Photo 305

Brown buckram photograph album measuring 265 mm x 210 mm, containing uncaptioned photographs window-mounted two to a page. A typescript slip laid down on the inside the back cover reads: Presented by Pundit Hardial Bhardwaji Postal Department Yatung (Tibet) 10-5-1910. A typed note to similar effect (addressee unknown) is also inserted in the album. The album was passed to the India Office Library and Records by Miss E. R. Allott, Foreign and Commonwealth Office. She had found it 'in a collection of books left for a jumble sale'. Many of the prints are signed 'H .R.' in the negative, but there is reason to suppose that the photographs are the work of Henry Martin (see note below).

The photographs in the album, generally of good quality, cover the following subjects: Views at Gyangze, including the graves of soldiers killed in 1904 (prints 1-6), Unidentified mountain scenery (prints 7-10), unidentified fortress, river scenes, Tibetan porters (prints 11-30), views in an unidentified town, probably Yatung, including Chinese and Gurkha groups (prints 31-72), Tibetan groups, including musicians and dancers (prints 73-78), Buddha images and altars (prints 79-82), miscellaneous portraits, groups and scenes, including a man wearing the cangue (prints 83-96). The last print is a half-length portrait of Pundit Hardial Bhardwaji Bitalvi.

Yatung, situated in the Chumbi Valley on the Torsa River 22 miles E.N.E. of Gangtok, was the residence of an Indian trade agent after the treaty of 1893.

Note. Three similar albums in the possession of the bookseller John Randall were examined in May 1994. These were evidently taken by the same photographer and contain a few duplicate prints and a number of almost identical images. However, while most of the prints in Photo 305 are signed in the negative H. R., many of the photographs in the albums in John Randall's possession are signed H. J. M. in the negative. Further research by John Randall indicates that H. J. M. is Henry Martin, who was assigned the job of manning the telegraph line shortly after the Younghusband Expedition. He was also apparently given the task of photographing Tibetan officials for the Foreign Office in London and was supplied with an 'official camera' for this purpose. At first film was sent to Calcutta for processing, but Martin learnt to develop and print his own material and began building up a private collection. He apparently had two daughters and a son by a Tibetan woman, and the son later sold part of his father's collection to David MacDonald, British Trade Agent at Gangtok. A note describing the albums in John Randall's possession is kept with Photo 305. Comparison with these albums has supplied specific captions for a number of the prints in this collection, as follows:

Prints 1-2. Palkhor Choyde, Gyangze.

Prints 11, 13-14. Phari Jong.

Prints 43-46. Scenes at Yatung.

Print 53. Ishegong village, near Yatung.

Print 67. Entertainment of Chinese officials by the British Trade Agent, David MacDonald, at Yatung. Group posed in front of trade agent's house.

Print 68. David MacDonald, British Trade Agent, Yatung, with his Gurkha escort.

Print 69. Chinese and Tibetan officials of the Yatung Valley posed in front of the trade agent's house at Yatung.

Print 70. David MacDonald in group with Chinese and Tibetan officials.

Prints 71-72. British trade agent's bungalow at Yatung.

Print 77. Monastery on the Assam border.

Print 79. Idol in Chumbi Monastery.

Print 83. Tibetan shrow.

Print 87. Idol in Lingmatam Gompa.

Print 89. Lama novices, Gyangze.