Rupert Wilmot (1897-1961) was a British army officer stationed in India
during the 1930s, and a talented amateur photographer. Nicky Harman translates
Chinese literature, including The Book of Sins by Chen Xiwo. Roger
Bates digitized the photographs.
With
a Foreword by Khenpo K. Rangdol, President of Tserkarmo Monastery, Ladakh,
India.
Praise For The Lost World of Ladakh
“A
wonderfully elegaic set of photographs recording a lost world: an almost
mediaeval Ladakh untouched by modernity and still living at the hub of the old
trans-Himalayan trade routes, a timeless Central Asia where soot writing
boards, itinerant monks, arcane astrologers, masked dancers and elaborate
turquoise headdresses were still common. These skillfully restored photographs
make me ache to cross again the snowy heights of the Zoji-la and to re-visit
this most fascinating region to see what is left.”
William
Dalrymple, author of Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan, 1839-42.
“Rupert
Wilmot’s pictures are a delight. The monastery images include a spectacular set
of the religious dance-drama at Hemis. There is also a visual record of the
trades that lifted so many of Ladakh's villagers above the poverty level: the
bustle in Leh Bazaar, the interior of a serai, and caravans of sheep, donkeys
and ponies. Perhaps the book’s most outstanding feature is the series of
portraits of Wilmot’s fellow-travellers and other Ladakhis, most of them in
relaxed and cheerful mode, rather than posing stiffly.”
Dr
Janet Rizvi, writer and historian of Ladakh, Kashmir and the western Himalaya.
“These
illustrations, superb as photographs in their own right, capture in visual form
the essence of Ladakhi life as it was in the 1930s. While the Ladakh pictured
here is in many ways gone, its legacy lives on in the distinctive culture of
present-day Ladakh, which cannot be fully appreciated without a knowledge of
its history. In this book we have a unique and vital contribution to that
history.”
Dr
Philip Denwood, Emeritus Reader in Tibetan Studies, SOAS, University of London.
Buying the Book
Published by Asian Highlands Perspectives, and available in Asia by clicking here, priced in local currencies.
The Lost World of Ladakh is being published in Ladakh itself by Stawa Publications
this July, at a price enabling local schools and libraries to stock it – it has
been warmly received there.
