The Village of Hamelin

Joseph Rock in Tibet, 1925

This rough-looking costumer is a Tibetan tribesman of 1925, and the photograph is a detail of an amazing portrait of a hunting group which has just shot and killed a giant bearded vulture. The photographer was Joseph Rock, a truly wacky character and one of those legendary folks whose work transcends the man.

What interests me about some of the photographs are, of course, the guns. This guy, in one of the more remote parts of the world at the time, seems to have armed himself with a 1911 Colt .45 automatic pistol. The frame has a lanyard loop on the heel, indicating a 1911 model. In another photograph, dated two years later, two royal bodyguards proudly show off their brand-new 1911A1 .45s. So Colt automatics were floating around in the hinterlands of Tibet in the mid-1920s.

I would surmise ammunition was not plentiful. I guess that from the elaborate rig this guy is strapped with: each of those pouches on the harness can hold a magazine of 7 cartridges.