Beschreibung:

c1904 Chinese/Tibetan/Younghusband Expedition Photographs: An exceptional archive of over 500 photographs, many unpublished that are contained within seven albums, dating from 1904-1910 of Tibet, China and Mongolia. They were the personal property of Lt. Col. R C MacGregor of the Indian Medical Service. The archive commences in 1904 showing the latter stages of the Younghusband Tibet expedition in 1904 and culminates around 1910 and includes the Dalai Lama's exile from the British. Several of the albums have an index which Lt. Col. MacGregor has written by hand on 11th Rajputs Stationery showing the exact location of each image. One album bears a handwritten notation in pencil 'Gyantze 1904 with the index showing each numbered photograph's location in Tibet and includes numerous images of Gyantze, it's people, a British Army camp and even gentlemen laying golf outside Gyantze. Another is titled 'Journey to Tibet' and shows 96 photographs which include The guru battlefield, Chinese troops in the Chumbi Valley, British Army Marching, this album also has a handwritten index by Lt. Col. MacGregor on 11th Rajput stationery. The remaining 5 albums contain photographs contain among others the Dali Lama in his exile from Tibet after the Younghusband expedition and even Mongolians travelling to Darjeeling to persuade the Dali-Lama to return to Lhasa. The sheer depth of the archive is breath-taking and offers a fascinating photographic record of the closed society that was Tibet at that time and the surrounding areas, it's people, towns, military, British colonial images . The archive also shows the brutal side of life at that time with a number of gruesome images of executions and their aftermath.