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Kashgar: 11

Actors in elaborate makeup and traditional costume - and a trained goat - perform for the camera in this rare glimpse of China’s westernmost city.

Amateur film 1928 8 mins Silent

Overview

Actors in elaborate makeup and traditional costume perform on an outdoor stage in this fascinating film, shot by intrepid plant hunter Major George Sherriff while Vice Consul at Kashgar. The scenes of a trained goat doing tricks were probably filmed in the Consulate garden. China’s westernmost city, home to the Chinese Muslim Uyghur minority, has for centuries been a site of political conflict.

Major Sherriff (1898-1967) later filmed several expeditions to Bhutan, Nepal, northern India and Tibet, where he ran the British Mission at Lhasa in the 1940s. His celebrated Himalayan garden at Ascreavie in Scotland was created using plants collected on his travels.