Lot 18•
Sir Basil John Gould(British, 1883-1956)Report on the Discovery, Recognition and Installation of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama
Amended
4 June 2025, 16:00 BST
London, New Bond Street£300 - £500
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Sir Basil John Gould (British, 1883-1956)
Report on the Discovery, Recognition and Installation of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama (in Tibetan)
wood block print
10.5 x 49.5cm (4 1/8 x 19 1/2in).
the copy is encased by two hand carved and painted wooden boards with depictions of.
Recto: Three Lamas riding in search of the Dalai Lama and approaching his house in Ambo, Eastern Tibet.
Verso: The newly found Dalai Lama being carried in a palaquin to his Summer palace, the Norbhu Lingka.
Nine copies of this publication are included in this lot, with some proof editions.
wood block print
10.5 x 49.5cm (4 1/8 x 19 1/2in).
the copy is encased by two hand carved and painted wooden boards with depictions of.
Recto: Three Lamas riding in search of the Dalai Lama and approaching his house in Ambo, Eastern Tibet.
Verso: The newly found Dalai Lama being carried in a palaquin to his Summer palace, the Norbhu Lingka.
Nine copies of this publication are included in this lot, with some proof editions.
Footnotes
The above work is the Tibetan translation of Gould's 1941 New Delhi publication of the same name. In "The Jewel in the Lotus" he recounts that the work was translated by Rani Chuni Dorji and Chang-lo Chen Kung. He also details the 1944 printing process :
"Permission having been obtained for the account to be printed at the Potala Press, the text was first written out in uncial script on long narrow slips of transparent rice paper. It was then pasted, in reverse, onto long hardwood boards, on which skilled men carved out the letters with graving tools. These boards were then delivered to me at De Kyi Lingka and printed off at a great pace by pressing sheets of Tibetan paper down on the boards with rollers. This is a very strong beige-coloured paper, insect-proof because it consists largely of daphne bark, which is made in Bhutan and Nepal for the Tibetan market. Another copy on thin white paper was written by the best scribe in Lhasa."
Sir Basil also relates that he had a number of these texts printed so he could present them as farewell gifts to Tibetan friends at the end of his final (1944) visit to Lhasa. He recounts that:
"The recipient would rise, lift the book to his forehead and reverently place it on the family altar".
This might explain why he had nine copies of the book remaining in his collection.
We are grateful to Prof Ulrike Roesler for her assistance with the cataloguing of this (and other) lots. Specifically with reference to her 2020 paper "Explaining The Dalai Lama to the Tibetans: Basil Gould's Report on the Enthronement of the 14th Dalai Lama".
Saleroom notices
Please note this lot is exempt from VAT.