Photography Exhibition
The Lhasa Newa
Centuries of Trade and Beyond
Photgraphs from the collection of Pratek Man Tuladhar

PATAN MUSEUM
Aug 22 - Sept 5, 2026
२०८३ भदौ ६ – भदौ २०

The Exhibition

Lhasa Newa merchants in Lhasa
Drawing upon a unique corpus of photographs, letters, telegrams, account books, and family archives preserved by Pratek Man Tuladhar (1924-1991), a Newa merchants of Lhasa, this exhibition presents — for the first time — a comprehensive history of the Newa trading community in Tibet.
For several centuries, merchants from Kathmandu, Patan, Bhaktapur, and Sankhu played a central role in the commercial and cultural exchanges linking Nepal, Tibet, India, and wider transregional networks extending as far as Europe and East Asia.
Through a curated selection of more than one hundred photographs and archival documents, this exhibition will trace the historical trajectory of the Newa community in Lhasa, examining not only their trade networks and commercial practices but also the social, cultural, and religious dimensions of their everyday lives in situ.
