Visitors to Choni before Joseph Rock, 1923

Silver breastplate, Choni 1923, originally uploaded by jiulong.

In 1923, two years befor Joseph Rock arrived there, two other Americans viited and photographed the Tibetan monastery at Choni (Zhuoni) in Gansu province. They were By Janet and Frederick Wulsin, wealthy Americans who were based in Beijing. Frederick was an aspiring naturalist and took a Graflex camera on this expedition. These are some of the many photogrpahs he and his wife took - and which are now in the archives of the Peabody Museum at Harvard University. They are taken from the book Vanished Kingdoms by Mabel Cabot (daughter of Janet).

This picture is a silver breastplate worn by a Tibetan dancer at Choni, marked with astrological signs, at Cham-ngyon-wa festival, Kansu 1923.

Chanting Hall, Choni, 1923

Chanting Hall, Choni, 1923, originally uploaded by jiulong.

By Janet and Frederick Wulsin

Choni Lamas, Gansu

Choni Lamas, Gansu, originally uploaded by jiulong.

By Janet and Frederick Wulsin

Choni monastery, 1923

Choni monastery, 1923, originally uploaded by jiulong.

By Janet and Frederick Wulsin

Little Poplar Temple, Wang Yeh Fu

Little Poplar Temple, Wang Yeh Fu, originally uploaded by jiulong.

By Janet and Frederick Wulsin

Golden Temple, Kumbum, Qinghai

Golden Temple, Kumbum, Qinghai, originally uploaded by jiulong.

By Janet and Frederick Wulsin

Kumbum courtyard 1923

Kumbum courtyard 1923, originally uploaded by jiulong.

By Janet and Frederick Wulsin

Golden stupa, Labrang, 1923

Golden stupa, Labrang, 1923, originally uploaded by jiulong.

By Janet and Frederick Wulsin

Labrang monastery 1923

Labrang monastery 1923, originally uploaded by jiulong.

By Janet and Frederick Wulsin

Kumbum monks 1923

Kumbum monks 1923, originally uploaded by jiulong.

By Janet and Frederick Wulsin

Kumbum monks, 1923

Kumbum monks, 1923, originally uploaded by jiulong.

Tibetan herders with yaks, Kokonor 1923

Tibetan herders with yaks, Kokonor 1923, originally uploaded by jiulong.

Great Chanting Hall, Choni, 1923

Great Chanting Hall, Choni, 1923, originally uploaded by jiulong.

Tibetans in Kansu, 1923

Tibetans in Kansu, 1923, originally uploaded by jiulong.

Panchen Lama, Kumbum, 1948

Panchen Lama, Kumbum, 1948, originally uploaded by jiulong.

A picture from Life magazine by Mark Kauffman, which shows the young Tuteng Chueh-chi at Kumbum monastery.

Aerial shot of Gongga Shan

Aerial shot of Gongga Shan, originally uploaded by jiulong.

Not my photo - another Flickr find.

Bad karma driver near Deqin

Bad karma driver near Deqin, originally uploaded by jiulong.

Not my photo - another Flickr find

Wife of Tendon Dzongpon, Lhasa

Wife of Tendon Dzongpon, Lhasa, originally uploaded by jiulong.

Not really related to Joseph Rock, but I couldn't resist linking to these beautiful colour photographs of Tibet from the same era. They were taken by British envoy Spencer Chapman during an official expedition to Lhasa in the 1930s. The whole collection can be seen at:
http://tibet.prm.ox.ac.uk

Tendon Dzongpon, Lhasa

Tendon Dzongpon, Lhasa, originally uploaded by jiulong.

Not really related to Joseph Rock, but I couldn't resist linking to these beautiful colour photographs of Tibet from the same era. They were taken by British envoy Spencer Chapman during an official expedition to Lhasa in the 1930s. The whole collection can be seen at:
http://tibet.prm.ox.ac.uk

Muli valley to be flooded

Sad news. The Muli river valley is to be flooded with the creation of six dams by China Hydro. This maps shows the location of the dams, with several between the old monasteries of Waerdje (here marked as Muli Sanqu) and Muli monastery.


A larger, high definition version of this map can be downloaded here.