Séries 01 - Correspondence

2.5 cm of textual records

Series consists of two files of correspondence:

1. Military Period (1921-1923)
2. Other Correspondence (1961-1985)

Materials in the ‘Military Period’ file include ten letters written to, or by, Lt. Col. Parker while on duty as the Commander of the Military Forces in Tibet. Two other letters were written by Sir Charles Bell in which Bell arranges to meet up with Lt. Col. Parker and an escort on his return journey from Lhasa. One additional letter is handwritten in Tibetan and stamped with ‘British Trade Agency – Gyantse – Tibet’ (which suggests that it may be from Parker’s military period), but it is not kown who authored it or when it was created. Five of the letters are written in Tibetan and translations and transcriptions for four of the five letters are available in hard copy and on compact disc (see ‘Notes’).

Of significance among the letters written in Tibetan is correspondence from Lt. Col. Parker to the 13th Dalai Lama in which Lt. Col. Parker states that he has received and inspected the troops from the Dalai’s personal escort and suggests that they be kept for training. In this letter Lt. Col. Parker also raises question on military dress and deportment, specifically, the length of the officers’ hair (a translation of this letter was provided by Father Donald but no original copy of the translation exists). An original draft of this letter, written in English by Lt. Col. Parker, is also included in this file. A second letter is from the Dalai Lama to Lt. Col. Parker and is an acknowledgement of Parker’s training of Tibetan soldiers. This letter is written on rice paper and includes the Dalai’s official ink seal and an envelope with the Dalai’s wax seal and a postmarked Tibetan stamp. Three other letters were sent to Lt. Col. Parker from officials of the Tibetan government. These letters are also written on rice paper and ink stamped with official seals. The first of these letters is written by a member of the Tibetan Supreme Council (known as Shapes or Shapees) and is a response to Lt. Col. Parker’s questioning of hair length of the Tibetan troops, and includes explanations of cultural and religious differences. The second letter is from the minister responsible for the Tibetan military in which permission is granted for training of the Tibetan troops, and the sending of further troops to be trained. The third letter is written by two Tibetan Officers in which praise is given to one of their officers along with a request for his return. Of those letters mentioned above, translations and transcriptions are available for the letters written from the Dalai and the officials of the Tibetan government, and accompany the series.
The five other letters in this series include four that were typewritten by Lt. Col. Parker in English: two are from his military period; two others were written decades later to the editor of a publication. As mentioned above, one was written in Tibet and has not been translated. The two letters from his military period are lengthy and provide significant details of Lt. Col. Parker’s perceptions of his work, the people, the country, events and festivities and are an important accompaniment to many of the prints in Photograph Collection A.

Materials in the “Other Correspondence” file consist of more recent records. Two letters from 1961 relate to an address Lt. Col. Parker accepted to give to the Victoria Section of the Royal Over-Seas League about his experience in Tibet. The two other letters also relate to Lt. Col. Parker’s time in Tibet and were sent to the editor of “Country Life.” The first letter (dated 1966) describes Lt. Col. Parker’s unique experience of being the first European to see a Takin, “the rarest mammal in the world,” while the second letter (dated 1977) discusses a pony that Lt. Col. Parker bought in the early 1920s. The file also contains a letter (dated 1985) from the Office of Tibet in New York City acknowledging receipt of a donation for $20.00 along with a brief update on certain individuals. This letter is signed by two people; one, “T.C. Tethong,” was the translator for the 14th Dalai Lama in the 1960s.

ref # 4-1