Diana Lange (Humboldt University, Berlin): A Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Tibetan World: Reading Illustrated Mid-19th Century Maps of Tibet
5 December 2019
Leonard Wolfson Auditorium
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. 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". When Diana Lange started her research on the Wise Collection in 2009 she followed in giant footsteps—those of Michael Aris, who worked on the collection before his death in 1999. This lecture presents the results of “reading” and analysing the illustrated maps 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.
Diana Lange, Ph.D. (2008), is a Research Associate at the Humboldt University Berlin. She works in Area Studies with a focus on Tibet and the Himalayas and specialises in the history of knowledge and exploration, material and visual cultures, and cultural interactions.
