the inscription in
A Corpus of Early Tibetan Inscriptions, Royal Asiatic Society, James G. Forlong Series, No. XXIX, Hertford: Stephen Austin & Sons Ltd, 1985, pp. 32-3. "Hanging at the entrance to the gtsug-lag-khang of Bsam-yas is a fine bronze bell of Chinese design. An inscription in two lines runs round the upper part. It is divided into panels by vertical strapwork decoration. ... [A translation of the inscription reads as follows:] "Queen Rgyal-mo-brtsan, the mother and her son, had this bell made for the worship of the Three Jewels of the Ten Directions and pray that by the power of that merit the Divine King Khri Srong-lde-brtsan, father, son and consort, may be endowed with the harmonius sound of the sixty attributes of the voice of the Buddha and attain supreme enlightenment."

Technical Information - This photograph was taken using a Zeiss Super Ikonta camera which could take images of 6x9 cm. This was the largest negative exposure size that Richardson could take advantage of with the two cameras that he owned (the other being a Reflex Korelle, which 6x6 cm images). This size produced contact prints of sufficient size that they could be used as prints without further enlargement. However, it was only possible to take 8 images per role with this size of image. By the late 1940s, generally Richardson seems to have used this size image less and less and the choice on this tour probably reflects the significance of the site and the fact that Richardson wanted to take readable photographs of the inscription pillar there, as previously he had relied upon copies made available to him by Sir Charles Bell [
A Corpus of Early Tibetan Inscriptions , Royal Asiatic Society, James G. Forlong Series, No. XXIX, Hertford: Stephen Austin & Sons Ltd, 1985, p.26] [MS 17/12/2005]

Other Information - Dates


Other Information - Dates: Richardson states that he photographed the Samye inscription pillar in 1949 [ A Corpus of Early Tibetan Inscriptions , Royal Asiatic Society, James G. Forlong Series, No. XXIX, Hertford: Stephen Austin & Sons Ltd, 1985, p.26] [MS 17/12/2005]

For Citation use:
The Tibet Album. "Bronze bell hanging at the entrance of the Utse, Samye" 05 Dec. 2006. The Pitt Rivers Museum. <http://tibet.prm.ox.ac.uk/photo_2001.59.13.40.1.html>.

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