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.