Hong Kong: a mendicant priest. Photograph by John Thomson, 1869.

A man standing outside shop or house, holding a bowl, wearing a cowl over a checked garment and heavy prayer beads. The same man as shown in Thomson's negative number 784 (?)

Begging was one aspect of Chinese culture that Thomson was not comfortable with. He even referred to beggars as 'pests' and 'a source of great annoyance'. As for mendicants, he found them rather 'loathsome' and 'miserable', and called them 'half-starved hangers-on of monastic establishment'. According to him mendicants both cheated the poor and burdened them with taxes; they were simply society's parasites. In China, the majority of mendicants were attached to religious institutions. This individual was thought to have been attached to the famous Tin Hau Temple in the east of Hong Kong. In addition to begging for alms, his daily tasks involved lighting incense sticks and teaching short forms of prayers to worshippers

1869

1 photograph : glass photonegative, wet collodion : stereograph ; glass approximately 10.5 x 21.5 cm (4 x 8 in.)

Kwan-Yin temple. Chinese priest Lay (Miral... ?) Bears Thomson's negative number: "645"

This is one of a collection of original glass negatives made by John Thomson. The negatives, made between 1868 and 1872, were purchased from Thomson by Sir Henry Wellcome in 1921

John Thomson, Illustrations of China and its people, London, 1873-4, vol. I, pl. IX, "A mendicant priest"

China through the lens of John Thomson, 1868-1872, Beijing: Beijing World Art Museum, 2009, p. 153 (reproduced)

Wellcome Collection 19538i