Bhutan (and Tibet)

Fifty glass slides, taken by Lieut Col F M Bailey, of Bhutan (including some of Tibet). Marked with titles, and numbered (blue circular sticker, 1-50). Some slides are dated 1922, a few are dated 1925, and others are undated. Copy negative, contact sheet and a low contrast 'postcard' print made (2004) for each slide.

On 12 March, 1930, Bailey gave a lecture to the Central Asian Society, subsequently published as "Travels in Bhutan," Journal of the Central Asian Society, XVII (1930), pp. 206-20. In the lecture, he records that his first visit to Bhutan was not until 1913, returning from the Tsangpo Falls with his companion, Major Morshead. "No permission had been granted. We entered the country quite unexpectedly from the north-east. Their policy of exclusion did not apparently apply to travellers who were obviously only passing through the country as quickly as possible on their return to India from Tibet, and we were most hospitably received and entertained. Captain Kingdon Ward and Lord Cawdor had the same experience under similar circumstances some years later" (pp. 211-12).

"In 1922 I was deputed by the Government of India to take the insignia of the GCIE [Knight Grand Commander of the Indian Empire] to Sir Ugyen Wangchuk. We entered Bhutan from the Chumbi valley and travelled eastwards to Bumtang, where His Highness was living. We travelled along the road used by Mr White in 1905. Leaving the Chumbi valley on June 20, we crossed a 14,150 feet pass, the Kyu La, and in three days we reached the first of the dzongs, which ... are situated in each large valley at a suitable altitude for habitation by a hill people" (p. 212).

The remainder of Bailey's lecture is a summary account of this second visit to Bhutan, illustrated on the day by a film, made by Bailey, "the first ever made of that country" (p. 206), for which see RSAA/SC/BAI/7. Amongst the lecture audience was Sir Charles Bell, who made a number of comments at the end of the lecture (p. 220).

For "the road used by Mr White in 1905," see John Claude White, Sikhim and Bhutan: Twenty-One Years on the North-East Frontier, 1887-1908 (1909). See also, Bailey, "Through Bhutan and Southern Tibet," Geographical Journal, LXIV: 4 (1934), 291-7.

Access is restricted to the copy print.