Gurkha soldiers crossing the first stockade of the Wenshoi khel of Pangsha (Image Y.24 : J.P. Mills Photographic Collection)
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Material Information

Title:
Gurkha soldiers crossing the first stockade of the Wenshoi khel of Pangsha (Image Y.24 : J.P. Mills Photographic Collection)
Series Title:
J.P. Mills Photographic Collection
Creator:
Fürer-Haimendorf, Christoph von, 1909-1995 ( Photographer )
Hobson, Geraldine ( contributor )
Publication Date:
Physical Description:
Undetermined

Notes

Abstract:
Gurkha soldiers crossing the first stockade of the Wenshoi khel of Pangsha about three miles from the main village. 'They had built a stone barricade loopholed for arrows but did not hold it. In the middle of the wall is a fence of banana stems, for it is a very old Naga belief that bullets passing between banana stems are "cooled" and rendered harmless.' ( en )
General Note:
The Pangsha Expedition took place at the end of 1936 and was a punitive expedition led by Mills to rescue children who had been abducted and sold into slavery. Pangsha was a notoriously warlike village in unadministered territory close to the border between India and Burma, whose warriors were constantly mounting head-hunting raids on the surrounding villages. It was during these raids that the children had been captured. The area was unexplored and the villages had never seen a white man. Mills did not even know the exact location of Pangsha. Every day while he was away, Mills wrote to his wife. This journey into the territory of hostile head-hunters was a dangerous undertaking, and Mills wrote: 'For some weeks I have had a feeling I should not come back from this show, but now that has suddenly completely worn off.' The letters were found many years later, edited by his daughter and published by the Pitt Rivers Museum.
General Note:
Reference: Mills, J.P. (James Philip), 1890-1960, The Pangsha Letters. Edited and with an introduction by Geraldine Hobson. (Oxford : Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, 1995).
General Note:
Reference: Fürer-Haimendorf, Christoph von, 1909-1995. The Naked Nagas. Christoph Fürer- Haimendorf. London : Methuen & Co., [1939].
General Note:
Reference: Hutton, J.H. The Angami Nagas. London : Macmillan, 1921.
General Note:
Ethnicity: Gurkhas
General Note:
B&W photographic print
General Note:
Originally collected in Album Y of the "J.P. Mills Photographic Collection". (Held in the SOAS, University of London, archives and special collections.)
General Note:
Album Y was given to Mills by Haimendorf as a Christmas present. It contains photographs by Christoph Fürer-Haimendorf of the Pangsha Expedition in which both he and Mills took part. Some of the photographs were later published in Haimendorfs book The Naked Nagas , (Methuen 1939), which contains an account of the expedition. The last five pictures were taken when Haimendorf was studying the Konyaks of Wakching. There is also a set of Haimendorfs contact prints of this expedition and photographs taken by Mills and others in one of the boxes of this collection.
General Note:
VIAF ID: 109123273 (name authority) : Fürer-Haimendorf, Christoph von, 1909-1995

Record Information

Source Institution:
SOAS, University of London
Holding Location:
Archives and Special Collections
Rights Management:
Image: © 1936, The Estate of Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf. Text: © 1996, Geraldine Hobson.
Resource Identifier:
PP MS 58 image number Y.24 ( accession number )