7 June 2012
Peto images reveal Dalai Lama in younger days
Image of one of Michael Peto's pictures is attached.
Rarely seen photographs of the Dalai Lama on a trip to India almost 50 years ago will feature in a special commemorative booklet to be presented to His Holiness when he visits Dundee later this month.
The 14 photographs, taken by Michael Peto, are held in the Archives of the University of Dundee. They show The Dalai Lama embarking on a visit to a school for Tibetan children in New Delhi in 1964. In many, he is the sole subject of pictures at the school, while others show his sister and children from the school.
They will be published in the booklet celebrating His Holiness' historic first visit to Dundee on Friday, 22nd June.
In addition, the booklet will contain the details of all the local community groups and individuals helping to mark the occasion and be presented to him as a memento of his time in the city, along with a copy of 'The Dalai Lama's Welcome to Dundee', a bagpipe piece written and performed by University student Craig Weir.
"The rarely seen photographs are part of a set of 34 that Michael Peto took during a visit to New Delhi in 1964," explained University Archivist Patricia Whatley. "Peto was on a tour with the Save the Children charity at the time, and the resulting images show The Dalai Lama in both a reflective mood and engaging with the people at the school.
"We thought it would be a fitting gift to present these images to His Holiness in this publication commemorating his visit to Dundee. I'm sure he will enjoy looking at these images, which he has probably never seen before."
When Peto died in 1970 his extensive collection of 130,000 prints and negatives was left to the University of Dundee by his family, and significant parts of the collection have now been digitised.
Michael Peto was born in Hungary in 1908, moving to London in 1939. His work includes photographs from Israel, Korea, North Africa and India, as well as from Great Britain and other European countries. In the 1960s his work regularly featured subjects from the performing arts, including the dancers of the Royal Ballet and actors from BBC drama and Prospect Theatre.
The collection also includes images of leading figures in contemporary politics, literature and entertainment such as Nelson Mandela, Ian McKellen, C.S.Lewis, and over 400 pictures of The Beatles.
The Dalai Lama will deliver this year's Margaret Harris Lecture on Religion on the afternoon of Friday, June 22nd. His Holiness will visit the city as part of a tour of the UK, and give his talk, entitled 'Education of The Heart: a new world order of compassion' to a sold-out crowd at the Caird Hall.
School children, community groups and members of the public will join Craig in welcoming The Dalai Lama to Dundee and presenting him with gifts.
For media enquiries contact:
Grant Hill
Press Officer
University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384768
E-MAIL: g.hill@dundee.ac.uk
MOBILE: 07854 953277 |
