John Claude White (1October 18531918) was an engineer, photographer, author and civil servant in
British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
. From 1889 to 1908, White served as the
Political Officer in
Sikkim
Sikkim (; ) is a state in Northeastern India. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China in the north and northeast, Bhutan in the east, Province No. 1 of Nepal in the west and West Bengal in the south. Sikkim is also close to the Siligur ...
, then a British protectorate. As part of his remit, he also managed British India's relations with
Tibet
Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...
and
Bhutan
Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainous ...
.
Early life
The son of army surgeon John White (1871-1920) and Louise Henriette (Claude) Pfeffer White, he was born in Calcutta (now
Kolkata
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...
), India. His education included a period at
Rugby School
Rugby School is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) in Rugby, Warwickshire, England.
Founded in 1567 as a free grammar school for local boys, it is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain. Up ...
for six months in 1868. White later studied at the
Royal Indian Engineering College
The Royal Indian Engineering College (or RIEC) was a British college of Civil Engineering run by the India Office to train civil engineers for service in the Indian Public Works Department. It was located on the Cooper's Hill estate, near Egham, ...
in Cooper's Hill, Surrey before joining the
Bengal
Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...
Public Works Department as Assistant Engineer in 1876.
India and Sikkim
White originally worked in Bengal,
Nepal
Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne,
सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...
and
Darjeeling
Darjeeling (, , ) is a town and municipality in the northernmost region of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located in the Eastern Himalayas, it has an average elevation of . To the west of Darjeeling lies the easternmost province of Nepal, ...
. In 1883, he was assigned to the
British Residency
The British Residency (), also known as the Government Guest House or Residency Bungalow, is a two-storeyed palace situated at Asramam in the city of Kollam in the Indian state of Kerala. It lies close to the site of the old Kollam Airport situa ...
in
Kathmandu
, pushpin_map = Nepal Bagmati Province#Nepal#Asia
, coordinates =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name =
, subdivision_type1 = Province
, subdivision_name1 = Bagmati Prov ...
, Nepal where he photographed the architecture and monuments.
In 1889, White was appointed
Political Officer in
Sikkim
Sikkim (; ) is a state in Northeastern India. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China in the north and northeast, Bhutan in the east, Province No. 1 of Nepal in the west and West Bengal in the south. Sikkim is also close to the Siligur ...
which had come under
British protectorate by this time.
White served as the Chairman of the Council that advised Sikkim's
Chogyal
The Chogyal ("Dharma Kings", ) were the monarchs of the former Kingdom of Sikkim, which belonged to the Namgyal dynasty. The Chogyal was the absolute monarch of Sikkim from 1642 to 1975, when the monarchy was abolished and the Sikkimese people ...
Thutob Namgyal
Thutob Namgyal ( Sikkimese: ; Wylie: ''mthu-stobs rnam-rgyal'') (1860 – 11 February 1914) was the ruling chogyal (monarch) of Sikkim between 1874 and 1914. Thutob ascended to the throne succeeding his half-brother Sidkeong Namgyal who died ...
whereafter he reorganised Sikkim's administration. He ordered land and mineral surveys and developed unused wasteland. He also established a forestry department and the first police post in
Aritar
Aritar is a region in the Pakyong District under Rongli Sub-Division of the Indian state of Sikkim.
Geography
It is located on the edge of the Himalayas, 67 kilometres from Gangtok, 52 kilometres from Kalimpong, 40 kilometres from Pakyon ...
as well as introducing English apple cultivation in the northern towns of
Lachung
Lachung is a town and hill station in northeast Sikkim, India. It is located in the North Sikkim district near the border with Tibet. Lachung is at an elevation of about and at the confluence of the Lachen and Lachung Rivers, both tributaries ...
and
Lachen.
Following the 1890
Convention of Calcutta The Convention of Calcutta or Anglo-Chinese Convention of 1890, officially the Convention Between Great Britain and China Relating to Sikkim and Tibet, () was a treaty between Britain and Qing China relating to Tibet and the Kingdom of Sikkim. It w ...
signed by Britain and
Qing China
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu people, Manchu-led Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin (1616–1636), La ...
regarding the Sikkim–Tibet boundary and trade relations with Tibet, White was asked to investigate the location known as "Yatung" (
Old Yatung
Old Yatung (), originally just "Yatung", with a native Tibetan spelling of Nyatong: "Miss nnie R.Taylor returned with the object of converting the Tibetan people, and now lives at the town of Nyatong, which by some is called Yatung."
or Myatong, ...
) in the
Chumbi Valley
The Chumbi Valley, called Dromo or Tromo in Tibetan,
is a valley in the Himalayas that projects southwards from the Tibetan plateau, intervening between Sikkim and Bhutan. It is coextensive with the administrative unit Yadong County in the T ...
for the establishment of a trade mart. He subsequently reported that although the Chinese were friendly towards him, they "had no authority whatever" and were unable to control the Tibetans. White concluded that "China was suzerain over Tibet only in name".
In 1903, the
Viceroy
A viceroy () is an official who reigns over a polity in the name of and as the representative of the monarch of the territory. The term derives from the Latin prefix ''vice-'', meaning "in the place of" and the French word ''roy'', meaning "k ...
,
Lord Curzon
George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, (11 January 1859 – 20 March 1925), styled Lord Curzon of Kedleston between 1898 and 1911 and then Earl Curzon of Kedleston between 1911 and 1921, was a British Conservative statesman ...
, appointed a
Tibet Frontier Commission under
Francis Younghusband
Lieutenant Colonel Sir Francis Edward Younghusband, (31 May 1863 – 31 July 1942) was a British Army officer, explorer, and spiritual writer. He is remembered for his travels in the Far East and Central Asia; especially the 1904 British e ...
,
which led the 1903-04
British expedition to Tibet
The British expedition to Tibet, also known as the Younghusband expedition, began in December 1903 and lasted until September 1904. The expedition was effectively a temporary invasion by British Indian Armed Forces under the auspices of the ...
. The putative aim of the expedition was to settle disputes over the Sikkim-
Tibet
Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...
border but in reality it became (by exceeding instructions from London) a ''de facto''
invasion
An invasion is a military offensive in which large numbers of combatants of one geopolitical entity aggressively enter territory owned by another such entity, generally with the objective of either: conquering; liberating or re-establishing con ...
of Tibet. White was asked to as the deputy to Younghusband. He was unhappy with this secondment and complained to Lord Curzon. Younghusband saw this as insubordination, as did his masters in
Shimla
Shimla (; ; also known as Simla, List of renamed Indian cities and states#Himachal Pradesh, the official name until 1972) is the capital and the largest city of the States and union territories of India, northern Indian state of Himachal Prade ...
, and the appointment was confirmed.
White is claimed to have been the only member of the Tibet expedition permitted to photograph
Lhasa
Lhasa (; Lhasa dialect: ; bo, text=ལྷ་ས, translation=Place of Gods) is the urban center of the prefecture-level city, prefecture-level Lhasa (prefecture-level city), Lhasa City and the administrative capital of Tibet Autonomous Regio ...
's monasteries.
He made five trips to
Bhutan
Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainous ...
and in 1907 photographed the coronation of the country's
first king.
Personal life
On 12September 1876, before departing for India, White married his distant cousin Jessie Georgina Ranken at All Saints Church in Kensington, London. They had a daughter, Beryl born in Bengal in 1877.
Photography
White created a rich and detailed photographic account of the culture and scenery of the Himalayas during his travels through the region. John Falconer, curator of photographs at the
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...
’s Oriental and India Office Collections described White's work as "probably one of the last, and certainly among the most impressive products of a tradition of quasi-amateur photography which had flourished among administrators and military personnel in India since the 1850s."
The 2005 book ''In the Shadow of the Himalayas: Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal, Sikkim : a Photographic Record by John Claude White, 1883-1908'' contains an anthology of Himalayan photos taken by White.
Works
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See also
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History of Sikkim
The history of Sikkim, begins with indigenous Lepchas contact with early Tibetan settlers. Historically, Sikkim was a sovereign Monarchical State in the eastern Himalayas. Later a protectorate of India followed by merger with India and offic ...
References
;Bibliography
*
Further reading
*
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:White, John Claude
1853 births
1918 deaths
History of Sikkim
Alumni of the Royal Indian Engineering College