Rinchen Lhamo

Rinchen Lhamo (18 August 1901 – 13 November 1929), also written as Rin-chen Lha-mo, was a Tibetan writer. Her book, We Tibetans, was published in English in 1926 by Seeley Service & Co.[1]

Rinchen Lhamo in her 1926 book

Early life

Rinchen Lhamo was born into a respected family at Rayaka in Kham, East Tibet.[2][3] Her father's name was Pade Jangtso, and her brother was Namkha Tendruk (also, written as Namka Dendru).[4]

Marriage and Settling in England

Rinchen Lhamo met Louis Magrath King (1886-1949), a British Consul stationed at Dartsedo (present day Kangding, Sichuan), probably sometime around 1919–1922.[3] Lhamo and King officially married in 1923, and their marriage is often described as "probably the first Tibetan-British marriage".[5][6] King was born in Jiujiang, China, the son of Paul Henry King, a Commissioner in the Chinese Customs Service, and Veronica King (née Williamson), and the grandson of Scottish missionary, Alexander Williamson.[3] King had to retire from the consular service to make their marriage official.[2][3] In 1925, Lhamo and King travelled on a Japanese ship, the SS Kitano Maru, to England, where they settled.[2][7]

Rinchen Lhamo, from a 1934 newspaper.

In 1926, possibly in response to the John Noel film The Epic of Everest (1924),[8][9] Lhamo published We Tibetans: An Intimate Picture by a Woman of Tibet, of an Interesting and Distinctive People, a guide to Tibetan culture, religion, and folklore, in English, with an introduction by her British husband.[1][10][11] "We are neither primitive nor bizarre," she explained of Tibet to English-speaking newspaper readers. "We are like yourselves, a people with a highly developed culture, spiritual, social, and material. Our minds are no less active, our wits are no less keen, than yours."[12] She particularly objected to how Tibetan women and gender roles were portrayed in Western accounts.[13] However, with regard to her views on the equality of women in Tibetan society which she expressed in an interview given to the Women's Freedom League, one Tibetan commentator has suggested that Rinchen "may have allowed her yearning for her native homeland to somewhat color her memories, which in turn may have influenced the tone of the interview. Nonetheless women in old Tibet certainly had more freedoms and rights than their counterparts in India, China and the rest of Asia, and perhaps even more than in Victorian England."[14][15] Her opinions about Western beauty, culture, and wealth were reported in many newspapers.[16] Reflecting some of the social and racial prejudices which Rinchen and Louis encountered during their lifetimes, one historian writing in 1988 has questioned her ability to write We Tibetans, however, this assertion has since been countered.[17][18]

Rinchen's husband, Louis Magrath King, gave a collection of Tibetan religious objects and thangka paintings to the British Museum, circa 1918–1919, while serving as a Captain with the Chinese Labour Corps during World War 1.[3][19]

Personal life

Rinchen Lhamo and Louis Magrath King had four children together, including Irene Louise Yudre King (1921-1946), Paul Henry Tindal King (1923-2016), and Martha Lilian Rolfe, née King (1924-2003), and Alec King. At the time of her birth, Rinchen and Louis's eldest daughter, known as Yudre, was given the name “Sheradrema (She(s)-rab (s)Gröl-ma)” by Runtsen Chimbu, the Living Buddha (tulku) of Dorje Drak, Dartsedo. Lhamo moved permanently to England in 1925 with her husband, their children, and her brother, Namkha Tendruk (who returned to Dartsedo in 1932–1933).[4] The family lived in Kensington and Hildenborough, Kent. Rinchen Lhamo died in 1929, aged 28 years, from tuberculosis.[2] Rinchen and Louis are buried in the churchyard of St. John the Evangelist, Hildenborough.[20]

References
  1. Rin-chen Lha-mo (1926). We Tibetans. London: Seeley Service.
  2. Tim Chamberlain, "Edge of Empires" Archived 2020-12-05 at the Wayback Machine The British Museum Magazine (Spring/Summer 2010): 50-52.
  3. Tim Chamberlain (2013). "Books of Change: A Western Family's Writings on China, 1855-1949". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society China. 75 (1): 55–76.
  4. Tim Chamberlain (8 March 2014). "In Search of "Ci Ma Tang" (次馬堂)". Waymarks.
  5. "A Tibetan gathering at the Horniman" Horniman Museum and Gardens Blog (July 7, 2014).
  6. Petra Maurer, "Journeys in the Himalayas" Journal of Tibetan and Himalayan Studies 1(1)(June 2016): 115-116.
  7. The National Archives, UK: 'London: SS Kitano Maru (Nippon Yusen Kaisha Line) travelling from Yokohama to London', BT 26/796/164 (11 August 1925)
  8. Katie Ives, "Sharp End" Archived 2020-12-05 at the Wayback Machine Alpinist (August 4, 2015).
  9. Peter Hansen (1996). "The Dancing Lamas of Everest: Cinema, Orientalism, and Anglo-Tibetan Relations in the 1920s". The American Historical Review. 101 (3): 712–747. doi:10.2307/2169420. JSTOR 2169420 – via JSTOR.
  10. Robert Barnett, "'Violated Specialness': Western Political Representations of Tibet" Archived 2020-12-05 at the Wayback Machine in Thierry Dodin and Heinz Raether, eds., Imagining Tibet: Perceptions, Projections, and Fantasies (Boston: Wisdom Publications 2001): 269-316.
  11. Seul-ki Park, "We Tibetans" Archived 2020-12-05 at the Wayback Machine Tibetan Biographies
  12. Rin-chen Lha-mo, "Your Civilization and Ours" Archived 2020-12-05 at the Wayback Machine Sydney Mail (December 26, 1934): 43. via Troveopen access
  13. Annelie Rozeboom, Waiting for the Dalai Lama Archived 2020-12-05 at the Wayback Machine (Jaico Publishing House 2011). ISBN 9788184952773
  14. "Where Women Are Really Equal: Interview With Mrs King". The Vote: The Organ of the Women's Freedom League. 26 (826). 21 August 1925.
  15. Jamyang Norbu (31 December 2020). "Transcending the Confines of Traditional Male-Dominated Society in Old Tibet". Shadow Tibet.
  16. "American Flappers 'Simian' According to Tibetan View" Archived 2020-12-05 at the Wayback Machine Lincoln Star (March 25, 1926): 7. via Newspapers.comopen access
  17. P. D. Coates (1988). The China Consuls: British Consular Officers, 1843-1943. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press. pp. 417–423. ISBN 978-0-19-584078-0.
  18. Tim Chamberlain (1 March 2014). "Rinchen Lhamo - A Woman of Kham". Waymarks.
  19. Louis King (Biographical Details) Archived 2020-12-05 at the Wayback Machine, The British Museum.
  20. "Rinchen Lhamo (1901-1929)". Find A Grave.
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