Sanskrit Texts from Giuseppe Tucci s Collection Part I

Transcription

1 01 Frontespizio e indice (pp. 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 R O M A ISTITUTO ITALIANO PER L AFRICA E L ORIENTE

2 01 Frontespizio e indice (pp. 1-6):Layout 1 16/11/09 08:39 Pagina 4 Published with grants from the Dipartimento di Studi Asiatici, Università di Napoli L Orientale, and from the Ministero dell Università e della Ricerca ISBN 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, Roma

3 01 Frontespizio e indice (pp. 1-6):Layout 1 16/11/09 08:39 Pagina 5 Contents Foreword by Gherardo Gnoli... Preface Manuscripta Buddhica... Editorial Note and Acknowledgments... PART I Francesco SFERRA, Sanskrit Manuscripts and Photographs of Sanskrit Manuscripts in Giuseppe Tucci s Collection... Oscar NALESINI, Assembling Loose Pages, Gathering Fragments of the Past: Giuseppe Tucci and His Wanderings Throughout Tibet and the Himalayas, PART II Vincent ELTSCHINGER, aõkaranandana s Sarvaj asiddhi. A Preliminary Report... Eli FRANCO, Variant Readings from Tucci s Photographs of the Yoginirñayapraka - raña Manuscript... Paolo GIUNTA, The Åryadhvajågrakeyürå nåma dhåriñœ. Diplomatic Edition of MS Tucci Albrecht HANISCH, Sarvarakßita s Mañicü ajåtaka. Reproduction of the Codex Unicus with Diplomatic Transcript and Palaeographic Introduction to the Bhaikßukœ Script... KANO Kazuo, Two Short Glosses on Yogåcåra Texts by Vairocanarakßita: Vi ikå - œkåvivr ti and *Dharmadharmatåvibhågavivr ti... KANO Kazuo, A Preliminary Report on Newly Identified Text Fragments in åradå Script from Źwa lu Monastery in the Tucci Collection... Birgit KELLNER, A Missing Page from Durvekami ra s Dharmottarapradœpa on Nyåyabindu3.15 and 3.18 in Context... Birgit KELLNER and Francesco SFERRA, A Palm-leaf Manuscript of Dharmakœrti s Pra måñavårttika from the Collection kept by the Nepalese råjaguru Hemaråja arman... Contributors

4 01 Nalesini (pp ):Layout 1 16/11/09 09:04 Pagina 79 Assembling Loose Pages, Gathering Fragments of the Past: Giuseppe Tucci and His Wanderings Throughout Tibet and the Himalayas, * 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 modern 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, devotional 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 forthcoming articles originally written for the Institute of Archaeology of Beijing University and due to be published in Chinese (Nalesini forthc. 1, forthc. 2). I thank Edward Feldman for his help in revising the English text. 1 To the best of my knowledge, Mario Fantin (1972: 273) has published the most reliable (albeit with some mistakes concerning the earliest itineraries) record of the Tucci s Tibetan expeditions to date. 2 The following are two examples (among many to be discussed further on): in Indo-Tibetica IV, Tucci mentions a famous hermit he encountered in Poo (Kunawar) in 1935 (Tucci 1941: 7-8, n. 2). This date is erroneous because Tucci visited Poo in 1931 and 1933, not in He also claimed (Tucci 1977: 64) to have travelled to Tholing and Tsaparang in 1931, 1932, and In fact, he was there in 1933 and In 1931, he failed to arrive at these two places, as will be explained below, and the expedition of 1932 never took place. 3 Tucci 1931b: ; 1979: 7. 4 Tucci 1963: 11.

5 01 Nalesini (pp ):Layout 1 16/11/09 09:04 Pagina 80 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 experience 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 laureate, Rabindranath Tagore. Tagore had already been in contact with Italian intellectuals for some years when he briefly visited Italy in 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 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 28 th 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: Maraini 1984: Tucci 1934: Prayer 1995: Tucci claimed that he had made these two trips during the 1926 school summer vacations (Tucci 1962: 33), which is impossible since Tagore left India, bound for Europe, in May and did not return until December. 10 Tomar 2002:

6 01 Nalesini (pp ):Layout 1 16/11/09 09:04 Pagina 81 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 markets always clearly specified that the holder will not visit monasteries or other institutions 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 lavishly 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 recommending him. Later, Tucci returned alone and won the respect of the Pandits after discussing with them in Sanskrit, for three hours various aspects of religion and philosophy. 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 bungalow 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 bureaucratic 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: Conze 1997: Tucci 1931a: Tucci Tucci and Ghersi 1934: Cf. Tucci 1962:

7 01 Nalesini (pp ):Layout 1 16/11/09 09:04 Pagina 82 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 reading 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 photographs 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 25 th 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 2 nd December 1929, he applied to the British Indian authorities to visit Spiti, Guge, Rudok and Hanle. The Kashmir Darbar in fact issued the travel permit to Hanle, but Tucci s plans were presumably premature as the correspondence 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 itinerary 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 photographs 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 following 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: Tucci 1931a: A.C. Bordonaro [Italian Ambassador to UK] to Sir Austen Chamberlain [Foreign Secretary], 18 th April 1929, in Farrington 2002: H. Wilkinson to J.G. Acheson, Kathmandu 18 th May 1929, in Farrington 2002: Tucci 1931a: Tucci 1979: Farrington 2002: Dainelli 1933: Archivio Storico Diplomatico, Ministero degli Affari Esteri: Ministero della Cultura Popolare, file 143, reproduced in Daidona 2006: 56-60; Farrington 2002: 36,

8 01 Nalesini (pp ):Layout 1 16/11/09 09:04 Pagina 83 Assembling Loose Pages, Gathering Fragments of the Past his previous travels, he never described the itinerary covered in 1931 in detail. The following 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 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 2 nd October 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 magazine 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 submitted 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: Dainelli Tucci 1933c: Tucci 1932: 82, 87, 94, 99, 101, 106, Tucci 1933c: Tucci 1933b:

9 01 Nalesini (pp ):Layout 1 16/11/09 09:04 Pagina 84 Oscar Nalesini Fig. 1. Tucci at Temi (Sikkim), May 1926 received a manuscript from Poo containing the medium-length version of the biography 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 infeasibility 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 justifications for his delay, according to convenience: in a letter to E.B. Howell written on 2 nd 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 partially true. 32 Tucci 1933a: Tucci 1933c: Tucci 1933c: Tucci and Ghersi 1934: Farrington 2002: Farrington 2002:

10 01 Nalesini (pp ):Layout 1 16/11/09 09:04 Pagina 85 Assembling Loose Pages, Gathering Fragments of the Past 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 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: See Tucci and Ghersi 1934: 219; Tucci in Farrington 2002: 82,

11 01 Nalesini (pp ):Layout 1 16/11/09 09:04 Pagina 86 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 subsequently exploited them in an exemplary way. During the organization of two expeditions to Western Tibet, he convinced the British (and, evidently, also the Tibetan) officials 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 correspondence concerning Tucci s travel permits. In the letters regarding the 1931 expedition, 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 officials 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 consider 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 Important organizational changes occurred between 1931 and 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 certainty 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 annotations 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 handwriting, 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 chorten [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 Farrington 2002: 52-53, 55-56, 58, Farrington 2002: Farrington 2002: Farrington 2002: In the article about the 1928 trip to Ladakh, Giulia Nuvoloni wrote: Non ci stanchiamo di prendere fotografie, l unico e pur ben vago ricordo d impressioni così maestose [= We never tire of taking photographs, the unique yet hazy recollection of such majestic impressions] (Tucci Nuvoloni 1930: 536). It is unclear whether we refers to both her husband and herself, or she is using a pluralis majestatis. 45 Tucci 1977: 17. It is interesting to mention here the parallel with Tagore who, in 1940, admitted the same ineptitude toward engineering (Tagore 1945: 70). Tucci s difficulty with a camera was accompanied 86

12 01 Nalesini (pp ):Layout 1 16/11/09 09:04 Pagina 87 Assembling Loose Pages, Gathering Fragments of the Past But in 1931, Tucci was alone. The negatives shot during the course of that expedition 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 debacle. 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 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 ( ) (Fig. 3). The two met as a result of the initiative of a cousin of Tucci s, who served as an officer 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 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 protect Italian interests in Hubei (specifically, the «Italo-Cinese» river navigation company 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 manifest throughout his life; his words used in the travelogue of the 1952 expedition to Nepal are unequivocal: Io non ho mai posseduto un ritratto: odio i ritratti, quelli a posa. A casa mia non ce n è neppure uno, né miei né di persona di famiglia [= I have never possessed a portrait. I hate portraits, those which are posed. In my home there is not a single one, neither mine nor of anyone from my family] (Tucci 1979: 43). As a matter of fact, the archives conserve very few personal pictures portraying him, his wife, friends or colleagues dating back to the years. 46 Letter E. Ghersi to D. Klimburg-Salter, Varese Ligure, 5 th September Leva Appelius 1935: 202, 218, 335; Balossini Ridòmi 1933: Ridòmi 1933:

13 01 Nalesini (pp ):Layout 1 16/11/09 09:05 Pagina 88 Oscar Nalesini Fig. 3. Tucci s team in the Chandra Valley, June 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 number 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 distortions, 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 uniformly 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 produced 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: Vacca 1936: , Informations obtained interviewing gen. E. Ghersi at La Spezia, July Tucci and Ghersi 1934; Tucci 1937; Klimburg- Salter 1990:

14 01 Nalesini (pp ):Layout 1 16/11/09 09:05 Pagina 89 Assembling Loose Pages, Gathering Fragments of the Past Fig. 4. Reading inscriptions on a mani wall, Losar, Spiti, 1 st July 1933 (phot. E. Ghersi) Ghersi seldom failed a shot. It was also necessary to verify the exposures before abandoning 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 temperatures occurring after sunset at those altitudes quickly cooled the chemicals, exposing the negatives to an excessive increase of nuisances or to other damages. Ghersi then catalogued the photographs, annotating the place, date and subject. All documentation, including the travel diary, the motion pictures 55 and the cartographic sketches were given to Tucci, and, unfortunately, they have hence been largely dispersed. 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 expedition, 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 1933 with Ghersi s motion pictures: Nel Tibet occidentale, 46', and Il Nepal. La spedizione di Carlo Formichi in Nepal per conto della Reale Accademia d Italia, 12'13"; and two short pieces for the news: Giornale Luce B0405/1934: L esplorazione del Tibet, 1'13", and Giornale Luce B0406/1934: La spedizione dell acca - demico Tucci nel Tibet, 2'32". 56 Cf. Klimburg-Salter 1990: kilos mentioned in the letter of Fracassi to Simon, London 28 th April 1935, in Farrington 2002:

15 01 Nalesini (pp ):Layout 1 16/11/09 09:05 Pagina 90 Oscar Nalesini Fig. 5. Map of Sakya from F. Boffa Ballaran s diary (courtesy Sandro and Mariuccia Boffa Ballaran) Fig. 6. Frame used to photograph documents, Zhalu 1939 (Neg. Dep. 7763; phot. F. Boffa Ballaran) tions to Central Tibet, nobody kept a diary, or at least not as Tucci had wished; therefore, 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 revisited Tholing and Tsaparang to complete the study of the monuments and the photographic documentation gathered in From Tholing, they headed for Gartok over Piang and Dunkar, and arrived in Ladakh marching along the Indus. 58 Tucci 1937b. 90

16 01 Nalesini (pp ):Layout 1 16/11/09 09:05 Pagina 91 Assembling Loose Pages, Gathering Fragments of the Past 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 Besides the usual collection of objects and texts, the most important result of the explorations conducted in western Tibet was the historical and artistic study of the principal monasteries of Spiti and Guge. Research regarding Tabo, Nako, Tsaparang and other monuments 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 examine 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 introductory 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: Tucci 1933a. 61 E.g. Tucci and Ghersi 1934: 8; Tucci 1956: 1. 91

17 01 Nalesini (pp ):Layout 1 16/11/09 09:05 Pagina 92 Oscar Nalesini Fig. 9. Zhalu monastery, 1939 (Neg. Dep. 6129/03; phot. F. Boffa Ballaran) Fig. 10. Women carrying thaõ kas, Sakya, 1939 (Slide 11927; phot. F. Boffa Ballaran) Fig. 11. Tucci and Tsarong, Tibetan Ministry of Finance, Chushul, 5-7 th August 1948 (Neg. Dep. 7014/07; phot. Prodhan) 62 Farrington 2002: , 122, 128, 133, Klimburg-Salter and Bellatalla 1997; Martines 2000: Maraini 2001: Maraini Maraini 1942, A few years before his Lama to his Tibetan seat after 13 years of residing in China; the situation was so delicate 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 officer to another post. 63 The responsibility to document the research in 1937 fell upon Fosco Maraini ( ), 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 comdeath, Maraini handed over his photos to the Literary Scientific Cabinet G.P. Vieusseux in Florence, which in turn entrusted Fratelli Alinari with their commercial management. 67 Tucci Maraini 2001:

18 01 Nalesini (pp ):Layout 1 16/11/09 09:05 Pagina 93 Assembling Loose Pages, Gathering Fragments of the Past Fig. 12. The camp of the expedition at Kardam, 6 th July 1935 (Neg. Dep. 6046/26; phot. E. Ghersi) panion, Felice Boffa-Ballaran, who acted as map-maker and photographer. Felice Boffa-Ballaran ( ) 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 9 th January 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 photographic 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 interiors 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 To give some indication, the exchange rate on 1 st May 1939 was Lire to one Pound Sterling. According to the financial report included in the Relation to the Ministry of War, Boffa-Ballaran s expenses on the whole amounted to 62, Lire. 70 Tucci 1940a. 93

19 01 Nalesini (pp ):Layout 1 16/11/09 09:05 Pagina 94 Oscar Nalesini photograph them more comfortably (Fig. 6). Despite the accolades in the publications, 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 documenting 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 obtaining 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 documentation 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 challenged 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 delivered 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 (16 th 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. 72 Farrington 2002: 170, Boffa 1946: See above, pp Tucci 1941; McKay 1997: Letter U. Soddu to F. Boffa Ballaran, Rome 20 th January 1940, registry No Letter to F. Boffa Ballaran from Comando Superiore Truppe Alpine - Il Generale Comandante, Trento, 27 th January I consulted the report and these letters in the private archives of Felice Boffa- Ballaran. 94

20 01 Nalesini (pp ):Layout 1 16/11/09 09:05 Pagina 95 Assembling Loose Pages, Gathering Fragments of the Past 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 5 th 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 difficulties arising from this new law by sealing all of his film in boxes and having them delivered 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 themselves 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 (10 th 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 independence of India and subsequent partition between India and Pakistan; Tibet now bordered two independent states which, in 1947, had not yet established regular diplomatic 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 ( ), 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 preparations, 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 Beger 1998: Schäfer and Tucci did not meet in Tibet, but the Italians were greeted at Shigatse with pelted stones because in May the Germans had irritated the local population by hunting animals (Boffa 1946: 135). A letter by Tucci to a British official written in Shigatse on 30 th June reports that the Germans made the Europeans quite unpopular because of their behaviour (Hale 2003: 391, n. 3). 80 Boffa 1946: Tucci to Gould 25 th March 1946, in Farrington 2002: Farrington 2002: , 211, No record of these contacts had so far been found in the archives of these Institutions. I thank Michèle Losse and Graham Hardy for their help. 83 Farrington 2002: Tucci 1950a:

21 01 Nalesini (pp ):Layout 1 16/11/09 09:05 Pagina 96 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 quality 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 caravan 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 companions by bargaining directly with Tibetan officers at Lhasa. From there, he proceeded 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 discoveries. 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: Mele Mele later sold his Tibetan photographs to the Ethnographic Museum of Zürich University. 87 Tucci 1950a: facing pp. 16, 20, 36, 112 respectively. 88 Tenzing 2003: Tucci 1950b. 90 Tucci 1950a: 129; Tenzing 2003: Tucci 1950a: In the travelogue of Nepal 1952, Tucci writes that it was his fourth visit to that country (Tucci 1979: 15); but in the diary of the next (1954) expedition, he asserts that he visited Nepal six times (Tucci 1977: 12). Then, in a third book, Tucci says that In five journeys throughout Nepal, it appeared to me that the history of the country is not contained within the limits of the valley where Kathmandu, Patan and Bhatgaon are located, and I therefore thought it necessary to visit the interior of Nepal (Tucci 1956: 1). Literally, this would mean that Tucci journeyed seven (!) times to Nepal. However, he actually made five journeys: 1929, 1931, 1933, 1952 and

22 01 Nalesini (pp ):Layout 1 16/11/09 09:05 Pagina 97 Assembling Loose Pages, Gathering Fragments of the Past 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 history 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 3 rd 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 probably 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 officials. 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 substantial (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 himself; 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 Farrington 2002: Tucci and Ghersi 1934: 257; Tucci 1937a: Fracassi to Simon, London 28 th April 1935, in Farrington 2002: Boffa 1946: Farrington 2002:

23 01 Nalesini (pp ):Layout 1 16/11/09 09:05 Pagina 98 Oscar Nalesini Fig. 13. Interior of Tucci s home, Dhaka or Kolkata (Neg. Dep. 6589; phot. G. Nuvoloni) Fig. 14. Mural paintings, Üsukhar/Khardzong, 1935 (phot. E. Ghersi). The evidenced area corresponds to the mural fragment kept at the MNAOr, Rome Fig. 15. A book cabinet in Tucci s home, Dhaka or Kolkata (Neg. Dep. 6685; phot. G. 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. 100 ECONOMIA 1984: Ghersi had a lecture on his Tibetan travels at the Imperia section of the Club Alpino Italiano, whose flag is clearly visible in some shots exposed in Western Tibet. 98

24 01 Nalesini (pp ):Layout 1 16/11/09 09:05 Pagina 99 Assembling Loose Pages, Gathering Fragments of the Past 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 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 contributing 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 expeditions is difficult to retrieve because of the failure to keep many relevant files. For 102 Fabiano Semprevivo, personal communication. 103 Tucci 1941: Tucci and Ghersi 1934: Tucci and Ghersi 1934: Tucci 1937a: Tucci 1937a:

25 01 Nalesini (pp ):Layout 1 16/11/09 09:05 Pagina 100 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 company, 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 company from 1926 to 1974 on the basis that these old documents were no longer of interest. 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 acknowledgements to the public and private bodies that had contributed to the expedition Collecting fragments It was not a secret that Tucci collected objects since his very first travels. He openly 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 photographs 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 referring 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 informants. 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, 11 th December Giulio Andreotti (b. 1919) was Undersecretary to the Presidency of the Council of Ministers since May Tucci 1950a: Tucci to Metcalfe (?) April 1933, in Farrington 2002: Tucci 1931a. 113 Tucci Tucci Ghersi 1934: ; Pallis 1946:

26 01 Nalesini (pp ):Layout 1 16/11/09 09:05 Pagina 101 Assembling Loose Pages, Gathering Fragments of the Past tist. 115 As a consequence of this opinion, the charge lay in a drawer until a new political 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 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 heritage were caring for the monasteries. 123 For cultural reasons, these people often considered 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 conservation 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, 19 th September 1936, in Farrington 2002: Farrington 2002: The Tribune, 8 th May 1942; Tunnard-Moore to Brock, 10 th Sept. 1946, in Farrington 2002: Farrington 2002: Tucci 1937a: Tucci and Ghersi 1934: 85, 93, Tucci and Ghersi 1934: Tenzing 2003: Tucci and Ghersi 1934: 13, 354; Tucci 1949: Tucci 1937a: Tucci to Howell, Rome 10 th February 1932, in Farrington 2002:

27 01 Nalesini (pp ):Layout 1 16/11/09 09:05 Pagina 102 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 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 circumstances 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 opposite the well known monastery. 129 The murals depicted the life of Buddha, but the ceiling 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 superimposed 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 needed 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 centinaia, a migliaia, spesso addirittura per qualche metro di spessore. Manoscritti sem- 126 Tucci and Ghersi 1934: Tucci 1950a: Tucci 1932: 38-39; Tucci and Ghersi 1934: Tucci 1937b: Tucci 1937a: Tucci and Ghersi 1934: Tucci and Ghersi 1934:

28 01 Nalesini (pp ):Layout 1 16/11/09 09:05 Pagina 103 Assembling Loose Pages, Gathering Fragments of the Past 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 annotati. Biblioteche colossali, messe insieme traverso i secoli dalla pietà di amanuensi, di calligrafi, di monaci, alimento spirituale ad una folla ignorata di asceti, di teologi 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, portraying 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 monuments that have been committed to them and of which they ought to have a better 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: [ We walk over heaps of manuscripts thrown at random one above the other, hundreds, thousands, often even a few meters thick. Simple and illuminated manuscripts, of all kinds of Tibetan script, with glosses, comments and annotations. Colossal libraries, assembled throughout the centuries, as a result of the devotion of amanuenses, calligraphers, monks; spiritual sustenance for many forgotten ascetics, theologians and thinkers; works of art and faith, buried, altered, lost to the devotee or the scientist. Ù We have spent a full day in these burrows to examine, one by one, the thousands of sheets, trying to reassemble the volumes and to take away what deserved to be saved and made known to the world; and the light was insufficient and the dust was so thick that it was impossible to either read or breathe (my translation)]. 103