“Lhasa from the East” is from a collection of 50 photographs of central Tibet acquired in 1904 from the Imperial Russian Geographical Society in Saint Petersburg by the American Geographical Society. In the background and nearly in the center of this photograph is the "iron mountain" Ch'agpori (also seen as Chagpori, Chiakpori, Chapori, Chakpori, Chaga, or Chag-pa hill in other sources) with the Man-ba Ta-ts'an (also seen as Man-bo-datsang or Vaidurya Ta-tsan), where Tibetan medicine was taught. On the right in the photograph is the hill Marpori with Potala, the palace of the Dalai Lama. To the left of Ch’agpori, behind a white building, is a rather faint view of the cathedral of Lhasa (the Great Cathedral), the Jowo-k'an (also seen as TsoKhang or Ihio). The buildings in the foreground are those of Banak sho, the traders' quarters (also seen as Banagshio or Banashag). The photographs in this collection were taken by two Mongolian Buddhist lamas, G.Ts. Tsybikov and Ovshe (O.M.) Norzunov, who visited Tibet in 1900 and 1901. Accompanying the photos is a set of notes written in Russian for the Imperial Russian Geographical Society by Tsybikov, Norzunov, and other Mongolians familiar with central Tibet. Alexander Grigoriev, corresponding member of the American Geographical Society, translated the notes from Russian into English in April 1904.