Fifth Annual Aris Lecture on Tibet: A Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Tibetan World: Reading Illustrated Mid-19th Century Maps of Tibet

In 1857 a Tibetan lama was engaged by William Edmund Hay, Assistant Commissioner in the Western Himalayas, to create what later became known as the “Wise Collection” in the British Library. The lama produced the first extant map made by an indigenous map-maker that shows the whole panorama of Tibet, accompanied by numerous drawings of places, buildings, and local customs. As a product of a collaborative project between two players of different cultural backgrounds, the maps and drawings reveal the lama’s complex and in-depth knowledge of Tibet, while at the same time providing a nuanced interpretation of Tibet by an "insider" for an "outsider". This lecture presents the results of researching these illustrated maps over a period of ten years and introduces some aspects of Diana Lange’s forthcoming book An Atlas of the Himalayas by a 19th Century Tibetan Lama: A Journey of Discovery.