From my Muli chapter:
"The 36-year old Muli king was known as Chote Chaba, -
or ‘Hsiang tzu Cheng Cha Pa’ in Chinese. He was a heavy, rotund man with weak
muscles - “as he neither exercises nor works”. And yet his manner was
“dignified and kind, his laugh gentle and his gestures graceful. The king’s
residence, known as the ‘Churah’ was where Rock had taken his portrait
photographs of the king using his cumbersome Eastman Kodak box camera mounted
on a tripod. The Muli king sat on his throne, posing in his most ceremonial
robes, covered with ornate blankets and surrounded by the best furniture and
carpets in the palace (and with his three King Charles spaniels shooed away at
the last moment).
In return for taking the portraits, the king rewarded
Rock with some bolts of cloth and a rosary bead bracelet that had been wrapped
around the king’s left wrist"
A picture taken on my second visit to Muli in 1996
No comments:
Post a Comment