Royal Commonwealth Society : A dwelling on the highlands of Kalopanagiotissa [i.e. Kalopanayiotis]

Thomson, John (1837-1921)

Royal Commonwealth Society

<p style='text-align: justify;'>John Thomson (1837-1921) was born and educated in Edinburgh, where he studied chemistry and took up photography. He moved to the Far East in 1862, settling first in Penang and then in Singapore and Hong Kong. Thomson made a number of important photographic tours, visiting Ceylon [Sri Lanka], India, Thailand, Vietnam and China before returning to Britain. In 1878, he travelled to Cyprus and took many photographs, publishing his work in ‘Through Cyprus with the camera’. In 1886 the Royal Geographic Society appointed him photographic tutor to explorers.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>'This is the abode of a village priest of the Greek Church, whom we see seated in the foreground waiting for a cup of wine which is being poured for his use ... The walls of his dwelling are built of stone, the rafters are pine, and the roof resting upon these is a sort of platform constructed out of brushwood which has been wattled into thatch and coated over with clay. The roof is turned to account as a roadway by which one may descend to the lower parts of the village; and it also serves the children as a play-ground … On the right is seen the household oven. There about once in a fortnight, is baked a store of wheaten bread…’</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>See Janus record <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=EAD%2FGBR%2F0115%2FCobham%2FY3018B%2F4'>here</a></p>