Studio portrait of Ani Chokyi taken at Thomas Paar studio in 1890s and turned into a color postcard around 1900 that appealed to British tourists in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darjeeling" class="extiw" title="en:Darjeeling">Darjeeling</a>. Tibetan femininity was shown in this photo through fine fabrics, expensive ornaments and amulets, signaling high social status, respectability, and devotion to Buddhism. Ani Chokyi is the head of a prominent Tibetan-Sikkimese family, the owner of a number of businesses (including a brewery), and one of the richest women in Darjeeling. She is the wife of Ugyen Gyatso. They accompanied <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarat_Chandra_Das" class="extiw" title="en:Sarat Chandra Das">Sarat Chandra Das</a> on his secret journey to Lhasa. She is the paternal aunt of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonam_Wangfel_Laden" class="extiw" title="en:Sonam Wangfel Laden">Sonam Wangfel Laden</a> who became the local chief of police later.
Thomas Paar
Photographed around 1890s. Published as a postcard in 1900s.
Clare Harris. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://heiup.uni-heidelberg.de/heiup/reader/download/301/301-69-79941-2-10-20171214.pdf"><i>Photography in the “Contact Zone”: Identifying Copresence and Agency in the Studios of Darjeeling</i>, p. 117, Figure 14</a> from Markus Viehbeck. <i><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://books.google.com/books?id=73YItAEACAAJ">Transcultural Encounters in the Himalayan Borderlands: Kalimpong as a "Contact Zone"</a></i>. Heidelberg University; 18 December 2017.