Glance of Genius: The life and work of B.H. Hodgson

This is a 40-minute experimental film about the life of Brian Houghton Hodgson, sent to Nepal as Assistant Commissioner in 1819, becoming British Resident in 1833. He lived at the British Residency in Kathmandu until 1843 and was the first European to conduct scholarly research in Nepal. The collection that Hodgson donated to the British Library some 140 years ago consists of nearly 100 bound volumes containing 5,000 documents in nine different languages and is a priceless source of information on 19th-century Nepal. It is presently being catalogued.

Shot on U-matic, the film was made in 1983 by Dr Tristram Riley-Smith under the sponsorship of the Rivers Video Project.

Please click on the image below to play the film (95 MB).