Guthrie Collection - Gangtok and Sikkim Trip - C. 1935

Amateur footage of a trip into the Himalaya

This amateur film features some glorious shots of the mountains at Gangtok and the gardens of British officials in Sikkim. We also see the Brits at play during a polo match and a tennis game, a trip on the Darjeeling-Himalayan railway and some shots of the local flora and fauna. The film was made by James Guthrie who, at the time, was a Medical Officer based in Gyantse, Tibet. Much of Guthrie's career was spent in Tibet where - among rather more important things - he performed an operation to remove a cyst from the eye of one of the Dalai Lama's peacocks.