Tibet in history has two schools of thought. One views Tibet as a feudalistic backwater where religion and rule by theocracy imposed by the elites had caused cultural and civil rights stagnation for centuries.
The other views Tibet as a paradise and utopia until the peace was savagely oppressed by Mao.
What makes Tibetan pilgrims prostrate themselves for miles along the Lingkor, the ring road that encircles Lhasa and the Potala, is a source of wonder to me at their devotion to Tibetan Buddhism.
Whatever the view is, photos of old Tibet are fascinating and evoke a place where the world has passed by, untouched by the outside world.
Here are three photography books on Tibet that have photos taken from 1863.
Tibet Caught in Time contains photos taken by two British diplomats, John Claude White and Sir Charles Bell, from 1903.
Lost Lhasa contains text and photos taken by Heinrich Harrer (famous for his memoir Seven Years in Tibet, which was made into a movie twice) from 15 January 1946, when he reached Lhasa, till 1951.
Photography and Tibet is a useful historical survey of photography in Tibet from the earliest known photos dating to 1863.
Clare Harris cautioned that some early photos of Tibet and Tibetans presented in old British works are actually fake. They were created by the British colonial regime using natives in British India. (P 49)
LWH, 2 Nov 2025, Sunday 8 a.m.