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Despite the ambiguous caption—”A Group of Thibetan Musicians”—the history behind this anonymous photograph is remarkably well-documented. Taken by Robert Phillips before 1873, we see a gathering of the resident lamas at Sangchen Thongdrol Ling, a Nyingma monastery in Darjeeling.

Phillips, who operated a prominent studio in the colonial hill-station, submitted his photograph to the Illustrated London News which published an engraving of this image with an accompanying article in 1873. The sitting lama are described as natives of Sikkhim posing with ritual instruments.

Great Britain pioneered divided back postcards in 1902, allowing messages on the address side for the first time. This innovation sparked a surge in popularity for postcards featuring full-view images—even if, as in this case, the photographs were already decades old.

The newspaper article identifies figure on the far left as the head officiating lama. Before him are placed ritual instruments including a small hand drum, a vajra scepter, and bell.

A small Buddhist icons rests above the doorway with small brass offering bowls of oil and rice set on both sides. The main altar, not visible in the photograph, reportedly enshrined an image of Padmasambhava, the Indian adept famed for introducing Tantric Buddhism into Tibet.

Often described as the oldest Buddhist monastery in Darjeeling, the temple was forced to relocate in 1879 to Ging by British authorities. To read more about details in Phillips’ photograph, consult the Illustrated London News article, viewable here: https://tinyurl.com/329mh668.

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