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Home>Captain Linnaeus Tripe: Photographer of India and Burma, 1852-1860>The Burma Mission

Introduction

Early Work in England

Return to India

The Burma Mission

South India

Note on Tripe's Prints

Photographic Printing Techniques of the 1850s

Photographic Practices of the 1850s

Chronology

Exhibition Catalog Captain Linnaeus TripeRoger Taylor, Crispin Branfoot, with Sarah Greenough and Malcolm Daniel

AudioIntroduction to the Exhibition, lecture by Sarah Greenough, exhibition curator

Audio Symposium Lecture Part 1: ''A Glorious Galaxy of Monuments': Photography and the Archaeological Survey of India after Tripe," John Falconer

Audio Symposium Lecture Part 2: "Interpreting Early Photography in India: Medium and Method," Zahid R. Chaudhary

Audio Symposium Lecture Part 3: "Measuring Time: Linnaeus Tripe’s Inscription of the Thanjavur Temple, 1858," Maria Antonella Pelizzari

PDF Download Public Symposium Program

Linnaeus Tripe in the Collection of the National Gallery of Art

Photographs Conservation

Press Release

Exhibition Checklist

# The Burma Mission

In 1855, following the end of the Second Anglo-Burmese War, Lord Dalhousie, the governor-general of India, appointed Tripe to accompany a mission to Burma. As little was known about Upper Burma, Dalhousie wanted to study the area to gather military intelligence, including information about local religious beliefs, topography, and mineral resources.

The route Tripe traveled (marked in green) as photographer on an 1855 mission to Burma, organized by the governor-general of India, Lord Dalhousie. In the 1850s Great Britain ruled a large area now encompassed by the modern states of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. The British province of Burma was formally created in 1886. (Dashed lines indicate modern boundaries.) The locations are marked by their 19th-century place names with the 21st-century names below in italics.

Tripe, along with a topographic artist, Colesworthy Grant, was charged with creating a detailed visual record of the mission. Mindful of the honor and responsibility he had been given as the first person to photograph the region, he prepared methodically.

Colesworthy Grant, “The Creek: Ye-nan-gyoung,” August 14–16, 1855, watercolor with pen and ink, from *Series of Views taken in Burma*, pl. 19The British Library, London

He covered his storage chests with waterproof cloth to safeguard the photographic equipment; packed a portable still to purify water needed for working with photographic chemicals; and had tin cases made to shield his negatives from heat and humidity. When he returned to his home base in Bangalore five months later in December 1855, he had made more than 200 negatives. He then began the long and complicated process of setting up and staffing a printing studio and making 50 copies of a portfolio, each with 120 original photographs.

The Burma Mission
*Ye-nan-gyoung: Tamarind Tree*, August 14–16, 1855Paula and Robert Hershkowitz

By contrasting the giant silhouetted tamarind tree in the foreground with the distant hilltop pagoda, Tripe adroitly revealed the natural and manmade wonder of Ye-nan-gyoung. Tripe and his fellow officers were impressed not only by the “striking and fantastic” beauty of the place but also by the pungent smell of the naturally occurring petroleum that permeated the air. (“Ye-nan-gyoung” means fetid water rivulet in Burmese.)

The Burma Mission
*Pugahm Myo: Distant View of Gauda-palen Pagoda*, August 20–24, 1855Lent by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, The Buddy Taub Foundation, Dennis A. Roach and Jill Roach, Directors, and Alfred Stieglitz Society Gifts, 2012

Although earlier European travelers had celebrated Pugahm Myo as a magnificent site of vast scale, nothing had prepared Tripe and others on this expedition for its reality. As the mission’s engineer and secretary, Henry Yule, wrote: “This is certainly the most extraordinary place we have yet seen. Fancy pagodas of every form and colour, some of very great extent, some quite minute — here in perfect preservation, here a mound of ruin — and these spread out over miles and miles of ground.”

The Burma Mission
*Pugahm Myo: Gauda-palen Pagoda,*August 20–24, 1855The British Library, London

The photographs Tripe made on the mission to Burma reveal his methodical approach. Taken together, his studies of the region constitute carefully planned sequences of pictures that show the sites from varying distances and viewpoints, providing a systematic visual record of them. At Pugahm Myo, he first photographed the scene from afar (see the previous slide) and then moved closer to depict the buildings and their layout in greater detail.

The Burma Mission
*Pugahm Myo: Thapinyu Pagoda*, August 20–24, 1855Lent by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, The Buddy Taub Foundation, Dennis A. Roach and Jill Roach, Directors, and Alfred Stieglitz Society Gifts, 2012

Because early photographic negatives were overly sensitive to blue, clouds were difficult to record. To evoke them and other atmospheric effects, Tripe retouched his negatives by applying pigment in thin layers, gradually building up density and form with highlights and shadows. Demonstrating his dexterity, he would bring his retouching up to the edge of a structure, defining its silhouette with the precision of an architectural draftsman. The next slide illustrates a detail of the corresponding negative and Tripe's retouching of the sky.

The Burma Mission
Detail from a waxed-paper negative by Linnaeus Tripe of *Pugahm Myo: Thapinyu Pagoda*, August 20–24, 1855Royal Photographic Society Collection, National Media Museum, Bradford

The Burma Mission
*Pugahm Myo: East Facade of Damayangyee Pagoda*, August 20–24, 1855National Gallery of Art, Washington, Edward J. Lenkin Fund, 2012.87.24

This 12th-century pagoda at Pugahm Myo differs from traditional Indian temple architecture and reflects Islamic influence in its use of brick vaults and pointed arches.

The Burma Mission
*Pugahm Myo: Carved Doorway in Courtyard of Shwe Zeegong Pagoda*, August 20–24 or October 23, 1855National Gallery of Art, Washington, Diana and Mallory Walker Fund, 2012.87.16

The Burma Mission
*Tsagain Myo: View near the Irrawadi River*, August 29–30, 1855National Gallery of Art, Washington, Stephen G. Stein Fund, 2012.87.7

In addition to painting clouds into his photographs, Tripe frequently retouched the foliage. Green and red tones were often underexposed because of the limitations of early photographic chemistry, making foliage appear darker and less articulated in the final print than to the eye. Tripe compensated by retouching his negatives with a series of marks that stood for leaves or their highlights. He also used delicate strokes to suggest light transmitted through a latticework of leaves.

The Burma Mission
*Tsagain Myo: Ruined Tazoung*, August 29–30, 1855National Gallery of Art, Washington, Stephen G. Stein Fund, 2012.87.5

This small, ruined wooden shrine, or pavilion (*tazoung*), flanked by white-plastered pagodas, reflected the Burmese Buddhists’ belief that they gained greater spiritual merit by establishing a new shrine or monastery than by repairing an existing one. However, structures like the Shwe Dagon Pagoda, which contained relics of the Buddha, underwent numerous renovations (see slide 13 in the next section: Amerapoora).

The Burma Mission
*Tsagain Myo: Litters under a Shed*, August 29–30, 1855Lent by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, The Buddy Taub Foundation, Dennis A. Roach and Jill Roach, Directors, and Alfred Stieglitz Society Gifts, 2012

The Burma Mission
*Tsagain Myo: A Roadway*, August 29–30, 1855Lent by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, The Buddy Taub Foundation, Dennis A. Roach and Jill Roach, Directors, and Alfred Stieglitz Society Gifts, 2012

Before proceeding to their final destination in Amerapoora, members of the expedition waited in Tsagain Myo. Tripe made 12 negatives in two days (a large number considering the complexity of the undertaking), including this picturesque view of rustic dwellings nestled among towering trees along a dusty road.

**Amerapoora**

Tripe continued with the mission up the Irrawadi River to the royal city of Amerapoora. King Mindon (1808–1878) gave the British mission unprecedented freedom to travel throughout the city and sketch, survey, map, measure, and photograph it. Paradoxically, this hospitality provided the British with valuable military information, should they find themselves facing Burmese hostilities in the future. Tripe made nearly 100 negatives in Amerapoora. When he included many of them in his Burma portfolio, he sequenced them as if he were taking Lord Dalhousie and the directors of the East India Company on a tour of the city, starting with the residency compound King Mindon built for the British and proceeding into the center of the city. After spending seven weeks in Amerapoora, the mission sailed south to Rangoon, where Tripe made several photographs before heading back to India.

The Burma Mission: Amerapoora
*Amerapoora: West Gate of the Residency Enclosure*, September 1–October 21, 1855National Gallery of Art, Washington, Edward J. Lenkin Fund, 2012.87.26

King Mindon went to considerable expense to prepare for the British mission, building this residency for them across a lagoon from Amerapoora and connected to it by a teak bridge (see next slide).

The Burma Mission: Amerapoora
*Amerapoora: Wooden Bridge*, September 1–October 21, 1855Lent by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, The Buddy Taub Foundation, Dennis A. Roach and Jill Roach, Directors, and Alfred Stieglitz Society Gifts, 2012

With the eye of a surveyor, Tripe took this dramatic view looking toward the 3/4-mile-long bridge that led to the British residency across the lagoon. To highlight the scale of the massive teak pillars in the foreground, he included two figures seated in the shade of a tree and small rest house to the right. Many of the buildings in Amerapoora that Tripe photographed were dismantled after 1859 when the capital moved to Mandalay, but this bridge, which Tripe’s colleague Henry Yule called “apparently interminable,” survives today.

The Burma Mission: Amerapoora
*Amerapoora: Colossal Statue of Gautama, Close to the North End of the Wooden Bridge*, September 1–October 21, 1855Collection of Charles Isaacs and Carol Nigro

This monumental figure of Gautama, the most popular Burmese form of the historical Buddha, overlooked the near end of the long wooden bridge seen in the previous photograph. As in most Southeast Asian images of Gautama, he is portrayed seated cross-legged with his left hand in his lap and his right hand gently touching the earth.

The Burma Mission: Amerapoora
*Amerapoora: View on the Lake*, September 1–October 21, 1855Courtesy Robert Hershkowitz, Charles Isaacs, Hans P. Kraus Jr.

The Burma Mission: Amerapoora
*Amerapoora: Shwe-doung-dyk Pagoda*, September 1–October 21, 1855Lent by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, The Buddy Taub Foundation, Dennis A. Roach and Jill Roach, Directors, and Alfred Stieglitz Society Gifts, 2012

Tripe retouched most of his negatives made in Burma and India. Here he painted the banks of clouds on the negative and even added horizontal strokes in the foreground to suggest ripples on the water. He may have done this to compensate for the numerous pinholes in the negative that caused a peppering of black dots scattered across the print.

The Burma Mission: Amerapoora
*Amerapoora: Ouk Kyoung*, September 1–October 21, 1855National Gallery of Art, Washington, Edward J. Lenkin Fund, 2012.87.23

The Burma Mission: Amerapoora
*Amerapoora: Toung-lay-lou-tiy Kyoung*, September 1–October 21, 1855National Gallery of Art, Washington, Stephen G. Stein Fund, 2012.87.3

Most of the monasteries that Tripe encountered were made of wood, but a few monumental brick monasteries, such as this one, were constructed in the 18th century. In this photograph, Tripe focused on the massive staircase, with its sweeping balustrades and profuse ornamentation. The remains of this building today lie southwest of Mandalay.

The Burma Mission: Amerapoora
*Amerapoora: Corner of Mygabhoodee-tee Kyoung*, September 1–October 21, 1855Lent by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, The Buddy Taub Foundation, Dennis A. Roach and Jill Roach, Directors, and Alfred Stieglitz Society Gifts, 2012

The Burma Mission: Amerapoora
*Amerapoora: Doorway of Pyathat on East of Maha-too-lo-Bounghian Kyoung*, September 1–October 21, 1855National Gallery of Art, Washington, Edward J. Lenkin Fund, 2012.87.19

This photograph shows the eastern entrance to the Royal Daughter’s Monastery, built as a pious offering by the queen during King Pagan’s rule from 1846 to 1852. Only the highest ranking patrons could afford the enormous expense of building such a richly ornamented monastery.

The Burma Mission: Amerapoora
*Amerapoora: Part of Balcony on the South Side of Maha-oung-meeay-liy-mhan Kyoung*, September 1–October 21, 1855Lent by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, The Buddy Taub Foundation, Dennis A. Roach and Jill Roach, Directors, and Alfred Stieglitz Society Gifts, 2012

This elaborately carved wooden balcony, part of a complex of monastic buildings created during the reigns of Tharawadi (ruled 1837–1846) and Pagan (ruled 1846–1852), is often considered the zenith of Burmese woodcarving. This building survived until 1945.

The Burma Mission: Amerapoora
*Amerapoora: South Ditch of the City Wall*, September 1–October 21, 1855National Gallery of Art, Washington, Edward J. Lenkin Fund, 2012.87.20

With its deeply receding perspective, this photograph of the city wall on the southeast corner of Amerapoora shows the precise angularity and great length of the brick-lined moat. As an army officer, Tripe may have intended the photograph to present clear documentation of the meagre fortifications of the capital city. King Mindon also recognized Amerapoora’s defensive weaknesses and moved the capital to Mandalay in 1859 to get out of the reach of British gunboats.

The Burma Mission: Amerapoora
*Rangoon: View near the Lake*, November 1855National Gallery of Art, Washington, Diana and Mallory Walker Fund, 2012.87.9

The Shwe Dagon Pagoda, seen in the distance at left, was the preeminent sacred site for Burmese Buddhists; for the British, however, it was a place of key battles in wars against the Burmese in 1824–1826 and 1852. Occupied by the British in 1824, the pagoda was subsequently retaken and heavily fortified by the Burmese in 1852. Tripe’s own regiment joined others in fierce fighting over the Shwe Dagon, which they recaptured on April 14, 1852. Discovery of a Burmese plot to retake the pagoda and stage an uprising against the British in November 1853 led Lord Dalhousie to continue military occupation of the hill and its sacred pagoda.

The Burma Mission: Amerapoora
*Rangoon: Near View of the Shwe Dagon Pagoda*, November 1855National Gallery of Art, Washington, Edward J. Lenkin Fund, 2012.87.18

Like other major stupas, the Shwe Dagon Pagoda was regularly renovated. Tripe’s photograph shows the network of bamboo scaffolding that enabled workmen to regild its bell-shaped surface.

The Burma Mission: Amerapoora
*Rangoon: Henzas on the East Side of the Shwe Dagon Pagoda*, November 1855Lent by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, The Buddy Taub Foundation, Dennis A. Roach and Jill Roach, Directors, and Alfred Stieglitz Society Gifts, 2012

The Burma Mission: Amerapoora
*Rangoon: A Street, Old Style*, November 1855The British Library, London

In 1855, Rangoon was in the midst of transition. A few years earlier, the British announced their plans to build a new, modernized colonial city on this site, which had been damaged by fires, floods, and war. In this photograph, Tripe framed a distant view of the Shwe Dagon Pagoda between two rows of simple buildings and a makeshift raised wooden walkway, all of which would soon be demolished.

The Burma Mission: Amerapoora
*Rangoon: Signal Pagoda*, November 1855Private Collection, Courtesy Hans P. Kraus Jr.

When sailing on the Irrawadi River, visitors first saw the spire of this pagoda, high on a hill outside of Rangoon. The British outfitted it as a signal station to allow naval captains to reset their chronometers with the precision needed for accurate navigation. The British regarded the signal station as evidence of their civilizing influence on Rangoon, but to the Burmese it marked the desecration of a sacred site.

Next: South India

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