Some gifts of the 13th Dalai Lama to Nicholas II in the collection of the State Hermitage

Abstract

The Tibetan collection of the State Hermitage contains some of the gifts of the 13th Dalai Lama to the Russian Emperor Nicholas II. The State Archives of the Russian Federation has a document titled “A copy of the list of Tibetan gifts sent to the Winter Palace”. It consists of two lists, the first list describes 14 items, the second - 9. Almost all of these gifts were in the private rooms of Nicholas II in the Winter Palace. Of course, not all things have survived to this day. Number 1 in the first list is the chakra (wheel of teaching), the sign of the king offered to the Tibetan rulers upon accession to the throne, as a sign of goodwill (Inventory No. KO-884, Tibet, late 19th century); number 4 is a silver teapot, partially gilded (Inventory No. KO-896, Tibet, end of the 19th century); number 5 - men’s turquoise hoop earring; at number 9 - a gold reliquary gau (Tib. Ga'u), decorated with turquoise, such were worn and are worn by Tibetan women on the chest; at number 10 - women’s gold earrings decorated with turquoise. Earrings and a reliquary after the organization of the Oriental Department and the redistribution of exhibits were included in the collection of art objects of Central Asia. From the second list, presumably, there is a sculpture of Buddha Shakyamuni in the Hermitage collection. It is quite possible that enamel objects and some others have also been preserved in different collections of the Oriental Department. In addition, the collection contains two pencil portraits of the 13th Dalai Lama, painted by the Russian artist N. Ya. Kozhevnikov in 1905 in Urga (present-day Ulan Bator). The Dalai Lama was hiding in Mongolia during the British expansion into Tibet in 1903-1904. Thus, some of the gifts of the 13th Dalai Lama are presented in the Tibetan collection of the Hermitage. Some of them are masterpieces, such as the silver chakra, others are very typical ethnographic objects.