Charles Beken - Christchurch Photographer

One of New Zealand's leading mountain, landscape, flora and portrait photographers was Charles Beken.
He was the son of Thomas Beken and Eleanor Hurst born 11 September 1859 on board the immigrant ship "Zealandia" which sailed London 11 August 1859 - arrived Lyttelton 12 November 1859. 

The photograph below is one of Bekens which appeared in "The Flora of Mount Cook - A Handbook by Arnold Wall", (The Lyttelton Times Co., Christchurch, 1925). Many others grace the publication.

It was during the 1907 International Exhibition at Hagley Park in Christchurch that Beken got to know the West Coast doctor, and photographer, Dr. Ebenezer Teichelmann. They formed a .life-long friendship. Beken died 1 December 1944 aged 85 years. Beken's photos are spread amongst Te Papa, The National Library and Canterbury Museum.

I offer a word f caution for those researching NZ mountaineering history. Late last year while assisting the staff at Hokitika Museum identify some unmarked photographs in their extensive collection, I came across a number of superb photos taken by Beken. I can identify most photographs taken by Ebenezer Teichelmann, and in most cases, those of Henery Newton.
But where it becomes confusing is in that era, photographers shared photographs with one another. This was normally done to assist others to put together a more comprehensive lantern slide presentation.

When examining photographic collections in Hokitika Museum last year I noticed how collections get mixed up. Teichelmann and Newton shared photos freely with each other. W.A. Kennedy was a friend of Teichelmann and a good photographer too. In fact, he sorted and annotated the doctor's collection and displayed them in albums. I picked up one of two mistakes in his captioning. Then you find photos of H.M ( Merle) Sweeney from Hokitika in other collections. I also found photographs taken by H.E.L Porter too.

But today with digital images, it even gets more confusing. If you are interested in reading more about Charles Beken, and viewing his photos go to an excellent blog,  http://canterburyphotography.blogspot.co.nz/20…/…/beken.html  These photos have been reproduced with their permission.

Here are some more photos with
description from 

Industrial Exhibition 1895
... Mr Charles Beken shows some exceedingly nice work, one of the most attractive specimens of which is No. 78, an enlarged portrait of a child, charming in its delicacy and softness...

Star, Issue 5371, 24 September 1895, Page 4

"Millbrook Reserve - an open air fernery on the Avon riverside, Christchurch"

blind stamped "C. Beken - Chch"

protected C. Beken 25/5/2- 

reverse inscribed

"Please return R. B. Owen, 751 Colombo St"

 [Richard Bedward Owen - see Rich Man, Poor Man, Environmentalist, Thief, Biographies of Canterbury personalities written for the Millennium and for the 150th anniversary of the Canterbury Settlement by Richard L N Greenaway]

 An unidentified bush scene by Charles Beken

HOW A LIBERAL GOVERNMENT TREATS LABOUR.
TO The EDITOR OF "THE Press
" Sir, —I would like to ask your advice on the following matter: —Last October I did a lot of photographic work for the Government Tourist Department, for their exhibit in the Industrial Exhibition held here last November, and up to date have not been able to get payment for it. My account was rendered to the Tourist Department here, and the officer in charge informs me he "passed" it and forwarded it to the head office. He informs me he has written about it and other accounts for work done for tho same Exhibition, and that none have been paid yet (although it is now six months ago). I have also written myself about it, and was informed that my account had been passed, and that a cheque would reach me at an early date. But the early date does not come. When next I enquired, I was told that all accounts would be squared up before Mr Massey took charge of affairs, but as Mr Massey did not take charge of affairs my account has not been paid. The next time I enquired, it was All accounts would be paid by the end of March the end of the Government financial year. I would be glad if you could inform me what is the best thing to do in the matter. Can I place it in the hands of a solicitor to take proceedings, as the Department evidently does not intend to pay it unless something is done. I would like to state that the prices charged for the work done by me were the prices fixed by the Tourist Department, viz., for lantern slides, 1s each, and for 23in. x 17in. enlargements, 5s each (I would like to know how many firms would like to do work at those sweating prices), and the other work was done at the same ridiculously low rates, and then the Government do not pay for the work till months after. A great proportion of the money was paid out for materials, and as I am only a working man, working on my own account, it is too bad to be kept waiting all these months for my money.—Yours, etc., CHAS. BEKEN.

We trust that the publication of the above letter will have the result desired by our correspondent.—Ed. "The Press.
Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 14331, 17 April 1912, Page 7

Six photographs by Charles John Beken were published in the book
New Zealand Memories by Brenda Guthrie, M.B.E. 
Published - John Lane, The Bodley Head Limited, 1930.

Ti Tree, or Manuka"

Mt. Cook and Hooker Glacier shewing Mountain "Lillies"

"Bush" showing Birch trees and ferns

Ribbonwood, native of New Zealand

Mountain Daisies

Mountain Lillies which love the snow

Photographs by Charles Beken appeared in "The Flora of Mount Cook - A Handbook by Arnold Wall", The Lyttelton Times Co., Christchurch, 1925. 

A photograph of the Canterbury Museum by Charles Beken is shown in "Heritage New Zealand,"  Historic Places Trust, page 54, issue 130, Spring 2013.

Show More Reactio

Still working for Red Cross 45 years later

It took me a while to find a picture of Bob that exemplifies this larger-than-life man as I know him. He's a polar explorer, writer, manager, humanitarian, bon-vivant... but most of all he loves life with an infectious enthusiasm. (Joe Lowry)

Some time ago Joe Lowry asked me to write an article for his blog, 'what it is like to be a man.'

I find being a man is a mixture of roles: protector, provider, clown, outdoor educator, trainer to my children and wife (I have seven children), sensitive to all the females in my life, and a good friend to my mates.

The biggest influence on me was my Mum. She was the one that really shaped me and led me to humanitarian work. Eileen, was born deaf, as was her younger brother Ray, and in those days, anyone born deaf was considered deaf and dumb. But my Mother was a bright woman, she enjoyed Shakespeare, read poetry and she taught me to sew and knit, and to write well.

I loved my Mother dearly and was horrified by children’s cruelty towards her. I remember older kids throwing clods at her and then as a five year old, running down the road chasing after them and trying to knock the shit out of them, but often they would knock the shit out of me. I learned that being a boy (man) was defending yourself and other less fortunate. Bloody knees, black eyes and continuous cuts and bruises were my medals of honour.

When you have a disabled member of your family, someone you love dearly, and people discriminate against them, you grow up with a huge awareness of discrimination and where it occurs.

For me, being a man, is knowing where you come from and drawing strength from that. Explorers, surveyors,  blacksmiths, ploughmakers, shoemakers, labourers, clerks, sailors, miners, bushmen, and strong sensitive woman linked me through the past 150 years across the water to the highlands of Scotland, to the rivers of Prussia, the theatres of England.  My Auntie spoke of having Maori blood  through the village of Colac Bay in Southland and my family tree shows I am related to Buffalo Bill Cody and Charles Laughton, the Shakespearian actor. Perhaps, the most famous connection is to King James V, from whom the McKerrow historian says we have descended, albeit from the wrong side of the blanket.

Thinking of my heritage make me feel strong in the many difficult situations I have had to face. These have included Taleban soldiers threatening me with rifles, thieves in Colon Panama trying to knife me for my money and the cold barrel of an AK 47 pushed against my temple at night in Vietnam. I find my background gives me the cool-headedness to look them in the eye and ‘be a man.’  I find antagonists back down when you stand up to them. I suppose I have never been afraid of men particularly when comparing them to my tough Father. He was a strict disciplinarian and used to bring out a WWII German belt and beat us very hard if we misbehaved. But he was also an excellent handyman and I recall many happy days helping him do repairs around the house,  grow vegetables, cut hedges, lawns and resole shoes. He had two books on how to repair motor cars but being a labourer with five children, a car was beyond our family finances. 

 I go to my diaries from my early 20s and this is what I rediscover.

“For nearly two years I had been a part of all male mountaineering expeditions to Peru, Antarctica, and between times, on all male trips to Mount Cook and Fiordland.

“After nine months in Antarctica I looked in the mirror, and I realised a man without a women around him, is a man without vanity. Winsome, how I loved her. I wrote hundreds of letters to her during that dark, long winter’s night. She was at the airport with her new boyfriend to greet me when I returned from Antarctica.

Mountains and women – they were, and are, a huge part of my life. Brasch, our great New Zealand poet said “Man must lie with mountains like a lover, earning their intimacy in a calm sigh” . In “Leaves of Grass” Walt Whitman’s says “ A woman contains everything, nothing lack, body, soul.”

The a close relationship I had with my Mum, with two older sisters and my Nana (and the distant one I had with my Dad) convinces me that women were the one who encouraged me, gave me my reference points in life.

Why was I spending so much time with men ? Was I having to prove myself? Well I had proved I was physically capable of climbing some of the highest mountains in the world, running marathons, and surviving a year in Antarctica with only three other people.

Yet I felt at a cross road. There was something compelling about leading a life of an itinerant mountaineer, explorer or traveller. I cast back my mind Peru to 1968 and the poverty that moved me so much . My first adult poem was prompted by the injustices I saw throughout Peru in 1968. I flirted with Marxism, read Nietzsche, Che Guevara.  Thoughts from Bolivian diary by Che  Guevara swirled in my head. In New Zealand Norm Kirk was emerging as a national leader, an engine driver who was about to railroad our country away from the clutches of racist conservatism. Being a man was being aware of the wider world around me.

These were heady times.  The music -  Dylan, Joan Baez, Leonard Chen The Beatles, Joplin, Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly. The Vietnam war was becoming ugly - why the hell did New Zealand have troops there? Protests were strong.

During these weeks of running and frequent bouts of drinking at the Captain Cook pub, I came across an advert in  December 1971 in  the Otago Daily Times  wanting personnel to work in South Vietnam for a “ New Zealand Red Cross Refugee Welfare Team”. They wanted nurses, an agriculturalist, water-sanitation special, rehabilitation guidance officer, and a mechanic. Shit, this was for me. I could travel and do something structured for the people like those I saw in Peru.

Chris Knott and I had just got back from our miserable trip to Fiordland and we were together licking our wounds. We had miserably failed to climb Mt Tutoko and after a week of torrential rain we almost died of exposure and later were swept away when a swollen river picked up our tent as we slept.

The doorbell rang, and there at the front door was the telegram man with a message for each of us, inviting us to go to Wellington, for interviews for the New Zealand Red Cross Refugee team to South Vietnam.

A few weeks later I was elated on receiving news I had been selected to go to South Vietnam.

Chris missed out. He was to go back to England and spend the next three years working for the British Antarctic survey. I was the lucky one to have broken out of the mould being set for me to continue the lonely life of an adventurer

Defending my Mum on a number of occasions made me realise at a young age that discrimination is to be found everywhere, and that committed and motivated people were needed to stand up against it. That led me to the Red Cross, at the age of 22.

I wanted to be the protector, rescuer and change agent for all these people brutalised by uncaring soldiers in war, and to change the minds of the uncaring bureaucrats who were designated to care and help them.

Forty five later I am still  working for Red Cross in Bangladesh and feel I have the drive, committment and energy to go on another ten or more.

Climbing Kilimanjaro on Christmas Day

Sunrise over Africa from the crater rim of Mt. Kilimanjaro. This photo and all others by Bob McKerrow

Another kind of treasure waited to be found





In July 1978, I returned to Ethiopia to work for the International Red Cross on a large relief operation for two million famine-stricken people. Having previously climbed the two highest mountains in Ethiopia in 1974, Mt. Ras Dashan (4757 m) and Mt. Buahit (4267 m), I began pouring over maps of Africa to see where I might be able to climb during a week’s holiday at Christmas 1978.

During the many weeks I spent in the highlands of Ethiopia in the course of my work, I become fascinated

Listening to my Ethiopian colleagues telling numerous stories and legends of their country’s rich and ancient history, and I was surprised to hear numerous mentions of Kilimanjaro.

When in the capital I spent a lot of my evenings searching for written account of Kilimanjaro in Ethiopian history and after many months I located a publication in the Tanzanian Embassy which featured a reprint by Dr. R. Reusch in the Tanganyika Standard of February 10, 1828. It read “ For thousands of years these mountains have stood, becoming more and more interwoven with legends. Even in Abyssinia (pre-war name of Ethiopia), Mt. Kibo, the highest summit of Kilimanjaro, is known and one remarkable legend, told me beside the camp fire by old Abyssinian soldiers and hunters is connected with this snow clad mountain. When the first king of of Abyssinia, son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, called Menelik I, who governed Tigre as Negusie-Negesshti (King of Kings) had completed his successful conquest of Shoa in southern Ethiopia, Somaliland, Kenya Colony and nor then Tanganyika, and was on his return journey bringing with him much spoils of wars he one day encamped on a desert-like stretch of land which unites Mt. Kibo and Mawenzi, at a height of 15,000 feet. He was old and tired of life and felt death drawing near. But because he was King he wanted to die as a King.
“ King I am and as King I wish to die,” he said to his followers One morning he bid his army farewell and accompanied by a few of his warlords and slaves, who carried his jewels and treasure, he began to ascend the mountain.

Kilimanjaro - King Menelik, Shipton, Hemingway and Valeria all fell in love with this mountain.
His soldiers below followed him with their eyes until he reached the boundary of the eternal snows where cloud encompassed him. In the evening the warlords returned without their King, for he had entered into the crater of the mountain with his slaves, jewels and treasure. And here he will sleep forever. But an offspring of his family will arise and restore the old glory of Ethiopian conquering all the land to the Rufiji River. He will ascend Mt. Kibo, find the jewels of Menelik I, among which will be the seal ring of Solomon which the old King has upon his finger. The ring he will put on his own hand and from this moment he will be endowed with the wisdom of Solomon. Also the heroic spirit of the old King will rest upon him. Thus says the legend.

Fired with the thoughts of treasure and the wisdom of Solomon I arrived at Marangu on December 16, 1978, a small village on the south-west slopes of Kilimanjaro. The base of Kilimanjaro measures 50 by 30 miles in an east-south-east direction. It consists of three major volcanic centres, Kibo 19,349 ft in the centre, Mawenzi 16,890 ft in the east, and Shira 13,140 in the west. Uhuru peak 19340 ft on Kibo, is the highest point in Africa.

Not having any climbing gear and clad only in street clothes when I arrived , I was lucky to be able to borrow a pair of climbing boots from a Bavarian geologist who had fortunately dislocated a shoulder. I hired some warmer clothes from the national park headquarters. I was fortunate finding a local farmer, Valerian, from the Chagga tribe who was keen to accompany me and carry fire wood and water for cooking.

Sign at the Kilimanjaro National Park headquarters/ (note spelling)
Valerian, like so many other Chagga, supplements his income by carrying loads, and if required will guide tourists in snow-free-conditions to Gilman;s point on the crater rim.
Living on the slopes of this great mountain the Chagga have a single finite clear focus on their country, a rare thing for African people whose eyes are so often fixed on stretches of undifferentiated bush or desert reaching indctermunatedly to the horizon. This gives the Chagga people a focus, a precise position in a single great mountain which is one of the most naturally fertile in Africa.

I had hoped to have a look perhaps climb one of the more interesting routes on Kilimanjaro but unseasonal weather over the whole of east- Africa had brought snow down to 12,000 feet. The first three days on the normal route is a delightful walk through constantly changing scenery: from 5000ft at Marangu to 15,450ft the last hut on the mountain.

The first day took us through rain forests comprising a variety of trees ferns with brambles and lichens growing in the trunks and branches. Occasionally we saw clusters of orchids, blue monkeys and small frightened birds. Between 8.000 and 12,000 feet the forest gradually changes to Podocarpus Milanjianus family and Hypernicum revolutum community. Around this altitude one meets with the first of three giant groundsels (photo opposite) endemic to Kilimanjaro (Scenico Johnsyonni), sometimes attaining a height of 30 feet.

The following day we emerged onto the upland grasslands. Here the everlasting flowers begin to become conspicuous. These grasslands almost extend to Horombo Hut at 12,299 feet surrounded by heath-like plants. On the third day we passed through alpine bogs dotted with giant Groundsel and giant Lobelia, a large short-lived herb which grows up to 12 feet. This landscape was identical to one I had seen four years earlier when climbing Mt. Ras Dashan in Ethiopia.


Mt.Mawenzi, from the saddle between Mt. Kibo and Mawenzi. Photo: Bob McKerrow

As we proceeded north over the seven miles between Mawenzi and Kibo, much of the distance being a saddle, the vegetation petered out to form an alpine desert. Here few plants survive because of the extremely low rainfall and temperature. The fresh snow had sorted the tourists out from the more adventurous leaving Valerian and I almost alone in the hut. The next morning we left the hut by moonlight at 1.30 am. It took us one and a half hours to reach Hans Meyer Cave which was completely full of snow. I thought of Eric Shipton and Bill Tilman who spent a night here in 1929 on their way to the summit. They also struck waist-deep snow and Tilman suffered from altitude sickness and vomited frequently.

From here on it was a steepish plod on snow-covered scree to Gilman’s Point at the crater rim, which we reached at 5.30 am in time to see a wild African sunrise.

At the crater rim of Kilimanjaro
Valerian heading towards Mt. Kibo. Photo: Bob McKerrow
Here the snow was very deep and the frozen crust would just support our weight. After the magnificent sunrise clouds began swirling over over the north-east crater rim as we headed towards Uhuru Peak a mile and a half away. With the rising temperatures we began breaking through the crust into deep powder snow.

The edge of the glacier on the crater rimTo avoid the fresh snow we traversed over a series of small peaks which had less snow an their wind-blown crests. Two hours of wading through waist deep snow, we furrowed ourselves to the summit.



Valerian, a local Chagga farmer, on the summit of Kibo Peak, the highest point on Mt. Kilimanjaro. Photo: Bob McKerrow

Our view down the mountain was obscured by cloud. But we could see the whole crater and surrounds but, because of the thick mantle of snow it looked so different, almost featureless, from previous photographs.
We dug into the four feet of snow which covered the summit and found the plaque installed many years ago which cites a speech of Mwalimu Julius Nyerere on Tanganyika’s independecane in 1961.
I thought of the great King Menelik and his buried treasure on this mountain. I think it best be left on the mountain for greed has already caused enough suffering in Africa.
I spent the last night in Tanzania with Valerian and his family. As happy children and piglets squealed around our feet and beer trickled down our throats, I thought that happiness like this is preferable to treasure.

Footnote: This article was rejected by Colin Monteath editor of the New Zealand Alpine Journal in 1978. Later, that illustrious North Island daily, the Manawatu Standard, published it in its Christmas Edition as a feature, on 24 December 1979.

In the footsteps of Anatoli Boukreev, Maxut Zhumayev sets up the Kazakh Alpine Club

I met Anatoli Boukreev when I lived in Almaty, Kazakhstan, from 1996 to 1999. When in Kazakhstan, Anatoli lived in a small alpine village above the ski field of Shymbulak, at just below 3,000 metres, and not far from the peaks posted below.

Talgar Peak, 5017 m, is one of the northernmost peaks in the Tien Shan, the most northern "five-thousand metre" mountain in Asia. Anatoli Bookreev lived in a small alpine village below this range.

This village is a weekend haven for many working mountaineers who live in the foothills of the Tien Shan in Almaty, and every Friday night either walk the four hours to their alpine huts from Almaty or drive.

I fondly recall spending Christmas and New Years day (1996-97) with my good mates Sergy and Yuri,(right) their families and other Kazakh and Russian mountaineers in their club huts  consuming large amounts of Vodka, horse meat and intestines, the staple of Kazakhstan. Outside at least a metre of snow covered the ground offering superb skiing.

It was here I first met Anatoly Boukreev, and was impressed by this strong, quiet mountaineer.
Spending days with Kazakhstani mountaineers and their extended families in the alpine huts in the Tien Shans while blizzards rage outside, was a warm and close experience. It was amazing to find in your midst those who have scaled Everest, Kanchenjunga, Makalau, Dhalagauri, and to hear them speaking modestly of significant climbs in most ranges of the world. I was also impressed by their fanatical approach to fitness and love of speed climbing.

Around this time there were a lot of young fit mountaineers in their late teens and early 30s doing a lot of training in the area.. One of them was Maxut Zhumayev

Two years ago Maxut Zhumayev completed a remarkable achievement.

At age 36, he had climbed the last of all fourteen 8000 metre peaks without oxygen including K2 which he called the hardest of the lot.

“What is there for me after?” Zhumayev, a sergeant in the Armed Forces of the Republic of Kazakhstan recalled thinking.

What he did was set himself a new goal. He would establish the Kazakh Alpine Club which he envisioned as being modelled along the lines of European alpine clubs.

Maxut Zhumayev with his son Isatay (Photo: courtesy Maxut Zhumayev)

The Kazakh Alpine Club is today just over three months old but that doesn’t deter Zhumayev from describing an ambitious vision to connect mountaineers in Kazakhstan, including older ones who climbed under the banner of the former Soviet Union.

“We would like to build some special mountain infrastructure including rest and camping places, and a network of huts like those in America and Europe,” said Zhumayev.

Over the next three to five years he wants to establish a guiding and mountaineering institute where young Kazakh mountaineers can be trained formally and conducting youth camps.

Other plans include drawing up climbing maps, collating information for climbers, building viewpoints for tourists, even building bridges to cross mountain streams.

“It’s my new Everest,” he said with a laugh about the work that lies ahead.

Lots of small cabins dot the landscape in a small village above Shymbulak where many Kazakh mountaineers do their training. It was here I met Anatoli Boukreev and Maxut Zhumayev. Photo: Bob McKerrow 

To help him along, Zhumayev has sought the help of the Austrian Alpine Association (Edelweiss section) which will provide him with advice on how to establish and grow the club. A memorandum of cooperation was signed in October and Zhumayev said he believes this memorandum will be helpful in the future as the Kazakh Alpine Club builds its infrastructure and organizational framework. ( Some of the information on Maxut  is from the recent UIAA newsletter)

Master of the Mountains

His Shadow (Shadow of the Teacher) 1932. Tempera on canvas. 74,5 x 117,5.
The Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia

As soon as you walk into our apartment, you will see three paintings of Nicholas Roerich. He was widely known as 'A Master of the Mountains,' for many deserved reason. Barely known to mountaineers and modern painters, Nicholas Roerich was an extraordinary personality, a unique individual, having an immense thirst for knowledge, and a deep appreciation of beauty in all forms. A trained painter and lawyer, also archaeologist, ethnographer, geographer, poet, historian, philosopher, scientist, traveler, fighter for peace, defender of cultural values of all nations, Roerich throughout his life, devoted himself to the ideal of the common good of mankind. He was also a man of the mountains.

As soon as you walk into our apartment, you will see three paintings of Nicholas Roerich,  A Master of the Mountains. Photo: Bob McKerrow

The title 'A Master of the Mountains' comes from countless things he did including his amazing Central Asia Expedition through  Sikkim, Kashmir, Ladakh, China (Sintzian), Russia, Siberia, Altai, Mongolia and Tibet.
Climbing over a 20,000 foot pass in Sikkim came naturally to Roerich as he was totally at home in the mountains, and accepted by mountain tribes who were seeing Europeans for the first time. Many things attracted me to Roerich, but what stood out was that he saw the good in Red Cross and decided to form another Pact, not an organisation, called  'The banner of peace."

Signing of the Roerich’s Pact, 1935 ( Franklin D. Roosevelt in the centre, and Roerich on his right.

The Banner of Peace

In the following year, on a trip back to New York, Roerich proposed a treaty for the protection of cultural treasures during times of both war and peace. Using the Red Cross as an example, he drafted a Pact suggesting that a flag, called the Banner of Peace, be flown over all places under its protection. The design of the Banner shows three spheres surrounded by a circle, in magenta color on a white background. Of the many interpretations of this symbol, the most usual are perhaps those of Religion, Art and Science as aspects of culture, which is the surrounding circle; or of past, present and future achievements of humanity guarded within the circle of Eternity

The Roerich Pact was first agreed to by twenty-one nations of the Americas and signed as a treaty in the White House with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, on April 15, 1935. It was later signed by other countries as well. This treaty is still in force.

Great Spirit of the Himalayas. 1934


 Roerich believed the challenges of the mountains helped one to find courage and develop strength of spirit. And, in spite of obstacles, wherever they went, the Roerichs' faith in the essential goodness of life and the spirituality of man was reinforced.

Roerich's Banner of the East series of nineteen paintings depicting the world's religious teachers, Mohammed, Jesus, Moses, Confucius and Buddha, and the Indian and Christian saints and sages was a testimonial to the unity of religious striving and the common roots of man's faith.

At the end of their major expedition in 1928, the family settled in the Kullu Valley at an elevation of 6,500 feet in the Himalyan foothills. There they established their home and the headquarters of the Urusvati Himalayan Research Institute, which was organized to study the results of their expedition, and of those explorations that were yet to come. The Institute's activities included botanical and ethnological-linguistic studies, and the exploration of archeological sites. I viisted Naggar in the Kullu Valley and saw his home, his old car still in the garage and inspected the house with utmost reverence and admiration.

The Roerich house in Naggar, Kullu valley, India.

.The pursuit of refinement and beauty was sacred for Roerich. He believed that, although earthly temples and artifacts may perish, the thought that brings them into existence does not die but is part of an eternal stream of consciousness - people's aspirations nourished by their directed will and by the energy of thought. Finally, he believed that peace on Earth is a prerequisite to planetary survival and the continuing process of spiritual evolution, and he exhorted those who would help achieve that peace to unite in the common language of Beauty and Knowledge.

Based on the philosophy of Nicholas Roerich, the mission of The Center for Peace Through Culture, is to promote a psychology of peace that focuses on the identification of belief systems that separate people, and to help transform these belief systems into attitudes of inclusion and acceptance.

Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi Nicholas Roerich, M. Yunus. (Roerich’s estate, Kullu)

But who was this mysterious mountain man ?

Nicholas was born on October 9, 1874, in St. Petersburg, Russia, to the family of a notary, Konstantin F. Roerich.

Nicholas spent his childhood in a house on the bank of the river Neva and at the suburban estate of his father, which was called Izvara. Everything interested the inquisitive boy: complex designs of the ship masts, a small boat ploughing the flat surface of the river, the words of an ancient song of the times about Tsar Peter the Great (which his grandmother would sing to the children).

                                                               Path to Shambhala 1933


The interests of the boy were quite diverse. He learned to read very early and was fond of literature, poetry and theater. The boy also painted.Nicholas had many projects during his life which he hoped would help to raise the consciousness of humanity.
 Nicholas and Helena Roerich are two of these Russian superheroes. The Roerichs offered an inspiring path for spiritual growth and life similar to what in America is called "global awakening" — a philosophy that encompasses all peoples and faiths. They saw that different religions simply looked at the same Truth in different ways — but that this different way-of-looking was the cause of all war.

It is said that the Roerichs were eminently likable; that they attracted others through their appearance, manners, simplicity, and generosity. Certainly, they were great artists, creating wonderful paintings and writings. They also were known as philosophers, speakers, teachers, scientists, patrons of the arts, public figures, and cultural workers. But it was probably their greatness of Soul, an ineffable Quality that radiated from their every word and gesture, that caused them to be taken so closely to the Russian heart.

In the final analysis, they were conveying, in a beautiful and captivating form — through art, writing, Eastern practices, and even socio-political projects — the thoughts and leadership of the Ascended Masters

                                          Himalayas 1933

Roerich’s outlook of the world was unique, based upon the knowledge of the fundamental laws of existence. He was convinced that by increasing the level of masses’ spiritual culture, one could transform life on earth and defeat ignorance, vulgarity, exploitation and wars. In his own words “Where there is culture, there is peace”. Being convinced of the transforming power of culture, Nicholas Roerich devoted himself not only to artistic, but also to educational activities.

Roerich’s lifetime work comprises around 7000 paintings and sketches, which can be found in famous museums and private collections all around the world. His early works bear strong influences of his Russian heritage. Based on Russian themes and legends, the panoramic Russian landscapes, history and folk art, he travelled extensively, first in Russia, later in Europe and America, before realizing his long cherished dream to come to India.

                                                              Kanchenjunga 1936

Central nAsia Expeditions

He and his family arrived in India, which attracted the attention of N. Roerich not only as a painter, but as a scientist interested in a number of problems related to ancient peoples’ world migrations, and search for a common source of Slavic and Indian cultures. From here a path of the expedition in hard-to-reach areas of Central Asia was began. Later N. Roerich written: “Besides artistic tasks of our expedition we have intended to clarify a situation with relics of the past of Central Asia, to observe modern state of religion, customs, and to register the traces of great migration of peoples. This last task was always close to me”. The expedition’s extremely difficult itinerary ran through Sikkim, Kashmir, Ladakh, China (Sintzian), Russia (including Moscow), Siberia, Altai, Mongolia, Tibet, unstudied areas of Trans Himalayas. The expedition was continued from 1924 to 1928. Having realized Przewalski and Kozlov’s dream, Nicholas Roerich’s expedition became a triumph of Russian studies in Central Asia. In terms of its itinerary uniqueness and collected materials, it can justly claim for a special place among major expeditions of the 20th century.

                                                       Tibet Himalayas 1933


Archeological and ethnographical investigations in unexplored Asian areas were conducted. For the first time, dozens of new mountain peaks and passes were marked on maps, rarest manuscripts were found, richest linguistic materials and folkloric works were collected, descriptions of local customs were made. Also during the expedition the books “Heart of Asia” and “Altai-Himalayas” were written, about five hundred paintings were created, on which the artist portrayed a beauty panorama of the expedition itinerary, a famous painting series “Himalayas” was began, the series “Maytreya”, “Sikkim’s Path”, “His country" “The Teaches of the East” et al.

The Russian painter’s world recognition is confirmed by the fact that more than a hundred institutes, academies, scientific corporations, cultural institutions in the whole world have chosen him their honorary and full member. In India itself, famous Indian philosophers, scientists, writers, public figures were personally acquainted with Nicholas Roerich.


In India Roerich continued to work at “Himalayas” series which includes more than two thousands paintings. Mountain world was a source of inexhaustible inspiration for the painter. Art critics noted a new direction in Roerich’s creativity and called him “Master of mountains”. In India N. Roerich created the following series: “Shambala”, “Chingis-Khan”, “Kuluta”, “Kullu”, “Saint mountains”, “Tibet”, Ashrams” etc. Artist’s exhibitions were held in many Indian cities and attracted many people.

Roerich always remained a patriot and a Russian citizen only holding one passport – Russian. He never gave up the thought of coming back to his motherland. Right after the end of the war, the artist applied for a visa to enter the Soviet Union. But on December 13, 1947, he died, without knowing that he was denied the visa.[citation needed]

In Kullu valley, at the place of the funeral fire, a big rectangular stone was installed on which the following inscription was carved: “Here, on December 15, 1947, the body of Maharishi Nicholas Roerich – a great Russian friend of India – was committed to fire.

Investiture of Banner of Peace which was on board of cosmic station 'Mir' to the Speaker of Indian Parliament Sri Somnath Chatterdgi on the occasion of S. N. Roerich 100th anniversary. From left to right: Hero of Russian Federation S. Zalyotin, V. Afanasiev, Sri Somnath Chatterdgi, Yu. M. Vorontsov Yu, President of ICR
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It has been such a joy and an honour to write about this amazing man and one wonders why is not well known outside of India and Russia. I have only touched on his life and if you are interested in seeing his stunning paintings, go to: http://photo.ecoglobus.com/roerichen.htm

Special thanks to the Nicholas Roerich Museum  which I visited in 2004 and they gave me so much assistance in researching his life, and and to Wikipedia for permission to use some photos and text.