Eva Sandberg's Tibet: Vintage Shots from a German Photographer
Eva Sandberg, later known as Yehua, was born in Breslau, Germany, in 1911. She completed her studies at Munich Film School in 1930. During the 1930s, while in Sweden, she came under the sway of leftist ideologies. In 1934, she met Xiao San, who was a member of the Chinese Left-Wing Writers' Union and based in the Soviet Union. She gained Soviet citizenship in 1935, and in that same year she married Xiao San.
Yehua became a citizen of the People's Republic of China in 1964. Prior to that, in the 1950s, she worked as a photojournalist for Xinhua News Agency and as a correspondent for East German television in Beijing. She had originally been given the name 'Yehua' in 1940, when she moved to Yan'an, China, with her husband.
In 1956, Yehua and her friends set out on a photographic survey of Tibet, starting from the Amdo region of Qinghai and traveling south over the vast grasslands into the Ü-Tsang valley. During her years working in China, she released photo books that showcased Chinese culture to readers both within the country and abroad—among them *China, My Dream My Love ~ China Through Yehua's Eyes*, *Peking Opera*, *Family*, *Tibet*, *Little Devils*, *China and Her Faces*, and others.
The most substantial portion of Yehua’s photo collection came from extensive interviews conducted in Lhasa, Shigatse, and Gyantse. Their travels concluded in Yadong, a significant commercial hub in the Himalayas. Published in Leipzig in 1957 under the title *Tibet*, the collection was supported by East Germany’s cultural department. Undoubtedly, such a wide-ranging journey of interviews and photography was extremely challenging to accomplish in the 1950s.
Yehua, even as a portraitist, used an abundance of film on Tibet's awe-inspiring landscapes and architectural marvels... Her journey to Tibet started at Kumbum Monastery (སྐུ་འབུམ་བྱམས་པ་གླིང་།), where an ancient tree drew her gaze. According to legend, that tree emerged from the exact ground where Tsongkhapa's umbilical cord blood had fallen after his birth. Through Yehua's lens, the faces of Tibet were vividly animated by serene smiles and devout eyes.
After leaving Xining, Yehua traveled south along the Qinghai-Tibet Highway. At the Tanggula Pass, 5,400 meters above sea level, she saw the vast Tibetan landscape for the first time. Sacred City - Potala. Once she had left the pastoral area, she entered the Lhasa River Valley, where the Lhasa River (ལྷ་སའི་སྐྱིད་ཆུ།) pointed the way to the holy city. The monastery's name, "Kumbum" (སྐུ་འབུམ།, meaning "100,000 Buddha Images"), comes from its hundred thousand leaves, each naturally bearing an image of Shakyamuni.
At last Yehua saw two distinct mountains emerging from the valley: Chagpori Hill with the Medical College (འགྲོ་ཕན་གླིང་།) and Red Hill with the Potala Palace (ཕོ་བྲང་དམར་པོ།), both landmarks of Lhasa. Beyond them, the valley opened onto a fertile plateau scattered with villages, small monasteries, aristocratic manors, tenant farmers' huts, and shepherds' tents. Lhasa then had more than 50,000 residents. The Lulubridge (གཡུ་ཐོག་ཟམ་པ།), a stone bridge topped with glass, traditionally serves as the boundary bridge between Lhasa City and the Potala Palace.
Tashilhunpo Monastery（དཔལ་ལྡན་འབྲས་སྤུངས།）, founded in 1416 by the renowned Buddhist scholar Jamyang Qoigyi Gyeltsen Palsangpo（འཇམ་དབྱངས་ཆོས་རྗེ་བཀྲ་ཤིས་དཔལ་ལྡན།）, has stood for more than six centuries. It is the largest Buddhist monastery in the world and is among the six major monasteries of the Gelugpa sect. Regarding the bridge in that period, the western portion was administered by the Potala Palace Snow City Management Office, while the eastern portion was under the Lhasa Municipal Hall's authority.
Shigatse - The Summit of All Desires. Walking through Lhasa’s streets, Ye Hua admired the wide array of goods from South Asia and mainland China. Later, leaving Lhasa, Ye Hua crossed the Yarlung Tsangpo River and headed westward to Tibet’s second-largest city, Shigatse, whose Tibetan name (གཞིས་ཀ་བསམ་འགྲུབ་རྩེ།) means “fulfillment of all wishes.”
Thanks to the growth of trade routes connecting Sikkim and Tibet, items like toothpaste, shoes, skincare products, fabrics, cameras, leather saddles, sunglasses, and writing paper were no longer hard to come by. The merchants additionally supplied everyday consumables—tsampa, dried fruits, candies, butter, and buttermilk—and even canned condensed milk and juniper wine were available.
The ancient city of Gyantse—known as Jiangzi and the Crystal City (ཤེལ་དཀར་རྒྱལ་རྩེ།)—lies south of Lhasa along the ancient Musk Route. It functions as a trading hub linking Lhasa, Shigatse, and South Asia. The Nyang River Valley, which runs between Gyantse and Lhasa, is one of Tibet's largest farming areas. Meanwhile, rice wine from Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Hunan, and Hubei also showed up in the market, making it a spot where "all wishes come true.
Since the 19th century, travelers passing through Sikkim into Tibet have documented the striking profile of Mount Chomolhari (ཇོ་མོ་ལྷ་རི།) in their writings, and it has long dominated the skyline east of Phari, the well-known town reached by heading south from Gyantse along the trade route. Beneath its watchful presence, both Sarat Chandra Das and Giuseppe Tucci made their way into Ü-Tsang, while the expedition led by Francis Younghusband paused there to rest.
Yadong, the southernmost point of Tsang, is sustained by warm, moist air currents flowing in from South Asia. As a trading town, it ranked among the first places in Tibet to come into contact with modern civilization. Even with the historic events witnessed here, the towering Chomolhari and the yaks grazing unhurriedly in the area below appear wholly unaltered, as though frozen in time. Monks are seldom seen along Yadong's streets, yet several monasteries remain tucked away amid the forested mountains close by. The town's scenery called to Yehua's mind the Alpine landscape of her European homeland.
Eva Siao (Yehua), a Chinese-German photographer born in Breslau, Germany, in 1911, graduated from the Munich Film School in Germany in 1930. During the 1950s, she worked as a photojournalist for Xinhua News Agency and as a correspondent for East German television in Beijing. In Tibet, the only reminders that she was not in Bavaria were the plainly dressed locals and prayer flags, since the local rooftops—built to withstand rain and snow—were very similar to those of Bavaria. Seasons Blended Through the Lens Lhasa Riverbank (Image Source: *Tibet*)
She held solo photography exhibitions in multiple countries, including China, Germany, and Sweden. In 1964, she became a citizen of the People’s Republic of China. During her time working in China, she published photo books that introduced Chinese culture to audiences both at home and abroad, such as *China, My Dream My Love ~ China Through Yehua’s Eyes*, *Peking Opera*, *Family*, *Tibet*, *Little Devils*, *China and Her Faces*, and others.