A glimpse of a simpler world

An album of photographs taken on the historic British Expedition to Tibet in 1903/04 is to be auctioned in England this week. The auctioneers have provided a few of the photographs to whet potential buyers' interest.

The Daily Mail reports:

The rare snaps were taken by an officer during the campaign - the first time the British were given access to the country.

They depict the haunting beauty of the secluded country and brought images of Tibeten landscapes including Mount Everest to the west for the first time.




The 72 stunning pictures show local people, buildings and even a group of nuns gathered to smile for the camera.

Taken by a John Claude White, a political officer and joint leader of the expedition, the snaps passed to a soldier in the campaign, Lieut. William Pyt Bennett.

The photographs were painstakingly pasted into an album and stored carefully, passing down through his family over the years.

They are now being sold at auction by Bonhams of London and are expected to fetch a whopping 15,000 pounds.

White entered the country as part of the British expedition to Tibet in 1903 and 1904, when British Indian forces sought to prevent Russia gaining influence in the country.

Led by Major Francis Younghusband, around 3,000 troops marched into the country, famously killing around 700 lightly armed Tibetan monks in the village of Guru.

They reach the capital Lhasa in August 1904, when the government signed a treaty effectively turning the country into a British protectorate.




. . .

David Park, director of book, maps and manuscripts at Bonhams, said: 'These are extraordinary photos with a rather fabulous provenance.

'They are the first pictures to come out of Tibet, which was a closed country at the time - in general British people could not go there.




. . .

'These photographs were taken by a British political officer, John Claude White. He was not a professional photographer, but he was very good - they are cracking pictures.

'What makes these photographs ever more unusual is their provenance - they belonged to a man who was actually part of the expedition.

'They may have been presented to him or he may have bought them as a souvenir, and they have been in his family ever since.'

There's more at the link, including more of the photographs.

The life of Francis Younghusband is a remarkable illustration of the British Empire at its height, in the fulness of its strength, and as it began to fracture and fail. I've read a couple of biographies about him, and studied his Tibet Expedition in particular - it's a fascinating story. If you're a history buff, I highly recommend following the links I've provided to the relevant Wikipedia articles, and following them up with your own reading.

These photographs add immediacy and a poignant touch to the dry words of historians. I hope they'll be published in their entirety as a major contribution to the field of history.

Peter