THIS PHOTOGRAPH WAS NOT TAKEN BY NICHOLAS ROERICH

I have found that several researchers believe that the photo I put above was taken by the explorer Nicolas Roerich, and that is mainly because this photo appeared in several articles that newspapers published when they talked about Nicolas Roerich's expedition to Tibet in 1928:

 

 

 

But in reality this photo was taken in 1924 by American explorer Aloha Wanderwell. What happens is that to accompany the text, the newspapers also included other photographs of the Himalayan region.

 

The original photo is in the Detroit Public Library and also appears in its digital archive (see link).

 

 

 

There it is indicated that on the back of the photo is handwritten: "Bhutan: type, the lamas (Kazi de Yokseem)".

 

But on this information the Tibetologist Glenn Mullin commented:

 

«  Kazi is the title of a monk from an aristocratic family. According to one academic paper, there were 12 families allowed to use the title Kazi for a monk of their bloodline. I think only the person in the middle is a monk. The other two are probably aristocrat relatives because of their clothing.

 

The director of the National Museum in Bhutan writes: “Yokseem is in Sikkim, there is a huge lake having foot print of Guru Rinpoche on the surface of lake. That is not a Bhutanese monk. Bhutanese do not wear like this ankle length chupa (coat) and hat.”

 

So it seems that the photo is taken in Sikkim; or if it is taken in Bhutan, it is a photo of a Sikkimese monk and relatives visiting from Sikkim. » 

(Source)

 

 

 

And to finish I put a colored version that I found on the internet: