English:
Photograph by Linnaeus Tripe with a view looking towards the ornately
embellished minaret of a mosque at Amarapura in Burma (Myanmar), from a
portfolio of 120 prints. Tripe, an officer from the Madras Infantry,
was the official photographer attached to a British diplomatic mission
to King Mindon Min of Burma in 1855. This followed the British
annexation of Pegu after the Second Anglo-Burmese War in 1852. Aside
from official duties, the mission was instructed to gather information
regarding the country and its people. Tripe's architectural and
topographical views are of great documentary importance as they are
among the earliest surviving photographs of Burma. Amarapura, on the
Irrawaddy (Ayeyarwady) river, was twice the capital of the Burmese
kings of the Konbaung dynasty: from 1782 (the year of its foundation by
King Bodawpaya) to 1823 and again from 1837 to 1860, after which
Mandalay, 11 km to the north, became capital. Amarapura was the site of
the first British Embassy to Burma in 1795, and played host again to
Tripe's Mission. Tripe wrote of this mosque,'This is in China Street.
There are some thousands of Mahomedans and numbers of Mosques in and
about Amerapoora. The architecture of the latter partakes much of the
Burmese element'.
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