Altar (Image number V.021, J.P. Mills Photographic Collection)

Material Information

Title:
Altar (Image number V.021, J.P. Mills Photographic Collection)
Series Title:
Photographs of the Chittagong Hill Tracts.
Creator:
Mills, J. P. (James Philip), 1890-1960.
Hobson, Geraldine ( contributor )
Publication Date:
Materials:
B&W photographic print 9.5x7 cm ( medium )

Notes

Abstract:
Although nominally Buddhists, Chakmas also have a strong belief in animism, making offerings to spirits on platforms such as this one, which also has little squares of thread suspended over it, as on Angami Naga women's graves. ( en )
General Note:
Date of photograph: 1926
General Note:
Copyright held by the Estate of J.P. Mills. The Estate is currently (2015) represented by Geraldine Hobson.
General Note:
This item may be used under license: Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial (CC BY-NC)
General Note:
This photograph is part of album V. Photographs of the Chittagong Hill Tracts. The Chittagong Hill Tracts are bounded on the west by the plains bordering the Bay of Bengal; to the north is the state of Tripura, to the east is what is now known as the state of Mizoram and to the south and south-east is the Arakan area of Burma. At the time of these photographs, the Chittagong Hill Tracts were a district of the Province of Bengal; they are now part of Bangladesh. In 1926 Mills was temporarily seconded to the Bengal Government to look into and make recommendations for the administration of the Chittagong Hill Tracts. In two months he travelled nearly five hundred miles, mostly on foot, producing a detailed and wide ranging report. As was his habit, he naturally took the opportunity to find out as much as possible about the tribal people whom he encountered, remarking that: 'few areas offer a richer field to the ethnologist [but] such accounts can only come from those who have lived among the people. A casual visitor like myself can only record what the eye sees; beliefs and social systems must remain hidden from him'. These are some of the earliest photographs of the people and villages of the area.
General Note:
Originally collected in Album V of the "J.P. Mills Photographic Collection". (Held in the SOAS, University of London, Archives and Special Collections.)
General Note:
Mills, J. P. (James Philip), 1890-1960. [Notes on a Tour in the Chittagong Hill Tracts 1926.] (Held by SOAS, University of London.)
General Note:
Hutton, John Henry. [Obituary of J. P. Mills, June 1960.] (Held by the Pitt Rivers Museum archives, University of Oxford)
General Note:
Census of India. Vol. 5, 1931.
General Note:
Löffler, G. Lorenz and Claus-Dieter Brauns. Mru : Hill people on the border of Bangladesh. Basel: Birkhäuser Verlag, 1999.
General Note:
VIAF ID: 2475026 (name authority) : Mills, J.P. (James Philip), 1890-1960
General Note:
VIAF ID: 24095368 (name authority) : Hobson, Geraldine
General Note:
Ethnologue reference: http://www.ethnologue.com/language/ccp

Record Information

Source Institution:
SOAS, University of London
Holding Location:
Archives and Special Collections
Rights Management:
Image: © 1926, The Estate of J.P. Mills. Text: © 1996, Geraldine Hobson.
Resource Identifier:
PP MS 58/02/V/21 ( calm reference )