Ao girl

Scope and Content

B&W photographic print. 'An Ao girl.'

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Note

The Pangsha Expedition took place at the end of 1936 and was a punitive expedition led by Mills to rescue children who had been abducted and sold into slavery. Pangsha was a notoriously warlike village in unadministered territory close to the border between India and Burma, whose warriors were constantly mounting head-hunting raids on the surrounding villages. It was during these raids that the children had been captured. The area was unexplored and the villages had never seen a white man. Mills did not even know the exact location of Pangsha. Every day while he was away, Mills wrote to his wife. This journey into the territory of hostile head-hunters was a dangerous undertaking, and Mills wrote: 'For some weeks I have had a feeling I should not come back from this show, but now that has suddenly completely worn off.' The letters were found many years later, edited by his daughter and published by the Pitt Rivers Museum.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright held by J.P. Mills