Nalesini Tucci Wanderings

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1-6):Layout 1 16/11/09 08:39 Pagina 3
ASIEN-AFRIKA-INSTITUT
ISTITUTO ITALIANO PER L’AFRICA E L’ORIENTE
UNIVERSITÁ DEGLI STUDI DI NAPOLI “L’ORIENTALE”
MANUSCRIPTA BUDDHICA
1
Sanskrit Texts
from Giuseppe Tucci’s Collection
Part I
Edited by
Francesco Sferra
ROMA
ISTITUTO ITALIANO PER L’AFRICA E L’ORIENTE
2008
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Published with grants from the Dipartimento di Studi Asiatici,

Università di Napoli “L’Orientale”,
and from the Ministero dell’Università e della Ricerca
ISBN 978-88-6323-292-9
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Layout: Francesco Sferra
Printed in Italy – Stampato in Italia

Finito di stampare nel mese di novembre 2009
Stampa A.G.O. srl - Roma
per conto della Grafica e Stampa di G. Scalia via Dante de Blasi, 98 - 00151 Roma
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Contents
Foreword by Gherardo Gnoli....................................................................................... 7

Preface “Manuscripta Buddhica”................................................................................ 9
Editorial Note and Acknowledgments............................................................................... 11
PART I
Francesco SFERRA, Sanskrit Manuscripts and Photographs of Sanskrit
Manuscripts in Giuseppe Tucci’s Collection..................................................... 15
Oscar NALESINI, Assembling Loose Pages, Gathering Fragments of the Past:
Giuseppe Tucci and His Wanderings Throughout Tibet and the Himalayas,
1926-1954..................................................................................................... 79
PART II
Vincent ELTSCHINGER, ‡aõkaranandana’s Sarvaj∞asiddhi. A Preliminary Report.... 115
Eli FRANCO, Variant Readings from Tucci’s Photographs of the Yoginirñayapraka-
raña Manuscript................................................................................................. 157
Paolo GIUNTA, The Åryadhvajågrakeyürå nåma dhåriñœ. Diplomatic Edition of MS
Tucci 3.2.16......................................................................................................... 187
Albrecht HANISCH, Sarvarakßita’s Mañicü∂ajåtaka. Reproduction of the Codex
Unicus with Diplomatic Transcript and Palaeographic Introduction to the
Bhaikßukœ Script.................................................................................................. 195
KANO Kazuo, Two Short Glosses on Yogåcåra Texts by Vairocanarakßita: Vi∫†ikå-
™œkåvivr¢ti and *Dharmadharmatåvibhågavivr¢ti................................................... 343
KANO Kazuo, A Preliminary Report on Newly Identified Text Fragments in
‡åradå Script from Źwa lu Monastery in the Tucci Collection........................ 381
Birgit KELLNER, A Missing Page from Durvekami†ra’s Dharmottarapradœpa on
Nyåyabindu 3.15 and 3.18 in Context.................................................................. 401
Birgit KELLNER and Francesco SFERRA, A Palm-leaf Manuscript of Dharmakœrti’s
Pramåñavårttika from the Collection kept by the Nepalese råjaguru
Hemaråja ‡arman............................................................................................... 423
Contributors........................................................................................................... 485
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Assembling Loose Pages, Gathering Fragments of the Past:

Giuseppe Tucci and His Wanderings Throughout Tibet and the
Himalayas, 1926-1954 *
OSCAR NALESINI
1. Introduction
Giuseppe Tucci owes a great part of his reputation to the lengthy and numerous
expeditions throughout the Himalayas and Tibet he undertook between 1926 and
1954, the results of which have been extremely important to the development of mod-
ern studies of the region. Nevertheless, the works referring to Tucci’s life often contain
confusing, inaccurate and, at times, clearly incorrect data on the dates and frequency
of his travels, as if these were elements of secondary importance in his scientific
career. 1 One must admit, however, that Tucci himself contributed to the confusion
over the history of his own travels by providing imprecise data. 2
Tucci’s primary motive to undertake expeditions throughout Nepal and the
Himalayas was the existence of voluminous libraries, especially those located within
monasteries. He knew that these monasteries preserved remarkable collections in
which many Sanskrit Buddhist works, as well Tibetan translations, could be found. 3
However, Tucci believed that simply studying the written sources was insufficient; that
any serious research had to combine studying in the library with fieldwork, an
approach which he eventually saw adopted, especially in the field of archaeology. 4
Accordingly, he extended his research into the collection of any source he was able to
discover regarding the history and prehistory of Tibet and Buddhism. These sources
included, of course, literary, epigraphical and linguistic sources, but Tucci was also
interested in apparently unrelated subjects, such as popular traditions, songs, devo-
tional objects, etc., which were of little to no interest to other scholars of his time.
Additionally, he stressed the importance of studying “the technological knowledge and
* This is a revised and updated version of two to be discussed further on): in Indo-Tibetica IV, Tucci
forthcoming articles originally written for the Institute mentions a famous hermit he encountered in Poo
of Archaeology of Beijing University and due to be (Kunawar) in 1935 (Tucci 1941: 7-8, n. 2). This date is
published in Chinese (Nalesini forthc. 1, forthc. 2). erroneous because Tucci visited Poo in 1931 and 1933,
I thank Edward Feldman for his help in revising not in 1935. He also claimed (Tucci 1977: 64) to have
the English text. travelled to Tholing and Tsaparang in 1931, 1932, and
1
To the best of my knowledge, Mario Fantin 1933. In fact, he was there in 1933 and 1935. In 1931,
(1972: 273) has published the most reliable (albeit he failed to arrive at these two places, as will be
with some mistakes concerning the earliest itiner- explained below, and the expedition of 1932 never
aries) record of the Tucci’s Tibetan expeditions to took place.
date. 3
Tucci 1931b: 520-521; 1979: 7.
2
The following are two examples (among many 4
Tucci 1963: 11.
Oscar Nalesini
practical activities of the Tibetans, so poorly known today”, 5 which included works of
art and the erection of buildings. As Maraini observed in 1937, Tucci would compare
and contrast the descriptions of monasteries and pilgrimage sites contained in old
guidebooks with personal observations from the actual sites. 6
His extraordinary linguistic skill greatly facilitated his interactions with people of
different social and cultural backgrounds. A nearly perfect mastery of Sanskrit –not
to mention Chinese and Tibetan– enabled Tucci to converse easily with even the most
strict custodians of religious orthodoxy. Moreover, his fluency in many modern Indian
languages allowed him to confer with the bureaucrats as well as bargain with porters
and merchants. This skill distinguishes Tucci’s mindset from the idealistic attitude
which was so prevalent among other Italian scholars of his time, who valued only the
literary and, above all, ancient languages. According to him, it was necessary for a
scholar to explore the entire range of linguistic history and varieties with respect to the
area under study; he was openly critical of the fact that students of Indology at Italian
universities were only offered courses in Sanskrit. 7
Tucci’s expeditions were different from the travels of the many Westerners who
preceded him on the Himalayan tracks as missionaries, geographers, soldiers and
British officials, as he was the very first scholar to organize fieldwork with the specific
goal to study and document Tibetan civilisation from all points of view. Reading
Tucci’s travelogues, one gets the impression that, from the beginning, he easily
resolved the many organizational challenges and various obstacles that he met with
during his journeys. However, the reality was that his skillful methods of organization
and fieldwork were the end result of a gradual evolution as he increased his field expe-
rience and learned to overcome obstacles. This leads us to consider not only the
chronology and itineraries of Tucci’s expeditions, but also their organisation and
financing, the fieldwork, and the management of photographic documentation.
2. Tracks to the roof of the world
The opportunity which allowed Tucci to come into direct contact with India grew
out of the Italian Government’s political interest in some of the Indian nationalistic
movements and their leaders. Amongst the latter was Bengali poet and Nobel laure-
ate, Rabindranath Tagore. Tagore had already been in contact with Italian intellectu-
als for some years when he briefly visited Italy in 1925. During that visit, Tagore earned
the support of the Italian Government for the school of Vi†va Bhåratœ that he had
opened in ‡åntiniketan in 1921. The Italian assistance consisted of 500 books and the
assignment of two indologists as teachers: Carlo Formichi, professor of Sanskrit from
the University of Rome, and Giuseppe Tucci. 8
Tucci arrived in ‡åntiniketan on the 28th November 1925, and lived there 11
months. During his stay, he accompanied Tagore twice on trips within India. 9 The first
trip took place in late February 1926, when Tucci and Formichi accompanied Tagore
to Assam, after the poet had lectured at Dhaka University. 10 While in Assam, Tucci had
a pivotal experience which proved essential for his career, allowing him to realize the
5
Tucci 1932: 15. during the 1926 school summer vacations (Tucci
6
Maraini 1984: 118-120. 1962: 33), which is impossible since Tagore left India,
7
Tucci 1934: 10. bound for Europe, in May and did not return until
8
Prayer 1995: 16-19. December.
9
Tucci claimed that he had made these two trips 10
Tomar 2002: 23.
80
Assembling Loose Pages, Gathering Fragments of the Past
key that, from that moment on, would enable him to win the confidence of those in
charge of temples, monasteries and libraries, and to open the doors of many such
places that had been inexorably closed to western explorers. This is a crucial point, as,
even in British-controlled areas, the governmental authorities were of no help. Access
to religious sites constituted an extremely delicate point in the relationship between
the British and local populations, as the sites were considered to be private property of
the religious institutions. Travel permits to the Himalayas and to Tibetan trade mar-
kets always clearly specified that the holder “will not visit monasteries or other institu-
tions without the specific consent of the authorities concerned”. 11
Tucci was well aware of the importance of his experience in Assam and discussed it
at length a few years later within an overview of his researches published in the lavish-
ly illustrated magazine L’Illustrazione italiana; although later on, Tucci liked to joke
that his success in gaining access to Tibetan temples was due to his being Tibetan in a
former life. 12 According to that unique source, Tucci visited the temple of Kåmåkhyå,
an important place of pilgrimage near Gauhå™œ, hoping to attend the tantric rituals
that were being performed. But, when he arrived at the temple’s premises, the Pandits
forbade him from entering despite the presence of Indian acquaintances recommend-
ing him. Later, Tucci returned alone and won the respect of the Pandits after dis-
cussing with them –in Sanskrit, for three hours– various aspects of religion and phi-
losophy. At the end of this long examination, Tucci was not only permitted to visit the
entire temple, but was also allowed to consult the manuscripts kept in the library, 13
enabling him to write an article on the subject. 14 As he explained in his diary of the
1933 expedition, learning and respect were of course very important, but above all, one
had to show monks or Pandits that there is a spiritual affinity between themselves and
their guest. 15
Tucci’s first trip into the Himalayas apparently occurred a few months later. In
May, he left Tagore in Darjeeling 16 and organized his own trekking to Sikkim. The
only existing document of that journey is a photograph portraying Tucci together
with his companions in Temi; it was presumably taken in the courtyard of the bunga-
low where they slept. In addition to the porters and the cook, there is also a European
man, pictured in the first row on the left, sitting on the ground. In the notes written
on the back of the photograph, he is referred to by Tucci as “Dr. Plicot [...] expert of
mental illness” (Fig. 1).
Nothing else is known about Tucci’s travels until the summer of 1928, when he and
his wife Giulia Nuvoloni visited Taxila, and proceeded to ‡rœnagar over Rawalpindi and
Murree, with Ladakh as their final destination. Notwithstanding nearly three years of
experience with Indian governmental structures, Tucci underestimated the bureau-
cratic aspects of travelling throughout the Himalayas. The locations he was interested
in visiting were all within restricted-access areas, and the rules to enter them were quite
strict. However, in 1928, Tucci bypassed the procedure and requested permission to
visit Ladakh from the British Resident in Kashmir upon arriving in ‡rœnagar. His wife
recalled that the answer was a sharp, albeit polite, no; because those wishing to travel
to Ladakh were required to apply nearly a year in advance, and the maximum number
of visitors admitted had already been reached for that year. Nevertheless, Tucci was
11
Farrington 2002: 76. 14
Tucci 1929.
12
Conze 1997: 51. 15
Tucci and Ghersi 1934: 11-12.
13
Tucci 1931a: 507-508. 16
Cf. Tucci 1962: 33.
81
Oscar Nalesini
able to overcome this obstacle thanks to the recommendations of the Italian Consul-
General, who was spending the his summer vacation in Simla. 17
Upon returning to Italy, Giulia Nuvoloni published the first part of her travel diary.
The bombastic prose and many unwarranted digressions on Buddhism make the read-
ing decidedly tiresome. Perhaps, for this reason, the publisher stopped the narrative
after five episodes, when the description of the journey was still only at the beginning.
However, thanks to the captions written by Nuvoloni on the back of some printed pho-
tographs kept in the archives, we know that the Tuccis visited Hemish, Saspul, Nimu,
Lamayuru and Leh. They apparently didn’t go beyond Hemish.
The scholarly, but at the same time respectful, approach towards the local Pandits
in Assam again proved effective a year later when visiting Nepal, which was as difficult
for a European to access as Lhasa. Tucci and his wife crossed into Nepal on 25th April
1929, with only a one-moth visa, 18 which had been obtained with the assistance of the
British Government. 19 But, after again winning respect for his deep knowledge of
Indian thought, Tucci succeeded in extending his visa a first time until mid June, 20 and
subsequently until early September. 21 During this trip, as well as subsequent trips to
Nepal (1931 and 1933), he was allowed to explore only the Kathmandu valley. 22 Besides
Kathmandu, Patan and Bhatgaon, there are also photographs taken in Kirtipur,
Cangu Narayana and Gokarna.
Tucci soon began planning an extension of his research into other regions of the
Western Himalayas. On 2nd December 1929, he applied to the British Indian authori-
ties to visit Spiti, Guge, Rudok and Hanle. The Kashmir Darbar in fact issued the trav-
el permit to Hanle, but Tucci’s plans were presumably premature as the correspon-
dence with the Indian officials in March 1930 mentions only Ladakh and Zanskar. 23
Bureaucratic and logistic difficulties likely caused Tucci to limit his plans. The itiner-
ary which covered the summer of 1930 is unknown. It is possible that Tucci simply
returned to only the places he had already visited in 1928, because the few photo-
graphs existing in the archives with captions dated 1930 portray only Dras and
Matayun, on the road leading from ‡rœnagar to Leh. That year, the geographer Giotto
Dainelli met him and his wife in the capital of Ladakh, and reported that they were
returning from a two-month stay in a monastery in order to study the books of the
library. 24
In April 1931, after returning to Italy, Tucci resumed planning his exploration of
western Tibet. The new itinerary departed from ‡rœnagar and covered the whole of
Ladakh, Rupshu, Lahul and Manali. From there, Tucci intended to reach Tibet by fol-
lowing the Hindustan-Tibet trade route to Gartok. On the road, he would visit the
most important historical sites, such as Tholing and Tsaparang. From Gartok, he
planned on consulting with the Tibetan authorities about the possibility of continuing
towards Mount Kailash and Lake Manosarowar, returning to India by marching over
Purang to Almora along the Nepalese border (Fig. 2). 25
Tucci received all the necessary permits from the Indian Government to cross the
western Himalayas and reach Gartok, but the project proved overly ambitious. As with
17
Tucci Nuvoloni 1930: 381. 22
Tucci 1979: 7.
18
Tucci 1931a: 507. 23
Farrington 2002: 21-34.
19
A.C. Bordonaro [Italian Ambassador to UK] to 24
Dainelli 1933: 455.
Sir Austen Chamberlain [Foreign Secretary], 18th 25
Archivio Storico Diplomatico, Ministero degli
April 1929, in Farrington 2002: 14. Affari Esteri: Ministero della Cultura Popolare, file
20
H. Wilkinson to J.G. Acheson, Kathmandu 18th 143, reproduced in Daidona 2006: 56-60; Farrington
May 1929, in Farrington 2002: 18. 2002: 36, 42.
21
Tucci 1931a: 507.
82
his previous travels, he never described the itinerary covered in 1931 in detail. The fol-
lowing is my reconstruction based on a few identifiable photographs taken during the
course of the journey and a few place names mentioned in his works. After having
made his way across Ladakh and Rupshu, where he reportedly had to stop at
Narichanfule after becoming ill, Tucci arrived in Lahul through the Baralacha Pass. 26
He visited Gondhla and Sissoo, where he took some photographs, and reached Manali,
presumably through the Rohtang Pass. His route from Leh to Manali possibly followed
the route of Giotto Dainelli, who had travelled through the same region in 1930. 27
That year, in fact, the two met in Ladakh, as we have already seen, and it is possible
that Tucci subsequenly contacted Dainelli (who had, in the meantime, returned to
Italy) to obtain news concerning the route.
The expedition proceeded along the Sutlej river and entered Tibet through the
Shipki Pass, eventually reaching Tiak on 2nd October 1931. It was too late to continue
to Gartok due to the impending winter season. So Tucci had to turn back, by way of
the Shipki Pass, and arrived at Simla late in the month. He then departed for Nepal,
where he spent the entire month of November. 28
The most controversial point of the 1931 itinerary concerns Spiti. In Indo-Tibetica
I, Tucci published some tsha tshas coming from places in Spiti valley that he would, at
least officially, visit only a year after the printing of the book: Tabo, Nako, Dankhar
and Kaje. 29 However, in the 1931 travel report, Tucci clearly states that he did not visit
Spiti because it had already been archaeologically studied by A.H. Francke in 1909,
and that he never diverted his route from the prescribed itinerary. 30
There are two possible explanations for this discrepancy. The first being that Tucci
arrived late at the Tibetan border since he spent additional time visiting places in Spiti
without the permission of the British Indian authorities to travel across that valley. I
am inclined to agree with this explanation because of a gloss written by Tucci on his
own copy of the Survey of India map (sheet 53 I Chini, 1916 edition) saying that:
“Meglio di Channako andare a Shelkar (Kiààr) e arrivare a Poo per la destra” (“Better
than Channko, go to Shelkar and arrive in Poo via the [trail?] on the right”). In other
words, it seems that he was traveling down the Spiti river from the North, on his way
to the Sutlej valley. Obviously, Tucci could not openly write about his unauthorized
wanderings across restricted areas in a scholarly publication due to circulate in India,
the United Kingdom, as well as other countries. If he had published this news in 1931
or 1932, it would surely have compromised his subsequent applications. Perhaps Tucci
was referring to this deviation from the authorized itinerary when he wrote in the mag-
azine L’Illustrazione italiana that he had visited almost every monastery in Lower
Spiti. 31 Although this issue of the magazine was published in late 1933, after Tucci’s
return from the expedition through Spiti and Western Tibet, and contemporaneously
with the founding of the Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, this article
was concerned only with the results of previous travels and certainly had been submit-
ted to the publisher before departing for Tibet. At that moment, the information was
no longer dangerous for his plans.
The second, simpler explanation is that someone collected the tsha tshas on behalf
of Tucci while he was in Bengal or in Italy. Tucci certainly maintained contacts of this
kind with local people: for example, in September 1932, while he was in Rome, he
26
Tucci 1933c: 250. 29
Tucci 1932: 82, 87, 94, 99, 101, 106, 107.
27
Dainelli 1932. 30
Tucci 1933c: 246-247.
28
Tucci 1933c: 247. 31
Tucci 1933b: 98.
83
Oscar Nalesini
Fig. 1. Tucci at Temi (Sikkim), May 1926
received a manuscript from Poo containing the medium-length version of the biogra-
phy of Rin chen bzaõ po. 32
Another puzzling point of the 1931 expedition is the extensiveness of the planned
itinerary. It is true that during the expedition Tucci faced unexpected obstacles. He
reported that unusually heavy rains caused his march to be slower than expected. 33
Furthermore, he recalls falling ill in a gorge between Ladakh and Rupshu, 34 and
apparently needing help again in Shipki. 35 But, the reality is that the planned itinerary
of the expedition was so long that even if Tucci had not experienced problems with
landslides, rains and health, he would have had great difficulty in completing it in only
four months. And this is even more puzzling because Tucci personally knew these
places and was aware that, in some of the regions he planned to cross, even the poor
facilities available in Ladakh did not exist. Moreover, he personally knew people who
had already travelled there, and, therefore, was able to know in advance the infeasibil-
ity of the project. In fact, its realization eventually required three expeditions over the
course of five years.
In his correspondence with the Indian authorities, Tucci produced different justi-
fications for his delay, according to convenience: in a letter to E.B. Howell written on
2nd March 1933, he referred to numerous discoveries of inscriptions, 36 and in a letter
(probably addressed to Metcalfe) dated April 1933, he pleaded the inclemency of the
weather.37 The impression is that these justifications were convenient and only partial-
ly true.
32
Tucci 1933a: 53. 35
Tucci and Ghersi 1934: 169.
33
Tucci 1933c: 246-247. 36
Farrington 2002: 49.
34
Tucci 1933c: 250. 37
84
Fig. 2. Tucci’s main expeditions in the Western Himalayas and Tibet
In my opinion, Tucci was perfectly aware that he would have never been able to
cover the whole itinerary, but he wanted to proceed nonetheless in order to create a
precedent for securing travel permits to zones where the Europeans were rarely seen.
The Anglo-Tibetan Treaty of 1904 and the Trade Regulations signed in Simla in 1914
codified the establishments of British trade agents in Yatung, Gyantse and Gartok, and
the right of the Indian Government to issue passports allowing travel through Tibet,
exclusively on the trade routes to the appointed trade marts. Nevertheless, the very
first Europeans who sought permission to travel to Gartok were Tucci in 1931 and
Evelyn Howell in 1932. Consequently, the rules concerning movement across the Indo-
Tibetan frontier in that sector were still undefined as to which itineraries the Indian
Government was authorized to issue passports. 38 Tucci repeatedly claimed that the
information supplied by the offices of the Indian Government and the maps of the
Survey of India often proved outdated and rarely useful, as landslides and floods had
modified the course of the road to Gartok, forcing the travellers to deviate from the
prescribed itinerary. 39
Even within the Indian administration the regulations were not entirely known. In
1933, when Tucci applied again for a passport to Gartok, a conflict of jurisdiction arose
between the Political Officer in Sikkim and the State of Punjab. Frederick Williamson
raised the question of which office had the jurisdiction to issue travel passports to
Gartok. He claimed that, according to the Anglo-Tibetan Convention, the Political
Officer in Sikkim had to be consulted before issuing any permit to that destination,
38
Cf. F. Williamson in Farrington 2002: 61-62. Farrington 2002: 82, 84.
39
See Tucci and Ghersi 1934: 219; Tucci in
85
Oscar Nalesini
although the trade route of the Sutlej valley and the trade mart of Gartok were under
the jurisdiction of the State of Punjab. 40
According to the correspondence kept in the India Office Library, it seems that
Williamson ultimately gained the authority to grant passports also to Gartok. But, the
most interesting point is that in 1933 the Indian Government offices were still unable
to decide the real limits of the travel permits they were going to release. So, the British
officials decided, in the end, that the Tucci expedition would be a suitable test to
understand what the Tibetan authorities considered procedurally correct from the
Indian side. If the Tibetans did not raise any objections to Tucci’s itinerary, it meant
that the decisions of the British officials conformed with the Anglo-Tibetan
Convention. 41
On the other hand, these approximations left ample room for Tucci and he subse-
quently exploited them in an exemplary way. During the organization of two expedi-
tions to Western Tibet, he convinced the British (and, evidently, also the Tibetan) offi-
cials that the roads leading to Tholing and Tsaparang, and later on even the road from
Almora to Kailash, were part of the trade-routes network established by the Anglo-
Tibetan Convention, and, therefore, that the British permit enabled him to visit those
places. The change in attitude of the Indian Government can be traced in the corre-
spondence concerning Tucci’s travel permits. In the letters regarding the 1931 expedi-
tion, the only permitted ways of access to Gartok were from Ladakh along the Indus
river, and from Simla along the Sutlej valley. In fact, on that occasion the British offi-
cials invited Tucci to submit to the Tibetan authorities a request to travel from Gartok
to Manosarowar, as this route was under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Tibetan
Government. 42 But, in April 1933, Frederick Williamson, while commenting upon
Tucci’s request for a new pass to Gartok, appeared, on the contrary, inclined to con-
sider the route from Almora to Gartok via Purang (and therefore via Manosarowar
and Kailash) as part of the Hindustan-Tibet trade routes to Gartok; 43 this was the
route Tucci eventually followed in 1935.
Important organizational changes occurred between 1931 and 1933. Thus far, Tucci
had travelled alone or with his wife, who actually assisted in taking the photographs. 44
The technical quality of her pictures is often poor, but they do show an aptitude for
composition. Although there are no documents that allow us to identify with certain-
ty which of the two was the photographer until 1930, I am inclined to attribute most of
the photographs to Giulia Nuvoloni. I base my assertion on several clues: first of all, the
earliest among the approximately 200 pictures exposed before January 1931 with anno-
tations on the reverse are dated 1928, that is, the year following their marriage.
Moreover, these hand-written notes are surely all in Giulia Nuvoloni’s own handwrit-
ing, and sometimes contain errors and inaccuracies in the transcription of place names
and Tibetan words (e.g. “Nihat Bag” instead of Nishat Bagh, “shorten” instead of chort-
en [mchod rten]) that Tucci would hardly have committed. Last but not least, Tucci
openly admitted his great difficulty in using any sort of mechanical device, not only a
camera. 45
40
Farrington 2002: 52-53, 55-56, 58, 64-68. photographs, the unique yet hazy recollection of such
41
Farrington 2002: 66-67. majestic impressions]” (Tucci Nuvoloni 1930: 536). It
42
Farrington 2002: 37. is unclear whether ‘we’ refers to both her husband
43
Farrington 2002: 64. and herself, or she is using a pluralis majestatis.
44
In the article about the 1928 trip to Ladakh, 45
Tucci 1977: 17. It is interesting to mention here
Giulia Nuvoloni wrote: “Non ci stanchiamo di pren- the parallel with Tagore who, in 1940, admitted the
dere fotografie, l’unico e pur ben vago ricordo d’im- same ineptitude toward engineering (Tagore 1945:
pressioni così maestose [= We never tire of taking 70). Tucci’s difficulty with a camera was accompanied
86
But in 1931, Tucci was alone. The negatives shot during the course of that expedi-
tion have the same 7 × 11 cm format of the previous travels, and were, presumably,
exposed using the same camera; but this time, the results were a photographic deba-
cle. Almost all of the photographs show incorrect exposure or are out of focus, the
camera was rarely held steady, and there are framing mistakes that parallax error can
only partially justify. Last but not least, most pictures are unidentifiable because of the
complete absence of notes indicating places and subjects. In sum, in 1931, when Tucci
was forced to personally deal with the camera, the results are photographs showing an
inferior technical skill than those of the 1928-1930 period, as well as a different way of
documenting the places they represent.
The numerous difficulties and occasional failures Tucci encountered organizing and
carrying out the expeditions made him realize the need for more people to assist him
in his fieldwork. First of all, he required someone who was able to use a camera, as it was
of utmost importance to photographically document so many vanishing monuments of
the Tibetan and Himalayan arts. Tucci also needed a Lama, or other educated Tibetan,
to assist him in interpreting inscriptions and recovering texts; as well as a physician. For
his travels in Western Tibet, Tucci was fortunate to find a medical officer of the Navy
who was also a good photographer, Eugenio Ghersi (1904-1997) (Fig. 3).
The two met as a result of the initiative of a cousin of Tucci’s, who served as an offi-
cer on the ship ‘Colleoni’, where Ghersi was also stationed at the time. They met for
the first time at the main railway station in Rome while Tucci was leaving for Turin,
where he had appointments to organize his next expedition. The introduction by his
cousin could hardly have been more effective: “Tu stai cercando per la tua spedizione
un alpinista, buon fotografo e di robusta costituzione. Qui a Roma ne abbiamo uno
che è anche medico [= You are looking for a mountain climber, a good photographer
and someone of strong constitution for your expedition. Here, in Rome, we have a
man like this, who is also a physician]”. 46
Moreover, Ghersi had already had an experience in the Far East. In 1931-1932 he
served as medical officer aboard the gunboat ‘Carlotto’. 47 Since the Boxer Uprising,
two gunboats of the Italian Navy were assigned to patrol the Blue River in order to pro-
tect Italian interests in Hubei (specifically, the «Italo-Cinese» river navigation compa-
ny of entrepreneur Righini, the Italian missionaries and the Italian consulate in
Hankou). 48
In spring 1932, the journalist Cristano Ridòmi paid a short visit to the ‘Carlotto’
while travelling through China. 49 In the evening, the officers gathered with the rest of
the crew “per assistere ad uno spettacolo cinematografico. Ghersi, il dottore del
Carlotto, è produttore, regista, operatore di gustosissimi film del Fiume Azzurro. Gli
ufficiali e i marinai ne sono spesso i protagonisti e gli attori [= to watch a movie show.
Ghersi, the physician of the Carlotto, is the producer, director and cameraman of
delightful films on the Blue River. The officers and the mariners are often the main
characters and actors]”. 50 Besides the movie, Ghersi also took photographs. Twenty-
by an aversion to sitting for portraits that would man- 43). As a matter of fact, the archives conserve very few
ifest throughout his life; his words used in the trave- personal pictures portraying him, his wife, friends or
logue of the 1952 expedition to Nepal are unequivo- colleagues dating back to the 1928-1930 years.
cal: “Io non ho mai posseduto un ritratto: odio i ritrat- 46
Letter E. Ghersi to D. Klimburg-Salter, Varese
ti, quelli a posa. A casa mia non ce n’è neppure uno, Ligure, 5th September 1988.
né miei né di persona di famiglia [= I have never pos- 47
Leva 1960.
sessed a portrait. I hate portraits, those which are 48
Appelius 1935: 202, 218, 335; Balossini 1934.
posed. In my home there is not a single one, neither 49
Ridòmi 1933: 207-217.
mine nor of anyone from my family]” (Tucci 1979: 50
Ridòmi 1933: 209.
87
Oscar Nalesini
Fig. 3. Tucci’s team in the Chandra Valley, June 1933. E. Ghersi is the first man from left (Neg. Dep. 6089/01)
nine of them (representing the gorge of Yichang and the cities of Nanjing, Suzhou and
Hangzhou) illustrate the chapter on China of the Geografia universale, edited by
Roberto Almagià. 51 In the same chapter, one also finds six images of Kailash and lake
Manosarowar, signed ‘Tucci & Ghersi’. 52
Ghersi succeeded in doing an excellent job under difficult conditions. A large num-
ber of his photographs –those of greater scientific interest– represent the paintings
and sculptures inside buildings. But, to photograph them in the early 1930s was much
more difficult than one can imagine today. The narrow spaces and the scanty natural
light entering through small windows and doors were real obstacles. The wide-angle
lens was able to capture only a small portion of the painted walls without notable dis-
tortions, and the film used still had a very low sensitivity. Thus, the sole available
sources of light were oil lamps and magnesium salts. But the lamps were able to uni-
formly illuminate only a small portion of the painted walls, therefore it was necessary
to resort to magnesium. This solution had serious drawbacks: once lit, magnesium pro-
duced a lot of smoke that dispersed very slowly because of scarce circulation of air. One
can easily understand the consequences of these environmental constraints on the
time needed to document the interiors of the monuments. 53
The high percentage of good results that Ghersi succeeded in producing, under
exceedingly difficult conditions and with little time at his disposal, is astonishing; the
travel diaries clearly mention how brief their stays were at every site; 54 and an analysis
of the sequences of frames shows that, despite all the difficulties mentioned above,
51
Vacca 1936: 835-1011. Ghersi at La Spezia, July 1996.
52
Vacca 1936: 1041-1043, 1052. 54
Tucci and Ghersi 1934; Tucci 1937; Klimburg-
53
Informations obtained interviewing gen. E. Salter 1990: 158-160.
88
Fig. 4. Reading inscriptions on a mani wall, Losar, Spiti, 1st July 1933 (phot. E. Ghersi)
Ghersi seldom failed a shot. It was also necessary to verify the exposures before aban-
doning those hardly accessible sites. Exposed film was developed in the evening, at the
camp, to verify the results and, if needed, repeat the exposures insofar as this was still
possible. The film was removed from the cartridges and loaded into a tank for the
development using a muff of black cloth that Ghersi had sewn himself. The low tem-
peratures occurring after sunset at those altitudes quickly cooled the chemicals, expos-
ing the negatives to an excessive increase of nuisances or to other damages. Ghersi
then catalogued the photographs, annotating the place, date and subject. All docu-
mentation, including the travel diary, the motion pictures 55 and the cartographic
sketches were given to Tucci, and, unfortunately, they have hence been largely dis-
persed. 56 We do not have a precise idea of the quantity of photographic materials used
by Ghersi. He said that he used only a Leica for 35 mm film, but there is evidence that,
at least in 1933, he also used a medium format camera for 6 × 9 cm sheet film. The only
available documentation of this is a request of customs exemption for the 1935 expedi-
tion, enlisting –among other things– photographic materials unusually expressed in
kilos. 57
Another point worth stressing here is the diary. Tucci never kept a log, like the
ones we have seen discussing his earliest travels. In 1933 and in 1935, Ghersi kept a daily
diary and Tucci subsequently published it after revision. In the two following expedi-
55
Istituto LUCE produced two documentaries in Giornale Luce B0406/1934: “La spedizione dell’acca-
1933 with Ghersi’s motion pictures: Nel Tibet occiden- demico Tucci nel Tibet”, 2'32".
tale, 46', and Il Nepal. La spedizione di Carlo Formichi in 56
Cf. Klimburg-Salter 1990: 161-171.
Nepal per conto della Reale Accademia d’Italia, 12'13"; and 57
“100 kilos” mentioned in the letter of Fracassi to
two short pieces for the news: Giornale Luce Simon, London 28th April 1935, in Farrington 2002:
B0405/1934: “L’esplorazione del Tibet”, 1'13", and 103-104.
89
Oscar Nalesini
Fig. 5. Map of Sakya from F. Boffa Ballaran’s diary Fig. 6. Frame used to photograph documents, Zhalu
(courtesy Sandro and Mariuccia Boffa Ballaran) 1939 (Neg. Dep. 7763; phot. F. Boffa Ballaran)
tions to Central Tibet, nobody kept a diary, or at least not as Tucci had wished; there-
fore, we know his itineraries only from the maps he published within reports.
The 1933 expedition started from the point where that of 1931 ended. From Manali,
the caravan climbed the Rohtang Pass, proceeded along the Chandra valley, entered
Spiti and then down to Shipki Pass (Fig. 4). They arrived at Gartok on a northern
route passing over Miang, Nü, Rabgyeling and Shang, where they found an impressive
quantity of ancient texts. Gartok was a forced stopover because the passport issued by
the Indian Government was valid only to reach the trade mart, so the rDzoõ pon of
Gartok and the British trade agent were expecting the Italians to present themselves.
On the way back to India, Tucci and Ghersi followed a more southerly route to stop at
Tholing and Tsaparang, the ancient capitals of the Kingdom of Guge.
Two years later, Tucci and Ghersi were again in Western Tibet. This time, they
marched for three weeks from Almora through Lipulekh Pass to Taklakot (Purang),
the first stopover in Tibet. From there Tucci and Ghersi visited the temple of
Khojarnath, and then circumambulated the sacred places of Lake Manosarowar and
Mount Kailash. They continued west to the ancient town of Kyunglung, where Ghersi
documented many mural paintings, whose photographs are unfortunately lost. The
itinerary proceeded trough the mart of Nabra to Davadzong and Mangnang, where
Tucci discovered the famous ancient mural paintings. 58 From there, they briefly revis-
ited Tholing and Tsaparang to complete the study of the monuments and the photo-
graphic documentation gathered in 1933. From Tholing, they headed for Gartok over
Piang and Dunkar, and arrived in Ladakh marching along the Indus.
58
Tucci 1937b.
90
Fig. 7. View of Sakya from the Lhakhang chenmo, 1939 (Neg. Dep. 6117/18-22; phot. F. Boffa Ballaran)
Fig. 8. Tucci’s expeditions in Central Tibet
As we have already seen, the expeditions conducted in 1933 and in 1935 through
western Tibet served to complete the research agenda planned in 1929. Besides the
usual collection of objects and texts, the most important result of the explorations con-
ducted in western Tibet was the historical and artistic study of the principal monaster-
ies of Spiti and Guge. Research regarding Tabo, Nako, Tsaparang and other monu-
ments was soon published in the Indo-Tibetica series; only the findings at Tholing
remained unpublished. Tucci repeatedly postponed the publication of these findings
because Tholing deserved a particularly careful study, but, ultimately, he was never
able to accomplish this goal. 59
Starting from 1937, Tucci turned his attention to central Tibet (Fig. 8). If we exam-
ine the routes Tucci covered, expedition after expedition, we notice what appears to
be a regular west-to-east drift. Although this may lead to the supposition that Tucci
had a long-term strategy, nothing could be further from the truth. The interest that
arose in the preliminary studies on the so-called Second Diffusion of Buddhism in
Tibet 60 brought Tucci, necessarily, to the Western Himalayas; but every new discovery
brought new questions demanding new research. Tucci often wrote in the introducto-
ry paragraphs of his works that during previous travels he had realized the importance
of other areas of study to better understand the arguments he was researching. 61
In 1937 Tucci asked the Tibetan Government for a passport to visit Tashilhunpo,
but he was not granted permission. As the British officials explained to him: at that
moment, Chinese and Tibetan Governments were negotiating the return of the Tashi
59
Petech 1995: 9. 61
E.g. Tucci and Ghersi 1934: 8; Tucci 1956: 1.
60
Tucci 1933a.
91
Oscar Nalesini
Fig. 9. Zhalu monastery, 1939 (Neg. Dep. 6129/03; phot. F. Boffa Ballaran)
Fig. 10. Women carrying thaõ kas, Sakya, 1939 (Slide Fig. 11. Tucci and Tsarong, Tibetan Ministry of
11927; phot. F. Boffa Ballaran) Finance, Chushul, 5-7th August 1948 (Neg. Dep.
7014/07; phot. Prodhan)
Lama to his Tibetan seat after 13 years of residing in China; the situation was so deli-
cate that nobody would allow a foreigner to travel to that destination. 62 So, Tucci
resorted to the pretence of applying to the Indian Government for a passport to the
trade mart of Gyantse. This, however, implied that he had to confine the visits to the
sites along the Hindustan-Tibet trade route.
Meanwhile, the collaboration with Ghersi had ended, as the Navy assigned the offi-
cer to another post. 63 The responsibility to document the research in 1937 fell upon
Fosco Maraini (1912-2004), who had contacted Tucci directly. 64 On his return from
Tibet, Maraini also travelled to Sikkim of his own accord. 65 From a technical and,
above all, aesthetic point of view, the photographs taken by Maraini are undoubtedly
the best that Tucci ever had. They are not filed in Tucci’s archives, as Maraini kept the
whole documentation for himself in order to exploit it. 66 Nevertheless, he granted
Tucci use of the images to illustrate the book on the monuments of Iwang, Samada and
Gyantse. 67 Besides Maraini, Tucci rehired the chief-caravaneer Kalil, a Kashmiri man
who had already accompanied him twice to western Tibet. 68
The 1939 expedition to Central Tibet is the first time that we are certain of the
Tibetan Government having actually issued a travel permit for Tucci and his new com-
62
Farrington 2002: 119-120, 122, 128, 133, 149. death, Maraini handed over his photos to the Literary
63
Klimburg-Salter and Bellatalla 1997; Martines Scientific Cabinet G.P. Vieusseux in Florence, which
2000: 234. in turn entrusted Fratelli Alinari with their commer-
64
Maraini 2001: 331-332. cial management.
65
Maraini 1939. 67
Tucci 1941.
66
Maraini 1942, 1951. A few years before his 68
Maraini 2001: 334.
92
Fig. 12. The camp of the expedition at Kardam, 6th July 1935 (Neg. Dep. 6046/26; phot. E. Ghersi)
panion, Felice Boffa-Ballaran, who acted as map-maker and photographer. Felice

Boffa-Ballaran (1897-1994) was a Captain of the ‘Alpini’ (mountain force) who had
distinguished himself after World War I by intensively climbing the Alps. A few years
before his Tibetan adventure, he had participated in the foundation of the Central
Military School of Mountaineering at Aosta, which opened on 9th January 1934. Boffa-
Ballaran was, therefore, a distinguished man within Italian mountaineering, and for
this reason the Army General Staff suggested him to Tucci for the expedition after a
quick selection process, granted 60,000 Lire for his expenses, 69 and paid for the pho-
tographic equipment and the processing of film. 70
As with Ghersi and Maraini before him, Boffa-Ballaran also proved himself to be an
excellent photographer and a curious inquirer of the Tibetan world. He cared very
well for the photographic equipment, bringing with him 3 cameras (one for 35 mm
film, plus two medium-format cameras) and four kinds of film: Agfa Isopan F, with a
speed of 17 DIN (40 ASA), Isopan ISS which was more appropriate to photograph inte-
riors having a higher sensitivity (21 DIN/100 ASA), two medium format (6 × 9 and
9 × 12 cm) sheet films to reproduce texts in the monastic libraries, and the new
Agfacolor film for colour slides, among the earliest of the modern type ever shot in
Tibet. He also built a unique frame to hold book pages and documents vertically and
69
Boffa 1946: 126; Fucci 1987. To give some indi- War, Boffa-Ballaran’s expenses on the whole amount-
cation, the exchange rate on 1st May 1939 was 89.21 ed to 62,193.65 Lire.
Lire to one Pound Sterling. According to the finan- 70
Tucci 1940a.
cial report included in the Relation to the Ministry of
93
Oscar Nalesini
photograph them more comfortably (Fig. 6). Despite the accolades in the publica-
tions, and unlike Ghersi, whose friendship lasted until death, Tucci’s relationship with
the mountaineer always remained formal. Tucci published only a summary account of
the 1939 expedition in the Bollettino of the Italian Royal Geographical Society 71 with a
few illustrations. Fortunately, in 1946, Boffa-Ballaran published a more detailed article
on the expedition, taken from the report he had handed over to the Ministry of War
on his return. Moreover, he gave Tucci an album containing 1,088 illustrations docu-
menting their entire journey, which constitutes, by far, the most useful document for
identifying the photographs of that journey.
The Tibetan passports only entitled Tucci and Boffa-Ballaran to visit Sakya. 72 The
city was still a central place in terms of religious importance, and the monuments there
were witness to its past political importance. Tucci and Boffa-Ballaran spent 25 days in
Sakya studying the libraries and the works of art contained in monasteries, most of
which are no longer standing (Figs. 5, 7). During their stay, Tucci succeeded in obtain-
ing permission to continue the journey toward Shigatse, and from there to Gyantse.
The caravan left Sakya bound for Lhatse via Gyang. It continued, following the course
of the Tsangpo, covering part of the route by boat, and visiting Jonang and Puntsoling.
The expedition also visited the important printing house in Narthang, where Tucci
ordered copies of religious texts. Then they headed for Ngor, Zhalu (Fig. 9), Nesar and
Pökhang. In the libraries of all these monasteries Boffa-Ballaran photographed
approximately 3,000 pages of texts, 73 including many Sanskrit works. 74 The collection
of scroll paintings (thaõ ka) was particularly important (Fig. 10), for Tucci was able to
select a significant sample of iconographic and stylistic varieties. Assembling the docu-
mentation collected in 1937 and in 1939, Tucci was able to write a general history of
the region, and to study the evolution of the arts in central Tibet. 75
The British officials used to look with a favourable eye on Tucci’s fieldwork since
the Italian scholar was held in very high esteem by many academicians and politicians,
maintained excellent relationships with the Buddhist clergy and this, in turn, upheld
European and British prestige. 76 From 1938, however, this consideration was chal-
lenged by a growing political tension between Great Britain and Italy because of
Mussolini’s alliance with Hitler. Certainly the European political environment at the
beginning of 1939 made all information gathered on the border of the British Empire
interesting also for the Italian Army. This may explain why Tucci’s request, advanced
to the Ministry of War in late 1938 or early 1939, to have an officer accompanying him
to Tibet, was promptly welcomed. This remains a puzzling point, as the report deliv-
ered by Boffa-Ballaran to General Ubaldo Soddu, 77 Undersecretary to the Ministry of
War, and to General Gabriele Nasci, commander-in-chief of Alpine troops, contains
neither military nor political information. 78
When Tucci and Boffa-Ballaran left Sikkim for Tibet (16th April 1939), the danger
of war in Europe was real. Moreover, the German expedition, led by Ernst Schäfer and
supported by Himmler (whose political purpose was obvious), had been in Tibet since
1938 and had succeeded in meeting the Regent and Kashag members in Lhasa despite
71
Tucci 1940b. January 1940, registry No. 5342.
72
Farrington 2002: 170, 174. 78
Letter to F. Boffa Ballaran from ‘Comando
73
Boffa 1946: 133. Superiore Truppe Alpine - Il Generale Comandante’,
74
See above, pp. 41-51. Trento, 27th January 1940. I consulted the report and
75
Tucci 1941; 1949. these letters in the private archives of Felice Boffa-
76
McKay 1997: 173-174. Ballaran.
77
Letter U. Soddu to F. Boffa Ballaran, Rome 20th
94
the hostility of the British official. 79 All of this increased the suspicions of the British
Government that the Italian expedition had more than merely scientific goals.
The expedition arrived in Gangtok on 5th September. Two days earlier, France and
Great Britain had declared war on Germany because of the latter’s invasion of Poland.
The new political situation in Europe also had consequences for the Italian expedition,
although Italy was still a formally neutral country. One of which was that a printed
copy of any photographic or cinematographic material to be imported into India had
to be submitted to British military censors. Boffa-Ballaran avoided most of the difficul-
ties arising from this new law by sealing all of his film in boxes and having them deliv-
ered as parcels-in-transit from Tibet to the Italian ship waiting for him in the harbour
of Bombay. 80
In 1940, Italy declared war against the United Kingdom, and consequently Tucci
had to stop relationships even with the British officials who had always proved them-
selves as friends. He resumed contact with Sir Basil Gould in 1944, after the Allied
occupation of Rome. In 1946, Tucci wrote to the British Government to get permission
to travel again across Central Tibet. He also tried to foster their consent by requesting,
through the British Council, the involvement of British scientific institutions, which
would have had to furnish –according to the initial plans– a photographer and a
physician. 81 Subsequently, he also inquired at the Royal Geographical Society, Kew
Gardens and the Royal Botanical Society of Edinburgh, looking for a botanist. 82
But the current political situation was not conducive for such initiatives. Up until
the signing of the peace treaty between Italy and the United Kingdom (10th February
1947), Tucci was formally a citizen of an enemy country, and for this reason even his
English supporters –such as Gould and Richardson– gave favourable opinions on his
project only in private. Another complication soon arose, along with the independ-
ence of India and subsequent partition between India and Pakistan; Tibet now bor-
dered two independent states which, in 1947, had not yet established regular diplomat-
ic ties with Italy. The applications for travel permits and customs exemption were to be
submitted to the Governments of India and Tibet through the Foreign Office, but this
process was overly complicated and time-consuming for bureaucratic reasons.
Ultimately, Tucci submitted his application directly to the Tibetan Government
through his friend Richardson, who was still serving at Lhasa. 83
The 1948 expedition had a troublesome outset. For an important occasion, such as
the entrance into the Forbidden City, Tucci was inclined to do things in grand style.
The Navy dispatched Regolo Moise (1901-1982), a physician specialising in tropical
medicine with a long service in Ethiopia and Somalia, and two photographers, Pietro
Francesco Mele and once again Fosco Maraini. Notwithstanding his accurate prepara-
tions, the Tibetan authorities on the Sikkim-Tibet border communicated that Tucci
alone had been granted an entry visa. Moise, Mele and Maraini received the Tibetan
visa nearly two months later, but in the meantime, Maraini grew weary of waiting and
returned to Italy. 84
79
Beger 1998: 158-159. Schäfer and Tucci did not 81
Tucci to Gould 25th March 1946, in Farrington
meet in Tibet, but the Italians were greeted at Shigatse 2002: 187-188.
with pelted stones because in May the Germans had 82
Farrington 2002: 205-207, 211, 214-215. No
irritated the local population by hunting animals record of these contacts had so far been found in the
(Boffa 1946: 135). A letter by Tucci to a British official archives of these Institutions. I thank Michèle Losse
written in Shigatse on 30th June reports that “the and Graham Hardy for their help.
Germans made the Europeans quite unpopular” 83
because of their behaviour (Hale 2003: 391, n. 3). 84
Tucci 1950a: 101.
80
Boffa 1946: 139.
95
Oscar Nalesini
To compensate for the absence of his assistants, Tucci engaged Prodhan, a

Sikkimese photographer contacted in Gangtok. Photographs were also, eventually,
taken by Moise and Mele during the final stages of the expedition. 85 As with Maraini
in 1937, Mele did not surrender the photographs to Tucci and used them to publish a
book. 86 The documentation of this expedition is certainly the poorest among those
present in the archives because of the quality of the images and of enormous gaps in
the negatives. Also, for these reasons, at the moment it is impossible to identify most
of the images with the sole aid of the travel diary. To better understand the bad qual-
ity of the photographic documentation brought back in 1948, one has to consider that
Tucci was forced to use some of the photographs taken by Boffa-Ballaran in 1939 to
illustrate the travel narrative. For instance, the figures with the Chomolhari, the cara-
van on the highland of Pharidzong, the archery competition and Kampadzong
fortress. 87
Tucci left Yatung to Gyantse, hoping to facilitate the securing of visas for his com-
panions by bargaining directly with Tibetan officers at Lhasa. From there, he proceed-
ed over Ralung, Nangkartse and Netang, the last important stopover before reaching
Lhasa. During his long stay in Lhasa, Tucci met the young Dalai Lama and made an
excursion through the three monastic cities near the capital: Drepung, Sera and
Ganden (Fig. 11). In early August, the expedition departed Lhasa and descended the
Kyi River by boat until Chusul, at the junction with the Tsangpo. At that point, Mele
and Moise joined the expedition. Tucci then commenced a long journey across the
province of Ü (dBus), visiting Samye (bSam yas), Ngari Tratsang and Zingji. According
to Tenzing Norgay, who was the chief-caravaneer, Tucci wished to push eastward, until
the Chinese border, but he gave up because of the unstable political situation. 88 So,
from Zingji, Tucci returned along the right bank of the Tsangpo to explore the royal
graveyard in the Yarlung valley. 89 On the way back, in the monastery of Koõ dkar,
Tucci recovered two important Indian manuscripts (the Abhidharmasamuccayakårikå
and the Mañicü∂ajåtaka). Tucci and Tenzing reported differently on these discover-
ies. 90 In Gyantse he requested and obtained permission to travel again to Shigatse, and
to return into Sikkim over Rhe and Kampadzong. 91
The 1948 expedition marks the end of Tucci’s travels to Tibet. The changes that
occurred in the political situation of Tibet after 1949 prevented him from planning
any further expeditions. But this, by no means, meant the end of his interest in Tibet.
On the contrary, the fieldwork he carried out during the following years was aimed at
elucidating those moments of Tibetan history which were still obscure.
In 1952 and 1954, he organized two expeditions through western Nepal. In 1952,
the main goal was to study the areas of Tibetan culture along the Kaligandaki River,
ending at Mustang. 92 Concetto Guttuso, the physician of the Navy travelling with
Tucci, together with photographer Francesca Bonardi, report that at the state border
85
Tucci 1950a: 7. 15); but in the diary of the next (1954) expedition, he
86
Mele 1956. Mele later sold his Tibetan photo- asserts that he visited Nepal six times (Tucci 1977: 12).
graphs to the Ethnographic Museum of Zürich Then, in a third book, Tucci says that “In five journeys
University. throughout Nepal, it appeared to me that the history
87
Tucci 1950a: facing pp. 16, 20, 36, 112 respectively. of the country is not contained within the limits of the
88
Tenzing 2003: 115. valley where Kathmandu, Patan and Bhatgaon are
89
Tucci 1950b. located”, and “I therefore thought it necessary to visit
90
Tucci 1950a: 129; Tenzing 2003: 116-117. the interior of Nepal” (Tucci 1956: 1). Literally, this
91
Tucci 1950a: 130. would mean that Tucci journeyed seven (!) times to
92
In the travelogue of Nepal 1952, Tucci writes Nepal. However, he actually made five journeys: 1929,
that it was his fourth visit to that country (Tucci 1979: 1931, 1933, 1952 and 1954.
96
near Mustang, Tucci again expressed the wish to contact the Chinese, but gave up for
fear that his companion, being a military official, would get into trouble. 93 Perhaps his
most important discovery in Western Nepal occurred in 1954, near Jumla and Dullu.
Owing to some inscriptions, he was able to reconstruct an important page in the histo-
ry of western Tibet, when the same dynasty ruled over Purang and western Nepal.
In 1955, Tucci surveyed the valley of Swat in northern Pakistan, and a year later he
started the archaeological excavations of Buddhist monasteries in Butkara and Panr.
3. How to prepare for an exploration and manage on scarce resources
Treks through regions such as the Himalayas and Tibet also involved a considerable
financial effort, as nearly everything had to be brought from Italy and India, including
medicines, food and equipment.
The only quantitative data I was able to detect, relating to these supplies, comes
from the applications for customs exemption. According to a letter written by Dino
Grandi (then Italian ambassador to the United Kingdom) to Simon on 3rd May 1933,
Tucci requested the Indian Government to grant customs exemption for the materials
of the scientific expedition, which included four tents (in the expedition pictures, we
always see only two mounted tents, presumably because they had the other two in
reserve), camping kits for two persons, two pistols, 400 tins of canned food, 30 bottles
of Brandy and 60 lbs of chocolate. 94 The quantity of material brought in 1933 proba-
bly proved insufficient for the duration of the trip, considering that a portion of the
canned food was presented to the local officials. 95 The figures regarding the provisions
for the 1935 expedition are, in fact, considerably higher: 100 kilos of chocolate, 650 tins
of food and 50 units of sanitary materials, in addition to the photographic equipment,
camping kits and two pistols. 96 A picture of the camp at Kardam (Fig. 12) shows that
Tucci used 5 tents for sleeping and storing materials during the 1935 expedition.
Regarding the 1939 expedition, we only have a summarization of the equipment
purchased in Italy and in India. The camping kit included a special tent made by
Ettore Moretti company with a gum-coated base to keep all of the photographic and
cinematographic equipment as dry as possible. The individual camping kits prepared
by Boffa-Ballaran filled two packages of nearly 30 kilos each. 97 In 1948, the provisions
Tucci expected to carry from Italy included 1 quintal oil, 4-5 quintals canned food, 1-2
boxes of medicines, 30 bottles of liquor, and 12 binoculars as gifts for the Tibetan offi-
cials. 98
Notwithstanding the popularity of Tucci’s travels in Italy and abroad, raising funds
for all of these provisions was no easy matter. In the history of Italian scientific
research, scholars have always had to manage with scarce financial resources; Tucci was
no exception. Support for his expeditions from public institutions had never been sub-
stantial (although all expeditions from 1931 until 1939 were officially promoted by the
Royal Academy of Italy and Tucci had always been in good terms with the Fascist
Government). His first trips to Ladakh were, almost certainly, paid for by Tucci him-
self; and, in my opinion, he contributed at least some of his personal funds to all of his
travels. In 1950, regarding the sponsors of his excursion to Lhasa, Tucci said that, “to
93
Nalesini 2008. 96
Fracassi to Simon, London 28th April 1935, in
94
Farrington 2002: 59-60. Farrington 2002: 103-104.
95
Tucci and Ghersi 1934: 257; Tucci 1937a: 27. 97
Boffa 1946: 127-130.
98
97
Oscar Nalesini
Fig. 13. Interior of Tucci’s home, Dhaka or Kolkata 1928-

1930 (Neg. Dep. 6589; phot. G. Nuvoloni)
Fig. 14. Mural paintings, Üsukhar/Khardzong, 1935 Fig. 15. A book cabinet in Tucci’s home, Dhaka or
(phot. E. Ghersi). The evidenced area corresponds Kolkata 1928-1930 (Neg. Dep. 6685; phot. G.
to the mural fragment kept at the MNAOr, Rome Nuvoloni)
the rest, as with all of the other expeditions, I provided with my own means [al resto, come
in tutte le altre spedizioni, provvedevo io con i miei mezzi]”. 99
Naturally, when Tucci wrote “my own means” he was not implying his salary as a
university professor. Instead, he was referring to the money earned by selling articles
and photographs to popular illustrated magazines and journals such as Le Vie d’Italia e
del Mondo of the Italian Touring Club, L’Illustrazione italiana, The Illustrated London
News, Nuova Antologia and L’Illustrazione del Medico (the latter since 1949).
Tucci succeeded in also garnering support from some major private companies.
During the 1933 and 1935 expeditions to Western Tibet, Eugenio Ghersi took some
photographs which were clearly intended for commercial use. One such photograph
portrays a Tibetan man holding a can of pasta and a box of cocoa. This photograph,
eventually sold to the Buitoni pasta company, was used for advertising. 100 A second
copy is in the archives of Perugina, a prominent confectionary company.
But Tucci also received disinterested help from some entrepreneurs. Another
frame, exposed in 1935, portrays a man holding a tin of Isnardi olive oil. Mr. Isnardi
donated a small amount of money (and some oil tins) for the 1935 expedition because
he and Eugenio Ghersi were born in the same city (Oneglia, near Imperia) and were
close friends. 101 There is no evidence that the Isnardi company used this photograph
99
Tucci 1950a: 7; emphasis mine. the Imperia section of the Club Alpino Italiano,
100
ECONOMIA 1984: 360. whose flag is clearly visible in some shots exposed in
101
Ghersi had a lecture on his Tibetan travels at Western Tibet.
98
Fig. 16. Miang 1933: Tucci and a Lama sorting out loose sheets (Neg. Dep. 6037/28; phot. E. Ghersi)
for any commercial purpose. It has not been printed on their catalogues, although it
is possible that it was used to produce postcards or gadgets for the clients. 102
Most important was Mr. Prassitele Piccinini, 103 a pharmaceutical industrialist keen
on Asian civilizations, who sponsored the expeditions conducted in 1935, 1937 and
1939. A few years later, he would also donate the first books of the Asian East
Collection (Fondo Oriente Asiatico) to the Gambalunga Library at Rimini.
In order to acknowledge his supporters, Tucci mentioned the products of the con-
tributing companies in some passages of his travel narratives in Western Tibet. The
praise was directed especially towards Cirio (a canned food company) and again to
Buitoni: “The people quarrel for the empty Cirio cans and fierce fights break out”; 104
“Here, Abdul will be able to show us his culinary skill; so far we have only eaten canned
food. But you cannot go on living on this canned stuff, even though it is prepared with
the care and expertise typical of Cirio”; 105 “With ill-concealed glee, the she-zonpon
accepts the eleven rupees […] and the Cirio canned fruits I give her […]”; 106 and again,
“The one that never emerges from his hole is the cook: […] Neither Ghersi nor I know
what he is up to, as our most lavish meals add up to something from a can, a bit of
Buitoni macaroni and a some Cirio vegetables. All stuff that is ready in two minutes”. 107
Unfortunately, the documentation on the sources of financing of the Tucci expedi-
tions is difficult to retrieve because of the failure to keep many relevant files. For
102
Fabiano Semprevivo, personal communication. 105
103
Tucci 1941: 1. 106
Tucci 1937a: 27.
104
Tucci and Ghersi 1934: 64. 107
Tucci 1937a: 147.
99
Oscar Nalesini
instance, Lloyd Triestino’s (the navigation company running the India and Far East
lines from Italy) archives, containing the documentation of its passengers, were
destroyed during bombardments of World War II. The archives of the Ducati compa-
ny, which gave Tucci a micro-camera in 1948, were lost in a different manner. The
managers ordered the demolition of the building containing the archives of the com-
pany from 1926 to 1974 on the basis that these old documents were no longer of inter-
est. This was also a great loss for motorcycle enthusiasts, who today cannot study the
earliest racing models. 108
In other cases there was a personal interest. Corcos, a Roman antique dealer, gave
Tucci funds in 1939 against the obligation to collect for him Tibetan objects to sell
(according to a document I read, nearly 20 years ago in Corcos’ private archives, and
have since been unable to consult). After World War II, Corcos tried to sell the thaõ
kas he had received from Tucci in Paris and New York. Later on, they were acquired
by the Italian Ministry of Public Education and given to the National Museum of
Oriental Art.
The 1948 expedition was organized in a period when it was objectively difficult to
raise money from public institutions, as well as from private companies, because of the
post-war economic conditions. Tucci had to resort to his connections with politicians:
“many private contacts failed to give good results […]. When things got really difficult,
it was the Rt. Hon. Giulio Andreotti 109 who helped us on”. This is followed by acknowl-
edgements to the public and private bodies that had contributed to the expedition. 110
4. Collecting fragments
It was not a secret that Tucci collected objects since his very first travels. He open-
ly discussed –even in correspondence with governmental officials– the collecting of
books, inscriptions and works of art to prepare a Corpus Inscriptionum Tibeticarum and
to write a general history of Tibet. 111 Objects and texts can, in fact, be seen in the pho-
tographs taken by Tucci himself or his wife in their Dhaka and Calcutta residences
between 1928 and 1930 (Figs. 13, 15). By 1931, he published four thaõ kas from his own
collection on the colour pages of a major Italian illustrated magazine. 112 A year later,
he published a large part of his private collection of tsha tsha in volume 1 of Indo-
Tibetica, 113 and sent copies of his work to British scholars and officials as a gift. Until
then, nobody criticized or accused him of any wrongdoing.
However, this changed in 1936 when Marco Pallis wrote a letter, opposing the
methods of Tucci, to the Foreign and Political Department in Simla. In the charge,
Pallis accuses Tucci of taking some important religious books. Pallis was evidently refer-
ring to a meeting with Tucci in 1933 at Namgya, in the Sutlej valley, where he, Warren
and two other companions had arrived and were preparing to climb Leo Purgyul. 114
Further information had perhaps been picked up later on by Pallis from other inform-
ants. It is worth noting that the opinion of the Indian authorities at the time of the
charge was that Pallis’ words could “be partly inspired by the jealousy of a rival scien-
108
Mail of L. Lodi to O. Nalesini, 11th December 2006. 111
Tucci to Metcalfe (?) April 1933, in Farrington
109
Giulio Andreotti (b. 1919) was Undersecretary 2002: 57.
to the Presidency of the Council of Ministers since 112
Tucci 1931a.
May 1947. 113
Tucci 1932.
110
Tucci 1950a: 7. 114
Tucci Ghersi 1934: 162-163; Pallis 1946: 76-77.
100
tist”. 115 As a consequence of this opinion, the charge lay in a drawer until a new politi-
cal situation changed the way many officials of the Indian Government considered
Tucci’s fieldwork.
As a matter of fact, the polemic started after the diplomatic relationship between
Italy and United Kingdom deteriorated because of the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in
1935; it grew in intensity as the possibility of war against Germany and Italy became
more and more likely. In late 1937, some British officials commented adversely on the
report written by Tucci on his travel to Gyantse: “Prof. Tucci was not allowed very great
opportunities for loot on this occasion”. 116
In fact, this attitude lasted beyond the conclusion of World War II. According to
British journalistic sources, in 1939 the Tibetan Government curtailed Tucci’s travels
because of “denuding whole villages of articles of archaeological interest”. 117 If this
indeed happened, it is plausible that neither Tucci nor Boffa-Ballaran mentioned such
an event in their writings. Still, it is hard to believe that the Tibetan Government would
have grant Tucci a permit to visit Lhasa in 1948 if any Tibetan official had effectively
taken action against him for this reason. Be that as it may, on December 1939 the
Indian Government declared that the issue was insignificant. 118 As a matter of fact,
Tucci’s collecting methods were perhaps questionable in terms of prevailing European
sensibility and standards, but did not differ greatly from those followed by other
European and North American scholars throughout the world at that time (and even
later on).
Furthermore, one has to consider the context in which Tucci worked and started
to bring books and works of art back with him to Italy. Many Tibetans were compelled
to sell their sacred objects in order to simply feed their families. Tucci said that the
state of poverty of Western Tibet made the prices of books and art objects lower in 1935
than in 1933. 119 In order to avoid the reprimands of their community, people often
sold the objects in secret. 120 Sometimes they resorted to trickery, pretending that the
divinity living within the object demanded to be transferred to the foreigner at the end
of complicated ceremonies. 121 Sometimes Tucci received the books as gift from
monks. 122
Last but not least, Western Tibet was then a country scattered with ruins, and very
few people possessing a cultural background sufficient to maintain the cultural her-
itage were caring for the monasteries. 123 For cultural reasons, these people often con-
sidered that old ruined paintings and sculptures had to be replaced by new ones.
Visiting Tsaparang on August 1935, Tucci spoke with the Abbot regarding the conser-
vation of the White Temple; the Abbot replied that, if he had enough money, he would
like very much to paint everything anew. 124
Tucci was haunted by what he called “the mania of new things” or “the desire for
novelties” of the Tibetans, which often resulted in the obliteration of ancient paintings
and sculptures. This fear constantly emerges in his correspondence with British
authorities 125 and in the travel diaries, for instance, speaking about freshly made paint-
115
Caroe to Gould, 19th September 1936, in 120
Tucci and Ghersi 1934: 85, 93, 112-114.
Farrington 2002: 117-118. 121
116
Farrington 2002: 149-150. 122
Tenzing 2003: 117.
117
The Tribune, 8th May 1942; Tunnard-Moore to 123
Tucci and Ghersi 1934: 13, 354; Tucci 1949: 177.
Brock, 10th Sept. 1946, in Farrington 2002: 198-199. 124
Tucci 1937a: 167.
118
Farrington 2002: 175. 125
Tucci to Howell, Rome 10th February 1932, in
119
Tucci 1937a: 44. Farrington 2002: 48.
101
Oscar Nalesini
Fig. 17. Negatives from different roll films lashed together with a nylon thread (Neg. Dep. 6078; phot. E. Ghersi)
ings at Rabgyeling 126 and on a small temple near Phari whose ancient murals were still
visible in 1937 but appeared to be covered by new paintings in 1948. 127
In other cases the places were no longer inhabited or maintained by monks. If it is
true that Tucci picked up a great deal of tsha tshas, manuscripts and other objects,
removing them from the mchod rtens in which people had deposited them as a sign of
devotion, 128 it is also true that these mchod rtens were usually abandoned, and that
their collapse would have resulted in the loss of all the objects within. These circum-
stances help us understand the extreme decision to detach, with inadequate tools and
no specific technical knowledge, portions of wall paintings in the ruined temple of a
place called Khardzong (mKhar rdzoõ) or Üsukhar (dBus su mkhar). These ruins
stand on an hilltop, overlooking the right bank of the Mangnang River, directly oppo-
site the well known monastery. 129 The murals depicted the life of Buddha, but the ceil-
ing of the temple had, reportedly, already collapsed and there was no possibility of
saving paintings exposed to rain, wind and sun. 130 The expedition certainly was not
equipped for recovering entire painted walls; therefore, Tucci decided to detach only
the fragments that he deemed more significant while Ghersi documented the rest
using his camera. Figure 14 shows a picture of the fragment removed by Tucci super-
imposed on Ghersi’s photograph of the whole wall, and allows us to better understand
what has been lost. To the best of my knowledge, nothing remains of those chapels
today. If Tucci had not removed these fragments of the mural paintings, today we
would disregard the entire site.
The circumstances were similar concerning books. In Dabling, Tucci found that
“the manuscripts are so numerous and randomly scattered and remixed, that we need-
ed two full days to select what was more interesting for us [i manoscritti sono tanti e
così gettati a caso e rimescolati, che ci vogliono due giorni intieri per far la cernita di
ciò che più ci interessa]”. 131 Just two months earlier they discovered a complete
Kangyur in a small cave near Shangtse. 132 A long passage regarding the situation in
Üsukhar, a place near Mangnang visited in 1935, deserves quoting in its entirety:
Camminiamo sopra cumuli di manoscritti gettati alla rinfusa l’uno sull’altro, a centi-
naia, a migliaia, spesso addirittura per qualche metro di spessore. Manoscritti sem-
126
Tucci and Ghersi 1934: 241. 130
Tucci 1937a: 158-159.
127
Tucci 1950a: 32. 131
128
Tucci 1932: 38-39; Tucci and Ghersi 1934: 181. 132
129
Tucci 1937b: 191.
102
Fig. 18. Comparison of Agfa roll 35 mm films used in 1933 (left) and 1935 (right)
plici e miniati, di tutte le specie di scrittura tibetana, glossati, commentati e anno-

tati. Biblioteche colossali, messe insieme traverso i secoli dalla pietà di amanuensi,
di calligrafi, di monaci, alimento spirituale ad una folla ignorata di asceti, di teolo-
gi e di pensatori; opera d’arte e di fede, sepolta, manomessa, perduta al devoto o
allo scienziato. Ù Abbiamo passato una giornata intiera in questi cunicoli ad esami-
nare uno per uno migliaia di fogli, cercando di ricomporre i volumi e di portar via
quello che meritasse di essere salvato e fatto conoscere al mondo; e la luce non ba-
stava e la polvere era così spessa che non si riusciva più né a leggere né a respirare. 133
Such a situation is well illustrated by a photo taken by Ghersi at Miang in 1933, por-
traying Tucci and a bla ma reassembling books from loose sheets scattered all around
(Fig. 16).
Tucci complained about these problems in his books as well as in the letters
addressed to both British and Tibetan authorities, urging them to take some steps to
preserve invaluable artistic and historical monuments in the areas under their control.
His most sensible depiction of the situation can be read in his Report by Professor Tucci
on his travel to Western Tibet left with Frederick Williamson, Political Officer in Sikkim,
in November 1933:
I dedicated a special study to the temples of Lhalung and Tabo [...]. Unfortunately
neither the Lamas nor the None of Spiti seem to realise the importance of the mon-
uments that have been committed to them and of which they ought to have a bet-
ter care. I should like to invite the attention of the British Government on this fact
and I do hope that some steps will be taken in order to preserve the frescoes on the
walls and the very fine stucco-images.
Below in the same report, while discussing his survey of Tholing, Tucci adds that:
133
Tucci 1937a: 160-161 [“We walk over heaps of art and faith, buried, altered, lost to the devotee or
manuscripts thrown at random one above the other, the scientist. Ù We have spent a full day in these bur-
hundreds, thousands, often even a few meters thick. rows to examine, one by one, the thousands of sheets,
Simple and illuminated manuscripts, of all kinds of trying to reassemble the volumes and to take away
Tibetan script, with glosses, comments and annota- what deserved to be saved and made known to the
tions. Colossal libraries, assembled throughout the world; and the light was insufficient and the dust was
centuries, as a result of the devotion of amanuenses, so thick that it was impossible to either read or
calligraphers, monks; spiritual sustenance for many breathe” (my translation)].
forgotten ascetics, theologians and thinkers; works of
103
Oscar Nalesini
I hardly need to insist upon the immence importance of this large photographic
documents [...] which I could collect since it is well known that the monastery of
Toling is one of the oldest, richest and finest of Tibet. These documents are of unri-
valled interest for the religious history of Tibet as well as for the history of Indo-
Tibetan Art. [...] The rain dropping through the ceiling left unrepaired for years is
washing away the marvellous frescoes [...]. Unless the Tibetan Government does
some urgent repairs, it will shortly be a ruin yet in no other part of Tibet is possible
to find finest paintings and better workmanship. This is why here also I took photos
of the interior of all the temples and chapels so that if they are to tumble down west-
ern scholars might at least have an exact idea of what they were. 134
Similar comments and requests are in Tucci’s report on his 1939 expedition to
Central Tibet. 135
Unfortunately, no tangible action ensued from these complaints, either because of
obvious logistic difficulties or because of indifference toward the preservation of works
of art by the local populations and authorities. The response by British officials to
Tucci’s report make it quite clear that it was, at that time, impossible to plan any kind
of restoration. 136
5. Documenting ruins
Tucci had already realized during his first approaches to the Himalayan world that
the survival of its artistic, historical and literary heritage was seriously and inexorably
threatened by carelessness and degradation. This mobilized in him the idea that the
best way to preserve at least the memory of the monuments was to photographically
document them. He clearly states this opinion upon his return from the 1933 expedi-
tion to Tibet:
È inutile che io insista sulla importanza di questo materiale fotografico. L’incuria

con cui sono tenuti molti dei sacrarî congiura insieme col tempo ad un sollecito
deperimento di monumenti d’arte di inestimabile valore iconografico e storico. I
tetti delle cappelle si sfasciano, l’acqua penetra, cancella le pitture o le deturpa in
maniera irreparabile,
concluding, with the “prophetic” words:
Non ho il più piccolo dubbio che fra qualche anno di molti templi e cappelle del
Tibet occidentale e degli affreschi che li adornano resterà soltanto la documen-
tazione fotografica da noi riportata. 137
134
Farrington 2002: 81, 83. 14th February 1934: “Unfortunately, the place is so dif-
135
Farrington 2002: 176-179. ficult of access that at the present time it is difficult to
136
For example, the letter of F. Williamson to spare an officer to undertake a journey of inspection
Fraser-Tytler, Deputy Secretary of the Government of to the place to draw up a report on the measures of
India in the Foreign and Political Department, dated conservation it needs. This monastery belongs to pri-
Gangtok, 19th December 1933: “Professor Tucci hints vate owners and it is doubtful whether the monks in
in his reports that the Tibetan Government ought to charge would be willing to enter into an agreement
carry out repairs to the monastery of Toling. This is, with Government in respect of its preservation”
of course, very desirable, but I fear that it would be (Farrington 2002: 91 and 93 respectively).
quite impossible to approach the Tibetan 137
“It is useless for me to insist on the importance
Government on such a subject”. On Tabo see the of this photographic material. The careless mainte-
response of Fraser-Tytler to Tucci, dated at New Delhi nance of many sanctuaries conspires with time for a
104
The work of the photographers who accompanied Tucci on his expeditions pro-
duced an unparalleled documentation of Tibet and its civilization. Although the expe-
ditions carried out from 1931 to 1939 had been patronized by the Royal Academy of
Italy, and those conducted after World War II had been officially organized by IsMEO,
Tucci kept the entire photographic documentation at his residence until 1975. The
photographs were then entrusted to the National Museum of Oriental Art in Rome,
which conserves the photographic and graphic archives of IsMEO on the basis of an
agreement drawn up in 1957 with the Ministry of Public Education. 138
The collection consists of approximately 14,000 photographs documenting the
activities carried out by the Italian scholar from his arrival in India in November 1925,
to his last Tibetan expedition in 1948. Almost all of them are black and white negatives
and prints, but there are also 135 colour slides from the 1939 expedition, mock-ups of
some of his most important books, and two very short pieces of motion picture films (4
and 6 frames) shot in Lhasa in 1948 which had been cut down for use as photograph-
ic negatives. 139 Although the pictures shot throughout the course of the Himalayan
and Tibetan expeditions led by Tucci constitute the bulk of the collection, other pho-
tographs are also present. For instance, approximately 300 Japanese photographs and
illustrated postcards purchased by the Tuccis during a stay in Tokyo in January 1937
(where they attended the opening of the Italian-Japanese Institute), and a hundred
photographs taken by photographer Mario Fantin (1921-1980) in Nepal. To complete
the overall picture, one has to add approximately 6,000 reprints of the original nega-
tives, made in the 1970s and 1980s at the National Museum of Oriental Art, serving as
reference material.
In the meantime, the photographic collection greatly deteriorated, mainly due to
bad maintenance. Presumably to face requests from publishers, many negatives had
been cut out, often even frame by frame, resulting in the films being transformed into
a heap of small fragments. In this way, the sequences in which the photographs had
been originally shot was lost, and the negatives exposed during different expeditions
were mixed up to the point that nobody was any longer able to determine to which
expedition they belonged. Finally, no caption accompanied the negatives and just a
handful of old prints had a note written on the back.
The first intervention undertaken with regard to the photographs when they
entered the Museum was to somehow attempt to reconstruct the rolls of film. The late
Dr. Domenico Faccenna, the Director of the Museum at that time, personally followed
this work with the help of an employee (Domenico Faccenna, pers. com.). They tried to
sort the negatives based on their most evident differences in appearance, and to
reassemble sequences of frames by selecting negatives with consecutive frame numbers.
The resulting reconstructed “film rolls” were subsequently placed in paper envelopes
speedy decay of pieces of art of inestimable historical for Cultural Heritage (Ministero per i Beni Culturali)
and iconographical value. The roofs of the chapels was established in 1975 by the initiative of senator
are falling apart, the water enters, deletes or alters the Giovanni Spadolini (1925-1994).
paintings beyond repair [...]. I have not the slightest 139
They were kept inside a small piece of folded
doubt that in a few years many temples and chapels of paper on which Tucci wrote “Una delle 3 foto (la
western Tibet, and the frescoes that adorn them, will migliore) [= One out of these 3 photos (the best)]”.
only have the photographic record we have reported” This is –to my knowledge– what remains of the 5-
(Tucci 1935: 17). See also Tucci 1937a: XI, XIII; Tucci 6,000 m of cinematographic film referred to in the
and Ghersi 1934: 12, 371. application for customs exemption submitted to the
138
The Museum opened in 1958. State offices and Indian authorities according to the letter of Paveri
museums, both archaeological and artistic, at that Fontana to Clark, London 12th November 1947
time were all under the General Direction for Fine (Farrington 2002: 230).
Arts of the Ministry of Public Education. The Ministry
105
Oscar Nalesini
for negatives. Notwithstanding their efforts, in the end, the reconstruction turned out
to be wrong, as negatives from different original film rolls had been placed together in
the same envelope (Fig. 17). In the cases of two negatives having the same frame num-
ber ending up in the same envelope, one of them had the number cancelled with a drop
of China ink and replaced with a number missing from the sequence. The inventory
numbers assigned to the negatives in 1975 refer to their position in the archives after
the completion of these operations. The roll film negatives and some of the flat film
negatives were then reprinted and mounted on cardboard for consultation and study.
The notes typed on the cardboard report the inventory number and the date 1939,
which were subsequently discovered to be incorrect in most cases.
In 1975, Tucci handed over approximately 5,000 prints, together with the negatives,
to the Museum. They were not given adequate attention, as no one ever tried to match
them with the negatives. They were placed into paper envelopes and kept in a drawer
without an access number.
Dr. Faccenna and his collaborators were perfectly aware that there were many mis-
takes, but they assumed that, for the time being, no significant improvement was pos-
sible. Although Giuseppe Tucci was still alive, we have evidence from some documents
in the archives that he sometimes was not any longer able to distinguish between pic-
tures exposed during different travels, and that his advice proved less useful than
expected. On the other hand, at the time –and for many years to come– almost
everybody was convinced that every important picture had already been published,
and therefore taking steps towards further identification was not urgent.
Notwithstanding all of these deficiencies, without the work carried out by Dr.
Faccenna and collaborators, the entire documentation would have almost certainly
been lost.
The next step in the reorganization of the collection started in 1984, when Prof.
Gherardo Gnoli, President of IsMEO, invited Prof. Deborah Klimburg-Salter to exam-
ine Giuseppe Tucci’s Tibetan collections. After realizing the importance of the photo-
graphs, she proposed the identification of many images of artistic and historic interest
based on stylistic resemblances.
To identify the remaining photographs, we relied on the images illustrating many
articles Tucci published in scientific and, above all, popular and illustrated magazines.
All of these illustrations were photocopied, gathered in albums and organized by sub-
ject. Dr. Giulia Talamo took particular pains over this work; by noting every reference
to places visited and dates of journeys contained in the texts, she was able to recon-
struct a fairly complete picture of Tucci’s activity during the twenty-year period under
examination.
However, most published captions were too generic to be of any use, and some were
even incorrect or reported ambiguous information. 140 It was clear, at that point, that
the study of the images alone would have never allowed us to classify completely the
photographic collection. This, in turn, left many photographs of monuments and
inscriptions unidentified.
In fact, the origins of our problems were clear: if the film rolls were intact, we would
have had the original sequences of the frames, and would have been able to identify all
of the images. In fact, this was the goal initially pursued by Dr. Faccenna and collabo-
rators. But, in order not to repeat the same mistakes, it was necessary to approach the
issue from a different point of view.
140
Nalesini 1994: 207-210.
106
For a man trained in archaeology, as I am, it was intuitive to find parallels between
film fragments haphazardly placed into envelopes and pottery shards recovered dur-
ing archeological digs. Far from being just a feeling, this comparison opened a new
perspective on the photographs. They are not only a medium to capture visual infor-
mation, but also material objects. As with pottery or any other manufacturing process,
the production, use and storage impress their marks on the films; marks that can be
detected, classified and interpreted to reconstruct the history of these objects.
Accordingly, I shifted the focus from the subject of the images to the physical features
of the film, and started to study the negatives with the tools developed for the study of
material objects.
I first identified the types of 35 mm film rolls in the archives by the trade-marks
impressed on the sides, which allowed me to separate the film exposed during differ-
ent expeditions. They are:
1. Agfa, unspecified type, 1933 and 1935;

2. Agfacolor, 1939;
3. Agfa Isopan ISS, 1939;
4. Agfa Isopan F, 1939 and 1948;
5. Kodak Panatomic X, 1948;
6. Kodak Super XX, 1948;
7. Gevaert Belgium, unspecified type, 1948;
8. Gevaert Belgium Pancrho (sic), used for 18 × 24 mm half-frame format
negatives exposed through a Ducati microcamera, 1948;
9. Ferrania Pancro, used only for reproductions in Italy, late 1940s-1950s; and
10. Kodak Pan’t, used only for reproductions in Italy, late 1940s-1950s.
As indicated above, the same type of film might have been used on more than one
expedition. Yet they differ in some minor details. For instance, the Agfa Isopan F film
used in the 1939 expedition differs from the Isopan F used in 1948 in the shape of the
perforations and a slightly thinner character. The differences between the films used
in 1933 and 1935 expeditions are less evident. The trade-mark of the films used in those
two expeditions is absolutely identical: on the upper-side of the film there is a black dot
placed above a perforation and the word Agfa, while on the lower side one finds the
frame number mark. Each of these elements is repeated every eight transporting-per-
forations, that is, the space taken up by a frame. The only difference is the position of
the frame number marking in relationship to the dot. I was able to verify that, in the
films exposed during the 1933 expedition, the frame number mark is placed seven per-
forations after (or one before) the dot, while in those used in 1935 the distance
between these two elements is always four perforations (Fig. 18). 141
From this point on I will deal almost exclusively with the negatives exposed in the
course of the 1933 and 1935 expeditions to Western Tibet. But this case fittingly repre-
sents a method of archival enquiry that applies to any photographic material in the
same conditions.
141
There is a unique roll of film, datable to 1933 Tibet trade route he used to travel to and from Tibet,
on morphological grounds, whose sequence of pic- as well as the British Trade Agent at Gartok, were
tures (first Amritsar, then Delhi) matches more accu- under the jurisdiction of the State of Punjab. Tucci
rately the 1935 itinerary, which ended up in ‡rœnagar. telegraphed Metcalfe from Kulu on 17th June
However, in 1933 Tucci probably had to personally announcing his visit to Delhi as soon as all formalities
report on his travel to the authorities at Lahore soon connected to the expedition had been cleared
after his return to Simla, because the Hindustan- (Farrington 2002: 77).
107
Oscar Nalesini
After having separated the films of the two expeditions, I proceeded to subdivide
of the fragments further. During the last phase of the industrial manufacturing
process, the film is cut into strips of fixed measure which are inserted into cartridges,
resulting in the film rolls we are all accustomed to. This cutting procedure introduces
casual variations between the position of the frame number mark and the frame
throughout the length of the film rolls, so that all negatives with the same features are
hypothetically attributable to the same roll film. There are actually eight main varia-
tions, for the frame number mark is always close to a perforation, and there are eight
perforations per frame. As a matter of fact, each group of negatives identified in this
way contains negatives belonging to more than one roll, since the film rolls exposed
during the expeditions had never been less than 45.
At this point, one has to play with frames as with the pieces of a puzzle: picking up
frames with a low number, looking within the same group for the fragments immedi-
ately following, then checking if the cuts of the two pieces match. This is, of course, the
most fortunate case. By far the most usual situation is that film fragments are separat-
ed by gaps, and to be able to ascertain if a given fragment has to be attributed to a roll
or another I had to rely on other elements.
As I have already explained, Ghersi developed the films at the camp. Under those
conditions it was normal for there always to be variations in the temperature of the
baths of development and fixing, or in the quantity of acid inserted into the tank of
development. These variations, though small, produced differences in the colouring of
the emulsion layers, or caused dark lines and stains on the sides. With the aid of these
and other similar elements it has been possible –even though hypothetically– to
attribute some fragments to a roll film, even in the case of wide gaps and different sub-
jects. At that point it was possible to fill some of the gaps by inserting the photographs
whose negative had gone lost but depicted the same subjects of the negatives.
A similar procedure was followed for the prints. This material also shows obvious
differences of paper type, size, etc., used throughout the more than 20 years covered
by the collection. But here I will concentrate on those printed after the return to Italy
from the 1933 and 1935 expeditions. As for the negatives, their aspect doesn’t change,
and in the case of prints whose negatives are lost, and of subjects not otherwise known,
it was nearly impossible to ascertain to which expedition they belonged to. However,
by observing these prints with greater attention, we noticed that some of them showed
a particular detail. In the lower right corner the border line between the image and
the white frame is slightly undulated because of a defect of the enlarger, and it turned
out that this defect is to be found only in the photographs of the 1935 expeditions
printed just after Tucci’s return to Italy. The chronological order of the records includ-
ed in the partial inventory so far published 142 reflects the results achieved through
these reconstructions.
6. References
Appelius, Mario
1935 La crisi del Budda: due anni fra i Cinesi. A. Mondadori, Milano.
Balossini, Cajo Enrico

1934 Concessioni in Cina. Sansoni, Firenze.
142
Klimburg-Salter, Nalesini and Talamo 1994.
108
Beger, Bruno
1998 Mit der deutschen Tibetexpedition Ernst Schäfer 1938/39 nach Lhasa. Schwarz, Wiesbaden.
Boffa [Ballaran], Felice

1946 “La spedizione italiana al Tibet (1939)”. Bollettino del Club Alpino Italiano 45: 126-152.
Conze, Edward
1997 Memoirs of a Modern Gnostic, vol. 2 Mahayana translator. Samizdat, Sherborne.
Daidona, Matteo
2006 La partecipazione del capitano Eugenio Ghersi alle spedizioni italiane in Tibet, 1933 e 1935. MA
Thesis in History of Geography and Explorations, Università degli Studi di Parma,
Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia, Parma [defended on February 2006].
Dainelli, Giotto
1932 Il mio viaggio nel Tibet occidentale. A. Mondadori, Milano.
1933 “Esploratori italiani nell’Himalaya e nel Caracorum”. Le vie d’Italia e del mondo 1: 437-
457.
ECONOMIA
1984 L’economia italiana tra le due guerre: 1919-1939, exhibition catalogue. IPSOA, Milano.
Fantin, Mario
1972 Alpinismo italiano nel mondo, vol. 1. Club Alpino Italiano, Milano.
Farrington, A.J.
2002 “Prof Giuseppe Tucci”. In A.J. Farrington (ed.), British Intelligence on China in Tibet,
1903-1950. Formerly classified and confidential British intelligence and policy files, CIT-5
Travellers and entry control, 1905-1950. IDC Publisher, Leiden.
Fucci, Franco
1987 “Il maestro degli istruttori”. L’Alpino, dicembre 1987: 28-30.
Hale, Christopher
2003 Himmler’s Crusade. The Nazi Expedition to Find the Origins of the Aryan Race. John Wiley &
Sons, Hoboken.
Klimburg-Salter, Deborah
1990 “Tucci Himalayan Archives Report, 1. The 1989 Expedition to the Western Himalayas,
and a Retrospective View of the 1933 Tucci Expedition”. East & West, New Series, 40:
145-171.
1994 “Tucci Himalayan Archives Report, 2. The 1991 Expedition to Himachal Pradesh”. East
& West, New Series, 44.1: 13-82.
Klimburg-Salter, Deborah and Bellatalla, David

1997 “Eugenio Ghersi (1904-1997)”. East & West, New Series, 47: 435-437.
Klimburg-Salter, Deborah, Oscar Nalesini and Talamo Giulia

1994 Inventory of the Tucci Photographic Archives, 1926-1935 (Western Himalayas, Nepal, Tibet).
Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, Rome.
Maraini, Fosco
1939 Dren-Giong. Appunti di un viaggio nell’Imalaia. Vallecchi, Firenze.
1942 Chibetto, Fosuko Maraini cho = Lontano Tibet, foto di Fosco Maraini. Shunch≠kai, T≠ky≠.
1951 Segreto Tibet. Leonardo da Vinci, Bari.
1984 Segreto Tibet, new edition. Dall’Oglio, Milano.
2001 Case, amori, universi. A. Mondadori, Milano.
109
Oscar Nalesini
Martines, Vincenzo
2000 La storia e gli uomini del Corpo Sanitario della Marina Militare. Ispettorato di Sanità della
Marina Militare, Roma.
McKay, Alex C.
1997 Tibet and the British Raj: The Frontier Cadre 1904-1947. SOAS Studies on South Asia 14,
Curzon, Richmond.
Mele, Pietro Francesco

1956 Tibet. Introduzione di Giotto Dainelli, Morano, Napoli.
Nalesini, Oscar
1994 “Pictures from the Roof of the World. The Reorganisation of the Tucci Photographic
Archives”. East & West, New Series, 44.1: 185-210.
2008 “L’Oriente di ... Concetto Guttuso, intervistato da Oscar Nalesini”. Il Giornale del Museo
Nazionale d’Arte Orientale 3: 7-8.
forthc. 1 “The Tucci Photographic Collection”. In Giuseppe Vignato (ed.), Tucci and his Tibetan
Travels. In Search of the Soul of Tibet. Beijing University-Institute of Archaeology, Beijing
[in Chinese].
forthc. 2 “The Tibetan Travels and explorations of Giuseppe Tucci”. In Giuseppe Vignato (ed.),
Tucci and his Tibetan Travels. In Search of the Soul of Tibet. Beijing University-Institute of
Archaeology, Beijing [in Chinese].
Pallis, Marco
1946 Peaks & Lamas. Cassell, London [4th ed.].
Petech, Luciano
1995 “Il contributo di Giuseppe Tucci alla storia dei paesi himalayani”. In Beniamino
Melasecchi (ed.), Giuseppe Tucci. Nel centenario della nascita, Roma, 7-8 giugno 1994.
Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, Roma, pp. 7-19.
Prayer, Mario
1995 Internazionalismo e nazionalismo culturale. Gli intellettuali bengalesi e l’Italia negli anni Venti
e Trenta. Supplemento numero 1 alla Rivista degli Studi Orientali LXIX, Bardi, Roma.
Ridòmi, Cristano
1933 Ombre gialle. Viaggio nell’ultimo Oriente. Casa editrice Giovanni Agnelli, Milano.
Tagore, Rabindranath
1945 My Boyhood Days. Visva Bharati, Calcutta.
Tenzing, Norgay
2003 Primi sull’Everest. PIEMME, Casale Monferrato [orig. ed.: Man of Everest: the
Autobiography of Tenzing. Harrap, Barming 1955].
Tomar, Ram Singh

2002 “Prof. Giuseppe Tucci: the man”. In Pranabananda Jash (ed.), Perspective on Buddhist
Studies (Giuseppe Tucci Birth Centenary Volume). Indo-Tibetan Studies II, Kaveri Books,
New Delhi.
Tucci, Giuseppe
1928 “I conventi del Tibet”. Bollettino della Reale Società Geografica Italiana LXIV: 583-588.
1929 “A visit to an «astronomical» temple in India”. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 1929:
247-258.
1931a “La spedizione scientifica Tucci nell’India, nel Nepal e nel Tibet”. L’Illustrazione ita-
liana LVIII.40: 506-510.
110
1931b “Note e appunti di viaggio in Nepal”. Bollettino della Reale Società Geografica Italiana
LXVIII: 515-531, 634-645.
1932 “mc’od rten” e “ts’a ts’a” nel Tibet indiano ed occidentale. Contributo allo studio dell’arte reli-
giosa tibetana e del suo significato. Indo-Tibetica I, Reale Accademia d’Italia, Roma.
1933a Rin c’en bzaõ po e la rinascita del Buddhismo nel Tibet intorno al Mille. Indo-Tibetica II,
Reale Accademia d’Italia, Roma.
1933b “Carovanieri ed asceti sul Tetto del Mondo”. L’Illustrazione italiana LX.29: 98-99.
1933c “L’ultima mia spedizione sull’Imalaia”. Nuova Antologia: Rivista de lettere, scienze ed arti
365 (gennaio): 245-248.
1934 L’Oriente nella cultura contemporanea. Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente,
Roma.
1935 I templi del Tibet occidentale e il loro simbolismo artistico. Parte I Spiti e Kunavar. Indo-
Tibetica III, Reale Accademia d’Italia, Roma.
1937a Santi e briganti nel Tibet ignoto. Diario della spedizione nel Tibet occidentale 1935. Hoepli,
Milano.
1937b “Indian Paintings in Western Tibetan Temples”. Artibus Asiae VII: 191-204.
1940a “La mia spedizione nel Tibet”. Asiatica VI: 1-13.
1940b “Nel Tibet Centrale: relazione preliminare della spedizione 1939”. Bollettino della Reale
Società Geografica Italiana LXXVII: 81-85.
1941 Gyantse e i suoi monasteri. Indo-Tibetica IV, Reale Accademia d’Italia, Roma.
1949 Tibetan Painted Scrolls. 3 vols., La Libreria dello Stato, Rome.
1950a A Lhasa e oltre. Diario della spedizione nel Tibet 1948. Con un’appendice sulla medicina e
l’igiene nel Tibet di Regolo Moise. La Libreria dello Stato, Roma.
1950b The Tombs of the Tibetan Kings. Serie Orientale Roma I, Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed
Estremo Oriente, Roma.
1956 Preliminary Report of Two Scientific Expeditions in Nepal. Serie Orientale Roma X.1,
Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, Roma.
1958 Minor Buddhist Texts, vol. 2. Serie Orientale Roma IX.2, Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed
Estremo Oriente, Roma.
1962 “Commemorazione di Tagore”. In Centenario di Tagore, 1861-1961. Istituto Italiano per
il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, Roma, pp. 33-50.
1963 La via dello Swat. Leonardo da Vinci, Bari.
1977 Nepal. Alla scoperta del regno dei Malla. Newton Compton, Roma [1st ed. Leonardo da
Vinci, Bari 1960].
1979 Tra giungle e pagode. Newton Compton, Roma [1st ed. La Libreria dello Stato, Roma
1953].
Tucci, Giuseppe and Ghersi, Eugenio

1934 Cronaca della Missione scientifica Tucci nel Tibet occidentale (1933). Reale Accademia
d’Italia, Roma.
Tucci Nuvoloni, Giulia

1930 “Dal Kashmir al Ladak (viaggio di due studiosi italiani) II”. Nuova Antologia 278: 381-
396.
Vacca, Giovanni
1936 “La Cina e il Giappone”. In Roberto Almagià (a cura di), Geografia universale, vol. 4, t.
II, UTET, Torino, pp. 833-1252.
111
Tucci’s Expeditions
Date Itinerary Companions from Italy Main references
1926, late February Dhaka, Agartala (?), Gauhå™œ Carlo Formichi Tucci 1929
1926, May Darjeeling, Temi
1928, June-October (?) Taxila, Rawalpindi, Murree, ‡rœnagar, Ladakh Giulia Nuvoloni Nuvoloni Tucci 1930
1929, April-September Kathmandu, Bhatgaon, Patan G. Nuvoloni Tucci 1931b
1930, late February Darjeeling, Ghoom G. Nuvoloni (?)
1930 Ladakh G. Nuvoloni Dainelli 1933
1931, June-October ‡rœnagar, Ladakh, Rupshu, Lahul, Manåli, Tucci 1933c

Kunawar, Shipki Pass, Tiak, Shipki Pass,
Chini, Sarahan, Simla
1931, November Kathmandu, Bhatgaon, Patan Tucci 1933c
1933, June-October Manåli, Spiti, Shipki Pass, Tiak, Rabgyeling, Eugenio Ghersi Tucci, Ghersi 1934
Shangtse, Gartok, Tholing, Tsaparang,
Shipki Pass, Chini, Sarahan, Simla
1933, November Kathmandu, Bhatgaon, Patan C. Formichi, E. Ghersi Tucci, Ghersi 1934
112
1935, June-October Almora, Taklakot, Khojarnath, Kailash E. Ghersi Tucci 1937
and Manosarowar, Kyunglung, Mangnang,
Tholing, Tsaparang, Piang, Dunkar, Gartok,
Tashigang, Leh, ‡rœnagar
1937 Gangtok, Yatung, Samada, Iwang, Gyantse, Fosco Maraini Tucci 1941;
and back on the same route Maraini 1942, 1951
1939, April-September Gangtok, Sakya, Lhatse, Jonang, Tashilhunpo, Felice Boffa B., G. Nuvoloni Tucci 1940;
Zhalu, Pokhang, Gyantse, Samada, Yatung, Boffa 1946
Gangtok
1948, April-October Gangtok, Yatung, Gyantse, Lhasa, Samye, Piero Francesco Mele, Regolo Moise,
Ngari Tratsang, Yarlung valley, Gyantse, F. Maraini (only to Yatung) Tucci 1950
Shigatse, Rhe, Kampadzong, Gangtok
1952 (Sept.)-1953 (Jan.) Kathmandu, Pokhara, Francesca Bonardi, Concetto Guttuso Tucci 1979
Mustang, Baglung, Rummindei, Pokhara,
Kathmandu
1954, Sept.-Decemb. Kathmandu, Pokhara, F. Bonardi, Vito Amorosino Tucci 1977
Tukcha, Tarap, Jumla, Dullu, Surchet, Lucknow
1955 Swat valley F. Bonardi Tucci 1963

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01 Frontespizio e indice (pp.

1-6):Layout 1 16/11/09 08:39 Pagina 3

ISTITUTO ITALIANO PER L’AFRICA E L’ORIENTE

Published with grants from the Dipartimento di Studi Asiatici,

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Layout: Francesco Sferra

Printed in Italy – Stampato in Italia

Foreword by Gherardo Gnoli....................................................................................... 7

Assembling Loose Pages, Gathering Fragments of the Past:

2. Tracks to the roof of the world

Assembling Loose Pages, Gathering Fragments of the Past

Assembling Loose Pages, Gathering Fragments of the Past

Fig. 1. Tucci at Temi (Sikkim), May 1926

Assembling Loose Pages, Gathering Fragments of the Past

Fig. 2. Tucci’s main expeditions in the Western Himalayas and Tibet

Assembling Loose Pages, Gathering Fragments of the Past

Assembling Loose Pages, Gathering Fragments of the Past

Assembling Loose Pages, Gathering Fragments of the Past

Fig. 8. Tucci’s expeditions in Central Tibet

Assembling Loose Pages, Gathering Fragments of the Past

panion, Felice Boffa-Ballaran, who acted as map-maker and photographer. Felice

Assembling Loose Pages, Gathering Fragments of the Past

To compensate for the absence of his assistants, Tucci engaged Prodhan, a

Assembling Loose Pages, Gathering Fragments of the Past

3. How to prepare for an exploration and manage on scarce resources

Fig. 13. Interior of Tucci’s home, Dhaka or Kolkata 1928-

Assembling Loose Pages, Gathering Fragments of the Past

Assembling Loose Pages, Gathering Fragments of the Past

Assembling Loose Pages, Gathering Fragments of the Past

plici e miniati, di tutte le specie di scrittura tibetana, glossati, commentati e anno-

È inutile che io insista sulla importanza di questo materiale fotografico. L’incuria

concluding, with the “prophetic” words:

Assembling Loose Pages, Gathering Fragments of the Past

Assembling Loose Pages, Gathering Fragments of the Past

1. Agfa, unspecified type, 1933 and 1935;

Balossini, Cajo Enrico

Assembling Loose Pages, Gathering Fragments of the Past

Boffa [Ballaran], Felice

Klimburg-Salter, Deborah and Bellatalla, David

Klimburg-Salter, Deborah, Oscar Nalesini and Talamo Giulia

Mele, Pietro Francesco

Tomar, Ram Singh

Assembling Loose Pages, Gathering Fragments of the Past

Tucci, Giuseppe and Ghersi, Eugenio

Tucci Nuvoloni, Giulia

Date Itinerary Companions from Italy Main references

1931, June-October ‡rœnagar, Ladakh, Rupshu, Lahul, Manåli, Tucci 1933c

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