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Football: Lhasa United vs The Marmots

Date: Friday, 02-July-2010

Please

Claude Arpi
www.claudearpi.blogspot.com
June 30, 2010

In continuation with my post of yesterday onfootball in Tibet, I post today some abstracts of Chapman's notes.

While in Tibet, Freddie Spencer Chapman, thePrivate Secretary of Sir Basil Gould, thePolitical Officer in Sikkim, Bhutan and Tibetkept the British Mission Diary (he also took someof the earliest pictures of Roof of the World).

An entry on November 9th 1936 mentions: "Firstround of seven-a-side football. It wasuncomfortably hot playing. Every day now thetemperature rises well above 60 [degrees] F. butat night there are ten to fifteen degrees offrost" (Lhasa Mission, 1936: Diary of Events',Part IX p. 1, written by Chapman).

On an other occasion, Chapman recounts: "Today wewere challenged to a game of 'Soccer' by LhasaUnited, a team picked from Tibetan, Ladaki(Mohammedan) and Nepalese sides. They turned outin garish Harlequin-coloured shirts. After agood, clean, hard game the Mission Marmots (as wecall ourselves) won by scoring the only goal ofthe day. The goal was so small that the only hopeof scoring was to go through oneself with theball. Playing at 11,800 feet is not as much of anordeal as one would imagine, and we appeared tobe no more breathless than our opponents. We nowpractice nearly every day and are thinking ofpicking up a number of seven-a-side teams to keep ourselves in training".

The British Mission team was known as theMarmots: "The Mission Marmots was the name givento the 1936 British Mission football team. TheMission established this team to play againstvarious local groups (including "Lhasa United")on a pitch behind the Norbhu Lingka. No goal wasever conceded by the British perhaps because theywore army field boots ? prompting a request fromthe Ladakhis that the British should refrain from?wearing those fearful boots?. The footballseason came to an abrupt end when someone stolethe goal posts to use for firewood and sandstormsbecame frequent. Team members Back row from leftto right: Sonam, ?, Minghu. Middle row from leftto right: Spencer Chapman, Dagg, Morgan, Nepean.Bottom row unidentified Tibetans. The lack ofnames for some of the Tibetan players in thisphotograph may be explained by the fact that onlyNorbhu (the Mission translator) was able to tellwho was who amongst the Tibetan servants to the Mission.

Chapman describes this match against Lhasa Unitedin October 1936: "Together with a crowd ofsupporters, our opponents were already there,turned out in garish harlequin-coloured silkshirts with L.U. sewn on to the pockets. Theywere a remarkable looking team, and certainlyneeded to be "United"! There was a tough lookingNepali soldier, a Chinese tailor, three beardedLadakhis wearing red fezes ? the most hirsutebeing the goalkeeper, a Sikkimese clerk ofPangda-Tsang?s, and five Tibetan officials,including our friends Yuto, Surkang-Se, andTaring Dzongpon. The latter still had theircharm-boxes on top of their heads, so were precluded from heading the ball?.

Another entry in Chapman?s dairy: "Today we werechallenged to a game of 'Soccer' by Lhasa United,a team picked from Tibetan, Ladaki (Mohammedan)and Nepalese sides. They turned out in garishHarlequin-coloured shirts. After a good, clean,hard game the Mission Marmots (as we callourselves) won by scoring the only goal of theday. The goal was so small that the only hope ofscoring was to go through oneself with the ball.Playing at 11,800 feet is not as much of anordeal as one would imagine, and we appeared tobe no more breathless than our opponents. We nowpractice nearly every day and are thinking ofpicking up a number of seven-a-side teams to keep ourselves in training".