Group of Bhooteas, Darjeeling

Though best known for his sweeping landscapes, Samuel Bourne made several pictures of local people when he traveled to the town of Darjeeling and its surrounding forests in 1869. Here, Bourne photographed four Bhooteas, mountain peoples from an area of the Himalayas in southern Tibet, dressed in bakhus, the loose cloak-style garments with full sleeves that were common to the Bhote region. Although Bourne’s picture illustrated a characteristic group of Bhooteas for a British audience, his subjects remain assertively individual, posing for the camera with remarkable self-possession.