Journal of a tour through Spiti, to the frontier of Chinese Thibet, with photographic...

Imprint: London: Cundall, Downes, and Company, 168, New Bond Street. 1864. Folio, quarter-bound in leather and red buckram (modern rebinding, 1967), measuring 383 x 287 mm; pp. 68, containing 37 prints (wanting prints 17-22), laid down one to a page (apart from prints 9-10, 31-32, two to a page) on card mounts with numbered letterpress captions pasted beneath each image. The prints are numbered 1-35, with an unnumbered frontispiece photograph (here catalogued as print 1a) and unnumbered map (here catalogued as print 36).Prints 17-22 are missing from this copy. For a complete copy of this work in original binding, see BL shelfmark 1784.a.10.In his preface to the work, Egerton outlines the growing awareness of the commercial potential of areas of the Himalayan foothills, 'which in former years have attracted the Tourist, the Geologist, the Botanist, and the Sportsman, [and which] are daily acquiring a more extended interest' as ideal land for tea cultivation, a 'cheerful and pleasant occupation in a good climate...well worth the consideration of those, who with a small capital in ready money, are not prepared to enter the lists to compete for public employment by intellectual cramming.' In addition, he points out the trade routes across the Himalayas, linking India with Tibet and Central Asia, where a small amount of traffic 'has continued for centuries to struggle against the most jealous opposition, and which, if really opened out by the fair and moderate exercise of England's diplomatic influence, would bring manufactures into the heart of Central Asia, extending civilization to the barbarous hordes which people those vast tracts, and enriching the manufacturers, exporters, and carriers of European produce, as well as the Thibetan and Tartar shepherds.' In 1862 a report had been published on the state of trade between India and Central Asia and this, allied to his own experience in charge of the Kangra District - 'through which one of the chief of these routes passes' - 'strengthened in me a desire which I had conceived soon after my appointment to the Kangra District, viz., to take advantage of the small space where our territory (the Province of Spiti) joins with Chinese Thibet, and to turn, if possible, a considerable share of the Yarkund and China traffic into our Indian dominions by that route, thus avoiding the imposts, exactions, and obstructions of intervening states, with narrow-minded and covetous officials.' Having received the sanction of the Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab Sir Robert Montgomery, to mount an exploratory expedition to gather information on the areas contiguous with Tibet and to make repairs to the route, he left Dharmsala (prints 3-6) on 18 June 1863, marching in a south-easterly direction towards Kulu, 'full of sanguine expectations of a most interesting and enjoyable expedition, and with a humble hope that my operations might, by God's blessing, help to extend civilization, and eventually Christianity, to these barbarous and pagan lands.'On 22 June Egerton rode up the valley of the Beas to Sultanpur, capital of Kulu, and the same evening moved fifteen miles up the valley to Nugger [Nagar], where he stayed some time on official business, and also took the opportunity to photograph the temple, with its characteristic wooden supersatructure (print 7). On the 29th he moved on to 'Juggutsookh' where he met the Moravian missionary Mr Heyde, 'an excellent Thibetan scholar' who agreed to accompany him for the rest of the trip. On 30 June the party marched to Chikkan [Chhika] and on 2 July crossed the Hamta Pass (print 12), from which they descended into the Chandra Valley and thence to the Shigri Glacier (prints 13-14), which was crossed on 4 July. On 7 July the party crossed the Koolzum Pass to Losur and from there marched to Kioto (9 July). Dankhar (print 23), the capital of Spiti, was reached on 18 July and here Egerton decided to remain for a while: partly to gather statistical information, partly to wait for one of his assistants and partly to get some photographic groups of the inhabitants (prints 24-32). After various side trips and hunting expeditions Egerton left Dankhar on 10 August and proceeded eastwards, reaching the frontier village of Lari on the 12th. On 17 August he crossed the border into Chinese Tibet in order to inspect the the rock bridge over the Para River near the village of Kuling (print 33) and then retraced his steps along the Spiti Valley to Dankhar (reached on 22 August) and then to Kuling, where he photographed the Nono and his family (prints 34-35). The journal ends with his arrival in Losur on 28 August.

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