 SCENES FROM THE TIBETAN GOVERNMENT
Tibetan government ministers at the Cabinet Office, Lhasa, circa 1920.
 Photo: The Tibet Album. "Councillors in Council Chamber, Lhasa". The Pitt Rivers Museum. http://tibet.prm.ox.ac.uk/photo_1998.285.635.html.
Judges of the Shol Court in Lhasa (with two clerks on the left), circa 1921
 Photo: The Tibet Album. "Magistrates of Sho". The Pitt Rivers Museum. http://tibet.prm.ox.ac.uk/photo_1998.286.43.3.html.
Throne of the Dalai Lama, Norbu Lingka, Lhasa, circa 1936
 Photo: The Tibet Album. "Interior of the Norbhu Lingka". The Pitt Rivers Museum. http://tibet.prm.ox.ac.uk/photo_1998.131.325.html.
THE TIBETAN ARMY
The Tibetan army, trained by Britain, circa 1936
 Photo: The Tibet Album. "Lhasa military band and colours". The Pitt Rivers Museum. http://tibet.prm.ox.ac.uk/photo_1998.131.509.1.html.
The Tibetan army, circa 1936  Photo: The Tibet Album. "Military review at Trapshi". The Pitt Rivers Museum. http://tibet.prm.ox.ac.uk/photo_1998.131.506.html.
Tibetan troops flying Tibetan national flag
 TIBETAN CURRENCY AND STAMPS Tibetan currency note
 Photo: The Tibet Album. "Tibetan currency note". The Pitt Rivers Museum. http://tibet.prm.ox.ac.uk/photo_1998.286.59.1.html.
Tibetan paper and coin currency, in use until 1959  Photo: Jamyang Norbu.
Tibetan stamps and post-marks
 Photo: Jamyang Norbu.
THE TIBETAN NATIONAL FLAG
National Geographic "Flags of the World," 1934
 Photo: Grosvenor, Gilbert and William J. Showalter, “Flags of the World”. The National Geographic Magazine: September, 1934 - Vol. LXVI - No. 3. Washington, D.C.” National Geographic Society, 1934. With thanks to Jamyang Norbu. TIBETAN FOREIGN OFFICE DOCUMENTS
Tibetan government-issued passport of Tsepon Wangchuk Deden Shakabpa, Tibet's finance minister in the 1940s. The passport bears visas from India, the United Kingdom, the United States, Italy, Switzerland, and France.
 Photo: Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Passeportshakabpa.jpg
Letterhead of the Tibetan Foreign Office (here on a message to Mao Zedong in 1949)
 Photo: Jamyang Norbu.
RELATIONS WITH MONGOLIA
 Photo: Jamyang Norbu.
Mongolian Minister in Lhasa, circa 1920
 Photo: The Tibet Album. "Mongolian Minister and monks". The Pitt Rivers Museum. http://tibet.prm.ox.ac.uk/photo_1998.285.316.1.html.
RELATIONS WITH LADAKH
Members of the Ladakhi Mission in Lhasa, circa 1920
 Photo: The Tibet Album. "Members of Mission from Ladakh". The Pitt Rivers Museum. http://tibet.prm.ox.ac.uk/photo_1998.285.321.html.
RELATIONS WITH NEPAL
Nepal-Tibet Treaty of 1856  Nepalese envoy, Major Bista, with secretary, Lhasa, 1938  "At the coronation of the new King Mahendra [of Nepal], Tibet's envoys, absorbed in coronation, were sent by the Dalai Lama (L) and Panchen Lama (R), adjoining country's temporal and spiritual leaders." RELATIONS WITH BRITAIN
The British Mission in Lhasa (note Union Jack flag), 1936
 Photo: The Tibet Album. "Nepean and Morgan at Dekyi Lingka". The Pitt Rivers Museum. http://tibet.prm.ox.ac.uk/photo_1998.131.376.html.
British Mission Staff, Lhasa, circa 1920
 Photo: The Tibet Album. "Mission staff outside Dekyi Lingka". The Pitt Rivers Museum. http://tibet.prm.ox.ac.uk/photo_1998.285.305.html.
A reception at the British Mission for members of the Tibetan cabinet, Lhasa, circa 1940
 Photo: The Tibet Album. "Reception at Dekyi Lingka hosted by Basil Gould". The Pitt Rivers Museum. http://tibet.prm.ox.ac.uk/photo_1999.23.1.22.1.html.
The British Trade Agency in Gyangtse, circa 1937  The British Trade Agency in Yatung, circa 1940  The Tibet Album. "The Yatung Agency building". The Pitt Rivers Museum. http://tibet.prm.ox.ac.uk/photo_1999.23.1.13.4.html.
RELATIONS WITH CHINA The 13th Dalai Lama in Beijing visiting the Emperor Gwangxu and Empress Dowager, 1908 Expulsion of Chinese troops from Tibet following the 13th Dalai Lama's return from exile in India, 1912 Photo: Claude Arpi  Stone lion outside the former residence of the Chinese Amban in Lhasa, who was expelled from Tibet in 1912, circa 1936  Wu Chung-hsin, the Republic of China's Commissioner of Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs, in Lhasa, 1940  Expulsion of the Chinese Mission in Lhasa, July 1949  THE SIMLA CONVENTION BETWEEN TIBET, BRITAIN, AND CHINA
 Map showing border between Tibet and India, agreed at the Simla Convention
 Photo: The Sino-Indian Boundary Question (Enlarged Edition). Peking: Foreign Language Press, 1962. Photostat of eastern sector of original map of the McMahon line with signatures and seals of Tibetan and British plenipotentiaries, Delhi 24 March 1914. Original scale 1:5000,000. With thanks to Jamyang Norbu.
CONTACT WITH THE UNITED STATES
Lt. Col. Ilya Tolstoy and Capt. Brooke Dolan. In 1942, President Roosevelt sent these OSS officers to Tibet to ask the Tibetan government to permit a supply route from India to China.
 Photo: Skidmore University The American Mission to Tibet crossing the Melo La Pass  Tolstoy with Reting Rinpoche, the former regent of Tibet, in Lhasa, 1942
 Gifts sent with Tolstoy by President Roosevelt for the Dalai Lama
 Photo: Skidmore University
TIBET AT THE ASIAN RELATIONS CONFERENCE
Two Tibetan delegates (front right) during the Asian Relations Conference in Delhi in 1947 as Mahatma Gandhi speaks (far left). A Tibetan flag is seen in front of them along with flags of other participating countries.
 Photo: Nehru Memorial Museum/India
TIBET APPEALS TO THE UNITED NATIONS
"Tibetan Tag Tser [Taktser Rinpoche] (L) outside UN defending case of Tibet UN General Assembly against Chinese Communist [sic]."
 Photo: Life Magazine, October 1959, http://tinyurl.com/yfqm2cu
"Tibetan Tag Tser [Taktser Rinpoche] (L) brother of Tibet's Dalai Lamas outside UN defending case of Tibet UN General Assembly against Chinese Communist [sic]."  Photo: Life Magazine, October 1959, http://tinyurl.com/ykkwk96
"India's V.K.Krishna Menon (L) conferring with C.S. Tha during session opening debate in UN Gen. Assembly on resolution to 'deplore' tibetan [sic] events."  Photo: Life Magazine, October 1959, http://tinyurl.com/ykbc9vo
"Bin Nik Ahmed Kamal Mahmoud during session opening debate in UN Gen. Assembly on resolution to 'deplore' Tibetan events."  Photo: Life Magazine, October 1959, http://tinyurl.com/yfw3n3v
VIDEO: "The Lost World of Tibet," with color footage from the 1930s to the 1950s
Video: BBC, aired on May 18, 2009 |
