Tibet museum inaugurates exhibition of 1904 military expedition

Dharamsala (Himachal Pradesh) [India] Apr. 14 (ANI): The Tibet Museum on Friday hosted a photo exhibition and held a seminar by senior Curator Lecturer of University of Menchester and National Museums Livepool Dr. Emma Martin. The photo exhibition was titled as ' Capturing Tibet: Colonialism and the Camera during the Mission to Lhasa ' the exhibited photos visualize the situation in Tibet during British-India Era in 1904. They displayed photos which showed that Tibet was not a part of China as a treaty was signed in 1904 between British India and government of Tibet. The exhibition was a joint collaboration between Tibet Museum, National Museums Liverpool and University of Manchester. The exhibition features 12-Panels (two albums) of unseen photographs captured during the Young husband military expedition to Lhasa in 1904. The photographs were taken by two British officers; John Claude White and Gerald Irvine Davys, and sourced from the collections of National Museums Liverpool. Director of Tibet museum Tashi Phungstok, said "Since their occupation of Tibet in 1959, China is always claiming that Tibet historically is a part of China but this event prove them wrong. Tibetans and British India signed a convention in Lhasa in 1904 and the representative of Tibetan Government signed this convention and this all proves that there was no any presence of Chinese government in Tibet." Addressing the inaugural session, Dr. Emma Martin, lecturer in Museology at Manchester University and curator of the exhibition, gave a brief introduction of the exhibition and how the photographs were discovered. "In the 1980's, a German professor decided to make a journey across Europe and assess all of the Tibetan collections that European museums held. And when he got to Liverpool, he found out that Liverpool's Tibet collection was unique in terms of its breadth and number," Martin said. Martin further stated that the discovery of this incredible collection of photographs captured during British India's military expedition offered a fresh historical context. "The collection is precious not only because of what it represents but also because it shows the way the British understood Tibet at that point of time," she added. The exhibition is Tibet Museum's first joint venture with any foreign institute or university. It will be open from April 14 to May 24. (ANI)