1998.131.252 (Print black & white)
Raw Image
Frederick Spencer Chapman
Frederick Spencer Chapman
January 1st 1937
Lhasa > Dekyi Lingka
1998.131.252
160 x 108 mm
Performing
Print gelatin silver
Donated 1994
Faith Spencer Chapman
British Diplomatic Mission to Lhasa 1936-37
Frederick Spencer Chapman
BJ.5 [view film roll]
SC.T.2.252
Notes on print/mount - 'BJ 5' has been written in pencil on the back of the print in the centre. This relates to the numbering system that Chapman adopted for images taken on the British Mission to Lhasa in 1936-37 [MS 14/2/2005]
Manual Catalogues - Caption in Chapman's hand-written list of negatives made whilst on the Mission to Lhasa, 1936-7 [See PRM Manuscripts Collection]: 'Ladakhi flute player v. full' [MS 16/03/2006]
Other Information - Related Images: Images prefixed with 'BJ' comprise a group of negatives containing images of the Lhasa band, chang girls, Tibetan officials including Tsarong and Ringang, Finch, Norbhu, Everest Permit and Khampa people, all apparently taken in the first week of January 1937 [MS 16/03/2006]
Other Information - Cultural Background: Most musicians of popular music in Tibet were Ladakhi moslems. In Tibetan the flute is called lingbu [TS 14/2/2005]
Other Information - Location: The statement that this musician is playing in the environs of the Dekyi Lingka is derived from a viewing of the cine film that also constitutes part of the Chapman Collection in the PRM. [MS 16/03/2006]
Other Information - Dates: Chapman used other images of the Lhasa Band to illustrate the text of the official Mission Diary for January 1st 1937. On that day the Mission invited some of the leading Tibetan officials to lunch to celebrate the New Year. He wrote: "Out in the garden we had the Lhasa Band and dancers. The former consists of two Chinese fiddlers, one of them blind, a bearded Ladaki, who plays a flute, and a Tibetan with another curious stringed instrument. The blind fiddler, incidentally, enjoys the privilege of being allowed to smoke even in the presence of the Cabinet" [MS 14/2/2005]
For Citation use:
The Tibet Album.
"Ladakhi flute player"
05 Dec. 2006. The Pitt Rivers Museum.
<http://tibet.prm.ox.ac.uk/photo_1998.131.252.html>.
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