Tribe, Walter Harry, 1832-1909, Diaries of Walter Harry Tribe describing travels in northern India, 1869-1893
- Title(s):
- Diaries of Walter Harry Tribe describing travels in northern India.
- Published/Created:
- India, 1869-1893.
- Physical Description:
- 10 volumes : illustrations ; 10 x 16 cm, or smaller
- Holdings:
- Rare Books and ManuscriptsDS413 .T753a Flat AYale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon FundView by request in the Study Room [Request]
Note: The Study Room is open by appointment. Please visit the Study Room page on our website for more details. - Copyright Status:
- Copyright Not Evaluated
- Full Orbis Record:
- http://hdl.handle.net/10079/bibid/16483537
- Classification:
- Archives & Manuscripts
- Notes:
- Walter Harry Tribe (1832-1909) lived and traveled for many years in northern India serving with the Ecclesiastical Division of the Territorial Regiments as a Senior Chaplain. Born in 1832 in Oxfordshire, he was educated at Wadham College, Oxford. His early years and lineage are little known. He was ordained in 1857, and after a Curacy at Broughton, Hampshire, he became the Rector of Stockbridge in 1860. He was appointed Chaplain at the Calcutta Ecclesiastical Establishment in 1867. He served as the Archdeacon of Lahore from 1885 to 1892.
Accompanied by: Diaries of Walter Harry Tribe describing travels in northern India, 1869-1893 (DS413 .T753b Flat A).
The diaries were written and illustrated by Walter Harry Tribe during his travels in Northern India (Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan State, Delhi, Agra), remote Himalayan villages, and Kashmir, from 1869 to 1893. The diaries also include passages from Tribe's short journeys to England, Venice, The Red Sea and South Australia during those years. In addition to providing eyewitness accounts of spiritual traditions, religious processions and the caste system in Northern India, Tribe's diaries describe the most significant monuments, temples and sites of the region through graphite drawings, ink drawings, and watercolors.
The last three volumes contain an account of the Black Mountain Expedition of 1888, also known as the Hazara Expedition. Tribe was part of an immense force of British and Indian troops that traversed the country inhabited by the Pathan tribes -- Hassanzais and Akazais -- of the Kala Dhaka region. His mostly visual records of the battle reveal the difficulties that the British army faced in navigating this unfamiliar mountainous country.
The diaries document Tribe's interest in learning, transcribing and using local languages. There are numerous pages written in the Hindi Devanagari and Persian Nasta’liq script, especially in the first few volumes. It is unclear whether Tribe simply transcribes the inscriptions that he sees on tombs and on the walls of mosques and temples or whether he asks native speakers of those languages to write the descriptions of these places for him. The transcriptions in Arabic script include Quranic verses and surahs. The diaries confirm that on some occasions he was commissioned to travel with the Indian Army, and on other occasions he travelled on his own accord to become familiar with the local culture and traditional religious practices. - Subject Terms:
- British -- India.Caste -- India.Great Britain. Army. British Indian Army.India -- Description and travel.India -- Religion.Monuments -- India.Temples -- India.Tribe, Walter Harry, 1832-1909.
- Form/Genre:
- Diaries.
Drawings.
Watercolors (visual works) - Export:
- XML