Tibet in the Earliest Photographs by Russian Travelers, 1900-1901

This book presents a unique collection of 50 photographs taken by two Russian travelers a Buryat, Gombozhab Tsybikov, and a Kalmuck Ovshe Norzunov, in 1900-1901, at the request of the Imperial Russian Geographical society, St. Petersburg. These images are believed to be the earliest photographic re-presentations of Lhasa and other famous religious sites of Tibet, the then Forbidden Land. The images are introduced with the thrilling story of Tsybikov’s and Norzunov’s travels related by Alexander Andreyev. He also dwells on the history of the first use of field photography by Russian pioneer explorers of Central Asia. The introduction is followed by the narratives of the travelers themselves which abound in many details of Tibet’s traditional society and religious life in the last years of its hermit-like existence.