Reverend Henry Lansdell's Travel Across Asia 

Location: Explorers & Collectors

During the 1870s and 1880s, Kent-born Henry Lansdell (1841 - 1919) travelled across Europe and Asia, including Russia, Siberia and China. He wanted to study the needs of  local people, as well as distribute bibles and religious tracts. Throughout his travels he acquired various items by gift and purchase. Some were collected for the British Museum; others were presented by his widow to Canterbury Museum in 1922.

Items on display include:

• Traditional Russian 'kokoshnik' head-dress
• Embroidered trousers
• Brass ewer with hinged lid
• Statuette of the Hindu elephant god, Ganesh

Statuette of the Hindu elephant god, Ganesh. Acquired by Lansdell in Jeypore, Chinese Central Asia, in 1889. Ganesh is the lord of success and destroyer of vanity, selfishness and pride. The god's pot belly signifies the bounty of nature.