{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O147697"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O147697/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2011EM5492/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2011EM5492/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2011EM5492","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O147697/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O147697","accessionNumber":"82729","objectType":"Photograph","titles":[{"title":"Mihintale- The Etwiháre Dágoba. This Dágoba was constructed by King Bhátya Tissa in the first year of the Christian era, and enshrines within a mass of solid brickwork, nearly 100 feet high, a single hair from the forehead of Buddha.","type":"manufacturer's title"},{"title":"The Et Vihara Dágoba at Mihintale","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"The Etwiháre Dágoba is situated on the highest point of the Mihintale mountain range. According to the 19th century caption for this photograph it was constructed by King Bhathiya Thissa in the first century AD and was said to enshrine a single hair from the forehead of Buddha.\r\n\r\nJoseph Lawton (died 1872), a British commercial photographer, was active in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) between 1866 and 1872. Though he was initially employed by the firm HC Bryde, by the mid 1860s he had established his own studio in Kandy. Lawton was commissioned by the Archaeological Committee to photograph the main archaeological sites in Sri Lanka. He created a unique series of aesthetically powerful images of Anuradhapura, Mihintale, Polonnaruwa and Sigiriya.  \r\n\r\nOfficial photographic surveys conducted by Lawton and others documented the architecture and facilitated antiquarian scholarship. However, as a commercial photographer, Lawton made sure that his photographs were not merely documentary. His images were taken to appeal to tourists and overseas buyers seeking picturesque views of ancient ruins overgrown with creepers and gnarled trees.","physicalDescription":"A large dome-like structure (the dagoba) sits at the top of a large hill. Both are covered with grass and shrubs causing the dagoba to seem as though it is simply a part of the hill. At the base of the dagoba on the left is a white stone rectangular dwelling with a tiled roof, on the right is a series of steps leading up to the structure. Five people pose in front of the dwelling. The foreground is filled with palm trees and foliage.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Lawton, Joseph","id":"A20715"},"association":{"text":"photographer","id":"AAT25687"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[],"techniques":[{"text":"albumen process","id":"AAT133274"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Albumen print","categories":[{"text":"Photographs","id":"THES48910"},{"text":"Archaeology","id":"THES48874"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"SSEA","id":"THES48598"},"images":["2011EM5492"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"002","id":"THES403854"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"photograph","id":"AAT46300"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Sri Lanka","id":"x30937"},"association":{"text":"photographed","id":"x30151"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1870s","earliest":"1870-01-01","latest":"1879-12-31"},"association":{"text":"photographed","id":"x30151"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Width","value":"274","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"photographic print","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"221","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"photographic print","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"330","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"mount","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"265","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"mount","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"LAWTON","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Written on negative and appears in bottom left corner of the photograph."}],"objectHistory":"This photograph was one of a set purchased by the museum from Lawton and Co. in 1882.  See Photograph Register 81259-86096, Modern Volume, 13. \r\nThe register entry is dated to 24.4.82, and the cost is noted as £16.43.4\r\n\r\nThe photograph was initially part of the photographic collection held in the National Art Library. The markings on the mount are an indication of the history of the object, its movement through the museum and the way in which it is categorised.\r\n\r\nThe mount is white. On the right hand side is a label which reads: A.in.MIHINTALE. A label printed with the title is pasted underneath the photograph. In the bottom left corner of the mount is 'ntale' handwritten in ink, as the 'Mihi' of Mihintale was cut off when the mount was trimmed. The museum number is written in the bottom right hand corner beneath the photograph.\n\nHistorical significance: The Etwiháre Dágoba is situated on the highest point of the Mihintale mountain range. According to the caption on the photograph it was constructed by King Bhátya Tissa and is said to enshrine a single hair from the forehead of Buddha.\r\n\r\nOnly eleven miles east of Anuradhapura, Mihintale is one of the first homes of Buddhism in Sri Lanka and features some of the country’s most sacred Buddhist sites. It was in Mihintale that King Devanampiya Tissa received the Emperor Asoka’s son Mahinda, a Buddhist monk from India, who converted him and 40,000 followers to Buddhism in 243 BC. Popularly referred to as Mahinda’s Hill, Mihintale is revered as the place where the meeting between the monk and king took place. Many Buddhists make a pilgrimage to the site during June, the month of ‘Poson’ or the full moon. Large steps, surviving from ancient building programmes, were constructed to climb Mihintale and King Devanampiyatissa constructed a Buddhist vihara (a refuge monastery for wandering monks) and sixty-eight caves for them to reside in. With the exception of June, Mihintale is now a quiet town which is primarily a junction and a stop on the way to Anuradhapura.","historicalContext":"This is one of a series of photographs taken by Lawton of the archaeological sites of Anuradhapura, Mihintale, Polonnaruwa and Sigiriya (1870-71). This series was commissioned by the Archaeological Committee (set up by the Governor of Ceylon in 1868) and became his signature work. Photographic surveys, conducted by Lawton and competitors such as the more prolific commercial firm WLH Skeen and Co., coincided with antiquarian scholarship that emerged as a result of the deforestation necessary to lay roadways, railways and plantations in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. This process was propelled by an expansion of both the export and tourist economies. A colleague of Lawton's proposed that his involvement in the physical labour of clearing the archaeological sites that he photographed contributed to his death. After Lawton's death, many prints were produced by the firm for the tourist market, however, the original negatives were sold to a variety of different clients and are now considered to be lost.","briefDescription":"Photograph of the Et Vihara Dagoba at Mihintale, Sri Lanka, by Joseph Lawton, albumen print, 1870-1.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"<i>Regeneration: A Reappraisal of Photography in Ceylon, 1850-1900.</i> London: British Council, 2000. ISBN 086355444X"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Falconer, John. Pattern of photographic surveys: Joseph Lawton in Ceylon. <u>In</u>: Pelizzari, Maria Antonella. ed. <i>Traces of India: Photography, Architecture, and the Politics of Representation, 1850-1900.</i> Montréal: Canadian Centre for Architecture, 2003. 156-173p., ISBN 0920785743."}],"production":"Likely printed between 1872 and 1882\n\nAttribution note: This is one of a series of photographs taken by Lawton of the archaeological sites of Anuradhapura, Mihintale, Polonnaruwa and Sigiriya (1870-71), commissioned by the Archaeological Committee which the Governor of Ceylon set up in 1868. Two sets of these photographs were produced by Lawton: one which remained in Sri Lanka (now in such poor condition it is considered to be unusable) and a second which was sent to the Colonial Office in London (first kept in the Library of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and now in The National Archives). After Lawton's death in 1872, further images were produced by the firm under the supervision of his wife and sold largely to a tourist market. Reprints of this particular photograph appear in an album currently held in the Word and Image Department (PH.1202:85-1920) as well as in the Scott Collection (92/16/3) within the India Office Select Materials of the British Library.","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[{"text":"Sri Lanka","id":"x30937"}],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"archaeological sites","id":"AAT810"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["82729"],"accessionNumberNum":"82729","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":null,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"Negative number","id":"THES50273"},"number":"215"}],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-18","recordCreationDate":"2008-03-14","availableToBook":true}}