SEVEN YEARS IN TIBET PDF, EPUB, EBOOK

Heinrich Harrer,Richard Graves | 336 pages | 17 Nov 1988 | HarperCollins Publishers | 9780586087077 | English | London, United Kingdom Seven Years in Tibet () - Plot Summary - IMDb

Finally near the end of the book it was mentioned that they were reused and handed out to others. And this leads to my next complaint. Listeners are left with questions. Terms are not clearly defined so you search for understanding, to make sense of what you are told. At one point, my husband and I, we were both listening to the audio book together, did not agree on who had been killed! Finally I understood. So the book isn't perfect, but don't let that determine whether to pick it up or not. The reader follows an exciting adventure and there is a lot to learn here about old Tibet, before the Chinese invasion in One other point which I found intriguing is how there are so many rules to be followed In the Buddhist philosophy no creature can be killed, so of course meat cannot be eaten. But, but, but, but people do need some meat so it is quite handy if the people in neighboring Nepal can provide this This bothered me tremendously. Time and time again, the Nepalese were handy to have to do that which the Buddhist faith did not allow to be done in Tibet. And it bothered me that in sport events where it was determined that the Dali Lama must win, he of course always did win. Is that real competition? Never mind, just my own thoughts troubling me. It is amusing to picture a dike being built and a worm appearing on the shovel of dirt. That worm had to be carefully placed aside so no harm came to it. This all sounds so sweet, but to function as a nation bribery and conniving were necessary. I am very glad I read this book. I learned a lot, and it made me see into the reality of a Buddhist culture. It is very hard to get a view into Lhasa, the Forbidden City. View all 14 comments. Oct 24, Nancy rated it really liked it Shelves: far-east , wwii , travel , read , audiobooks Absolutely fascinating; it's a pity the prose was on the pedestrian side. View 2 comments. Dec 01, Daniel Clausen rated it really liked it. I read this book in fits and starts between breaks in class. Restlessness has been the case for me lately. Perhaps the cure is travel books like these. Books that are easy to pick up, put down, and pick up again. The book made no grand promises-- instead the author proposed to give me his notes plainly told about his journey through Tibet, a journey that began just prior to the second World War and ended a few years after it. The author did not over-promise, and sticking to his world, early on, I read this book in fits and starts between breaks in class. The author did not over-promise, and sticking to his world, early on, I found his writing to have a dry, clinical feel to it. Perhaps some of this had to do with it being translated from German, but I think some of it had to do with its limited pretensions. And yet, at least for long moments, I was utterly lost in the account. Perhaps travel writing is the best remedy for someone confined to a desk for any period of time. If his notes were dry, they often seemed to lack any kind of malice or ethnocentrism. More importantly, as I drifted off in my own thoughts, I found I could return to the book without losing too much of the story. The book demonstrates that substance is better than style, and that in order to be a good writer one should live an adventurous life. The parts I liked the most about the book were the little scenes where Harrer was making a new life for himself in Lhasa. Certainly, the earlier scenes where Herrer escaped from prison and managed to survive in the wilderness were exciting, but the scenes where he is creating a new life for himself with the help of the compassionate Tibetans were the most romantic and enjoyable. More than anything, they reminded me of my own small delights living and working overseas. In the end, this book seemed to me as much about home as about travel. More travel writing to come? Fascinating non-fiction travelogue by Heinrich Harrer. Harrer was a skier and mountain climber. He was scaling a mountain in the Himalayas when the British declared war on Germany. He was taken prisoner but escaped many times. He escaped not because the prison camp was so bad but because he was at heart an adventurer. Eventually he, and others, reached Tibet, which was neutral in the war. But Tibet was also secluded and did not like foreigners to be traveling in their country. Harrer and another Fascinating non-fiction travelogue by Heinrich Harrer. Harrer and another escape were able, eventually, to make their way to the capital of Tibet. They remained there until the Chinese invasion in Harrer became acquainted with the Dali Llama, before he had reached his maturity. In fact, the Dali Llama asked Harrer to tutor him about the world outside Tibet. In the book, Harrer not only describes his harrowing journey up the mountains from India to Tibet, but he also describes Tibetans, their religion, their festivals, and the beautiful country. It was really interesting and now Tibet is on my list of places to visit! Jul 16, Molly rated it liked it. Come on Heinrich! Have you heard of momos? And everyone ate a ton of butter, preferably in tea. What this all boils down to is, until Heinrich becomes buddies with the Dalai Lama in the last 40 pages, nearly nothing happens. But Heinrich did an enormously bad job of describing the nothingness because from page one through to the end I had no idea who Heinrich was. How about that time you got a bad case of sciatica and were bedridden during the biggest festival of the year in Tibet? And Heinrich, don't tell me that you weren't the least bit jealous of your friend Aufschnaiter when he got all the praise. And Heinrich, what job are you given? You built the first decorative fountain for a rich guy's garden. Now, I'm in no way downplaying your role, I couldn't build a fountain if I wanted to but you were jealous, I know you were. And showing us how jealous you were could have brought this book from a 3 to a 5, easy. Instead, you took the so- called high road, but in taking the high road you deprived us readers of everything interesting and imperfect about you. Tell it to us straight Heinrich. View all 4 comments. Jul 16, Basham! I'll be the first to say the movie version is It sensationalized aspects of Harrer's life although the part about leaving his pregnant wife turns out to be true and was interestingly omitted by Harrer from the book itself. The film also created a stupidly melodramatic fake love triangle and gave short shrift to just how riveting the journey to Lhasa must have been. Of course, this shouldn't be the surprise. Once you get i I'll be the first to say the movie version is Once you get into this book it's a quite thrilling travelogue. I especially appreciate this book because it provides a different perspective on the Tibet issue than the typical information that I read on the Chinese news sites which, as stories relate to sensitive domestic issues in China are "hilariously" biased and not entirely distinguishable from when The Onion parodied Chinese news in It doesn't provide a perfect picture of Tibet before the Chinese invaded either namely Harrer details corruption and closemindedness among some of the monks and other bureaucrats. Tibet was a feudal society, after all. Nonetheless, there is no mistake here, this book is strongly in favor of Tibetan independence. That is not to say that this book rams politics down your throat except maybe in the epilogue. But it is precisely because Harrer was somewhat of an objective observer of Tibet, able to report it from a "western" perspective and therefore tells the story in a relatable way for many foreign readers, that this book remains a powerful case for Tibetan independence. Plus, his stories about the young Dalai Lama's determination and intellectual curiosity at age 13 just make me admire him even more. This is a wonderful book and significantly different that the movie with Brad Pitt. While Harrar and his fellow PoW escapee, Peter Aufscnaiter, were simply trying to be free from the British in India during WWII although Harrar seemed more interested not in Tibet itself initially but just making his way across Tibet and through China to the Japanese lines since the Japanese were Germany's ally they both seemed to quickly fall in love with the people and the land of Tibet. While at times the bo This is a wonderful book and significantly different that the movie with Brad Pitt. While at times the book did seem to drag - and it was clear that Harrar wrote this from a very personal perspective - he did an excellent job in detailing a lot of information about the land and the people of Tibet. Although he did seem to portray them as somewhat simple in nature I don't feel like he necessarily meant to. From his perspective he saw their lives as significantly simpler than his - and to an extent that can certainly be enticing. From the way Harrar wrote you can tell that he truly fell in love with the land and the people of Tibet and felt great sadness when the Chinese invaded in and took over. If you are interested in the land of Tibet and the people and their culture - this is an excellent book to start with as an introduction. Mar 23, Horace Derwent is currently reading it. While the writing style is somewhat dated and lacking, I still highly enjoyed the tales of Heinrich Harrer and his sojourn in Tibet. The settings are so well developed it allows you travel along with the adventures and the struggles. Mar 20, Bubba rated it it was amazing Shelves: central-asia , east-asia , travel-exploration. When the movie "7 Years in Tibet" came out I made my girlfriend get in the car and drive 50 miles with me, to another city, just to see it. Since that time it has been one of my favorite films, despite the fact that I like to quote Brad Pitt's lines in a horrible Austrian accent "shut up peter! However, the movie departs from Heinrich Harrer's account on several key points. Still, there are several themes common to both, like his profound respect and love for Tibet, its people, culture, his personal relationship with the Dalai Lama, etc. His account is closer to "the Long Walk", a tale of endurance, with the added element of learning to live, and thrive, as an exile in an exotic culture. Being a midth century European he also makes some paternalistic, superior-minded comments about Tibetans, but that is to be expected. Also, for those whose knowledge of Tibet stems solely from the publications and cultural festivals that revolve around the "Free Tibet" campaign, Harrer's book will be something of an eye-opener. While reading this I was reminded that until recently, perhaps even now in certain respects, Tibet was a feudal culture, which has its own forms of violence, oppresion, rigid social structure, etc. I don't mean to suggest that Tibet should be under the Chinese yoke. It is a conservative, ancient society, containing all the ills that plague other civilizations. I really enjoyed reading this. It's a chance to get a good look at an isolated society before it was colonized, once again, by "more civilized" neighbors. I still like the movie a lot, but the book is also a favorite now even though it is messy, unexpected and doesn't seamlessly conform to the dictates of a plotline. Mar 11, Alexis rated it really liked it. I read this on a train, and it was a perfect setting. This is one of those books that reminds you of how much we, "in the modern world" take for granted. I have to admit that a lot of the story relayed in this book is not written in a way to enthuse and engage it's reader. It reads like what it is, an account of an unexplored world where we're much more engaged in what is happening in our life than the mythologies that we build up around it. I had to take several pauses throughout my reading to I read this on a train, and it was a perfect setting. I had to take several pauses throughout my reading to stare at the passing landscape and allow myself to hear the wind and the prayer flags rustling in a world that I have never occupied. Jun 11, Laura rated it really liked it Shelves: read , film-only , memoir-biography , non-fiction , travel , tibet , austrian-fiction. This the second time that I've watched this movie and I've never got tired of it. View all 3 comments. Jan 21, Jean rated it it was amazing Shelves: audio-book , memoir , autobiography , world-war-ii. Heinrich Harrer was an Austrian mountain climber. He is taken to a detention camp in Bombay. He escapes and heads toward Tibet. At that time Tibet did not allow outsiders into their country. He walks, hides and runs until he crosses the Tibet boarder. Then he has to use all his skills to trick and deceive his way past daunting Tibetan officials. He walks seventy days over rugged mountainous terrain before he reaches Lhasa, the capital of Tibet Heinrich Harrer was an Austrian mountain climber. He walks seventy days over rugged mountainous terrain before he reaches Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. He makes friends and lives with a family; he becomes fluent in Tibetan. He comes to the attention of the government who consults him on various matters where he contributes tremendously, because of his western school training. He becomes a tutor to the Dalai Lama. I enjoyed his marvelous descriptions of his first sights of Tibet. He describes Tibetan life including their colorful ceremonies. Toward the end he also tells of the military takeover of Tibet by China and the Dali Lama and his government fleeing to India. In the afterword, the author tells of the Dalai Lama coming to his 90th birthday party in Germany. I enjoyed the afterword as it brought events up to the current date. I had no idea how badly Tibet has suffered under Chinese rule. This book was first published in and apparently has sold millions worldwide. I seem to be late on the scene having just discovered this interesting book. I read this as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. Mark Meadows does a good job narrating the book. I highly recommend this book, it is a fascinating read. The best part about travel books? You see the entire world sitting within the four walls. The wonderful things the writer saw, his exhilarating experiences, the people he meets, all seem like they're happening to us as a first person. Same applies to this travelogue. There is quite less the world knows about Tibet, and this book is the first person account of a German mountaineer who escapes British prison in India during WWII and seeks shelter in Tibet. His numerious encounters with Tibetan p The best part about travel books? His numerious encounters with Tibetan people, escapades from authorities and wonderful description of the Tibetan natural beauty and simple people, make you want to visit this place as well. The book has excellent details about Tibetan festivals, culture, superstitions and most importantly, the Dalai Lama, who is the centre of Tibetan life there, with whom the writer strikes a friendship, and gives a never-before detailed story of Dalai Lama in s. All in all, this book was a great read, but probably little fragmented, and lacked some continuity. Hence the 4 stars.. What a great opportunity to revel in the culture of Tibet prior to the invasion by communist China! Thoroughly fascinating!! He escapes with a few others and is determined to make his way through Tibet, a land that admits few foreigners to a limited area, to Japanese held territory. He endures many hardships and barriers a long the way but eventually, through perseverance and What a great opportunity to revel in the culture of Tibet prior to the invasion by communist China! He endures many hardships and barriers a long the way but eventually, through perseverance and guile, makes his way to Lhasa with a comrade. It is the beginning of his 7 years living among the Tibetan people and culminates in a remarkable relationship with the 14th Dalai Lama. He only leaves as it becomes inevitable that the Red Army of China will invade Tibet and change the lives and culture of all that remain. And he is saddened by that prospect and the knowledge that the 15 year-old Dalai Lama would never be able to "rule" his people as he also fled to India. Harrar apparently remained friends with the Dalai Lama until his death in Jul 04, Calzean rated it liked it Shelves: author-austria , travel , biography- autobiography-memoir , culture-tibet. An oldie but still full of a lost time before Tibet was invaded by the Chinese. The writing is a bit dull but you have to pay homage to the author and his many talents that saw him an escape POW, mountaineer, traveller, teacher to the Dalai Lama, garden designer, civil servant, photographer and film maker amongst many other achievements. Jun 20, Avi rated it liked it. Read the first half of this book for a true adventure. Read the second half if you're really, really interested in Tibetan culture in the midth century, seen through a pair of alternately keen and myopic eyes. Apr 03, PorshaJo rated it really liked it. This book has sat on my shelves for years waiting to be read. I am sorry that I waited so long. It was such a great book with rich details of the journey, sites, festivals and customs of Tibet and the people. At times, it almost reads as a history of Tibet at one point in time. May 14, Vishal Khatri rated it really liked it Shelves: owned. May 23, Elena N marked it as abandoned Shelves: nf. There is another way to know what happened to Harrer during those years and that is to watch the movie. Much better than the book. View all 5 comments. That was one hell of a travelogue. One of the most moving books I have read. The author writes about his journey through Tibet and how he became friends with a teenage Dalai Lama. The author was one of the handful Europeans who intimately knew Tibet, its people and their culture. The book ends with a sad note and leaves the reader with a sense of loss, for a very large percentage of Tibet as the author knew it is destroyed since the Chinese invasion of The author truly is fortunate to have That was one hell of a travelogue. The author truly is fortunate to have seen the Himalayas and the Roof of the World in their glory and to be a great friend with His Holiness for the rest of his life. Btw, though the movie helped spread awareness around the world of the Tibetan cause, doesn't do justice to the book. PS: Don't miss the epilogue. Sep 07, Ming Wei rated it really liked it Shelves: read-historical-related-books , read-adventure-related-books. A very good adventure book into the unknow, how a European adapted within a strange land, and culture to his own. A old type of adventure book, before the age of mass travel around the world, a very interesting story based in a country, that up until that point very few european people had entered into. Well written book, the book is as good as the film in my opinion, I really enjoyed it, the story flows at just the right pace, which allows the reader to understand and process what is happening A very good adventure book into the unknow, how a European adapted within a strange land, and culture to his own. Well written book, the book is as good as the film in my opinion, I really enjoyed it, the story flows at just the right pace, which allows the reader to understand and process what is happening within the story, no editorial errors within its pages, maybe a better front cover could have been used, but this is not a big deal. The wording within the book is clear, and the authors writing style allows the reader to quickly imagine the surroundings that the stroy is taking place within. May 09, Becca-Rawr rated it really liked it Shelves: challenge , non-fiction. This novel suffers from one of the greatest plagues in literature. It's placed in a genre, in a much too generalized subject, that it isn't admired for what it is. How I came across this book is a long story, but needless to say it was on a whim and without recommendation. The first I heard about the possible plot of this text was when I had the chance to read the synopsis after bringing it home from the library. I was intrigue 'Seven Years in Tibet' is not a travel memoir, so do not call it one. I was intrigued, and quite excited. What made this even more of an adventure was my lack of experience on Tibet, and then meant I'd learn something new. The first half of this book is a bare-knuckle adventure story, with all the survival and foot-trekking you could possible imagine. The narrator and his companions are fleeing from a British internment camp during the second world war, and are roughed up by the elements and humans alike. The second half of this book is the half that reached me as a reader and also as a person the most. Harrar's narrated interaction with the Tibetan people was inspiring. His ascension from poverty laden wanderer to what would soon become and influential player in the Dalai Lama and his court was what this novel truly should be admired for. Far from being a travel memoir, this books is a testament of human beings. Tibetans are pr oven to be some of the most hospitable peoples in the world, and I was awe struck as to their complexity and depth. As a reader I saw this as an epic, something to be admired for it journey a well as its destination. As a person, a huge culture lover with an open mind, this is a favorite. Readers also enjoyed. About Heinrich Harrer. Heinrich Harrer. Heinrich Harrer was an Austrian mountaineer, sportsman, geographer, and author. He is best known for being on the four-man climbing team that made the first ascent of the North Face of the Eiger in Switzerland, and for his books Seven Years in Tibet and The White Spider Books by Heinrich Harrer. Escape the Present with These 24 Historical Romances. At the beginning of the Flamingo edition of the book, a message from the 14th Dalai Lama praises the work: "Harrer has always been such a friend to Tibet. His most important contribution to our cause, his book, Seven Years in Tibet , introduced hundreds of thousands of people to my country. Two films have been based on the book: Seven Years in Tibet , a minute documentary directed by Hans Nieter which includes both movies shot by Harrer during his stay in Tibet and various scenes from his adventures reconstructed by Harrer himself, and Seven Years in Tibet , directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud and starring Brad Pitt as Harrer and David Thewlis as Aufschnaiter. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This article is about the book. For the feature film adaptation, see Seven Years in Tibet film. The Guardian. Retrieved 31 August International Campaign for Tibet. The New York Times. Categories : non-fiction books Travel books Tibetan Buddhist art and culture Memoirs of imprisonment Austrian books Books about Tibet Books adapted into films Cultural depictions of the 14th Dalai Lama Austrian autobiographies Travel book stubs Tibet stubs. Namespaces Article Talk. Views Read Edit View history. Seven Years in Tibet () - IMDb He attempts to break out several times in vain, but finally does succeed along with Peter Aufschnaiter David Thewlis , and they end up in the holy city of Lhasa - a place banned to foreigners. They are provided food and shelter, and Peter ends up marrying a tailor, Pema Lhaki, while Heinrich befriends the Dalai Lama. They meet regularly; while he satiates the child's curiosity about the world, including Jack the Ripper and 'yellow hair'; he is exposed to the teachings of Lord Buddha, He even constructs a movie theater, while getting news of the end of the war, his Written by rAjOo gunwanti hotmail. This is a panoramic film exploring the wilderness of Tibet through the consciousness of an arrogant Austrian climber Brat Pitt. As Pitt challenges Nanga Parbet, the ninth highest mountain in the world and one of the hardest to climb, the political chaos of late 's and 's, and his own demons, the nature of mankind is revealed as layers of civilization are peeled to reveal an inner self paradoxically more powerful and yet more vulnerable to the ebb and flow of inhumanity. His own philosophical journey is a reflection of political machinations of the time, the ontogeny recapitulating phylogenetic change of western civilization resulting in a complex modern world forever coiled for violence and warfare. This film has a European pace unsuitable for those addicted to action figure movies with huge budgets and high body counts. I recommend it as a "good view" similar to a good read. Looking for some great streaming picks? Check out some of the IMDb editors' favorites movies and shows to round out your Watchlist. Visit our What to Watch page. Sign In. Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Full Cast and Crew. Release Dates. Official Sites. Company Credits. Technical Specs. Plot Summary. Plot Keywords. Parents Guide. External Sites. User Reviews. User Ratings. External Reviews. Metacritic Reviews. Photo Gallery. Trailers and Videos. Crazy Credits. Alternate Versions. He and a guide named Peter Aufschnaiter David Thewlis are soon on the peaks. The mountain-climbing scenes shot in the Andes are splendid but not very original; Heinrich saves Peter despite a broken ankle, they are nearly killed by an avalanche, the war begins, and they're interred in a British POW camp, from which they finally escape. This material occupies the first half of the movie, and yet strictly speaking it has nothing to do with it. The story proper the seven years mentioned in the title begins after they stumble into Tibet and are welcomed uncertainly by the peaceful and isolated civilization they find there. From the moment of the first appearance of the Dalai Lama, the film takes on greater interest. He stands on the parapet of his palace in Lhasa and surveys his domain through a telescope. He is fascinated by the strangers who have arrived in his kingdom, and soon sends his mother to invite Harrer to visit. This makes an absorbing story, although I suspect the relationship between pupil and student did not feel as relaxed and modern as it does in the film. Aufschnaiter, the guide, meets a local woman tailor Lhakpa Tsamchoe and marries her, and we gather from soulful looks that Harrer would have liked to marry her himself, but the Harrer character is not forthcoming. Brad Pitt plays him at two speeds: Cold and forbidding at first, and then charming and boyish. He might have been more convincing if he'd been played by, for example, Thewlis. The film shows the behavior of the Red Chinese toward Tibet as cruel and gratuitous. Why the Chinese so valued this remote kingdom is a mystery; maybe it was a threat to self-righteous, lockstep Marxism. The film shows how Tibet was betrayed from without and within, and then the Dalai Lama, now 21, flees into long years of exile. He has a more complex face for me, now that I have seen the torturous journey from his childhood. I wish I had learned more about Tibet: What were the ethnic ramifications, for example, of the marriage between the tailor and the mountain climber? How easily was the language barrier overcome? Why were the Dalai Lama's advisers willing to allow him to come under the influence of a foreigner? Free Tibet! View all 9 comments. First off let me say that the writing of this book is nothing spectacular, it's adequate for this type of book and gets all the facts across without lots of embellishment. However, the content is an amazing travelogue of Heinrich Harrier's journey through Tibet and his eventual friendship with his Holiness the Dalai Lama. Quite a large portion of the seven years was spent actually travelling. Harrer doesn't go into a lot of detail about all the climbing and trekking his friend Peter and himself First off let me say that the writing of this book is nothing spectacular, it's adequate for this type of book and gets all the facts across without lots of embellishment. Harrer doesn't go into a lot of detail about all the climbing and trekking his friend Peter and himself did and it's easy to skip over that accomplishment. If you look at a map, their trek started in North Western India and circumvented Nepal to get to Lhasa. Life in Lhasa is well described and I was surprised at how well educated the upper echelons of society were. In the time before the Chinese invasion, Tibetan culture had remained little changed in 2, years. In a sad postscript written almost 50 years later Harrer describes how all that culture has been wiped away. If you have seen the excellent movie by the same name then the book is certainly worth reading. Harrer was a consultant for the film and was most pleased with the decision to have Brad Pitt play him. Not for the fact that Mr Pitt was better looking than him, but for the fact that thousands of people probably went to see the movie just to see Brad Pitt, and in so doing learn't something of Tibet and became aware of that countries plight. View 1 comment. Dec 21, Maria V. This was an ideal book to read before going to visit Tibet. It helped to give me a deeper understanding of the place and the people. The book is a travellers recount of adventures based on diaries kept throughout these years. In those years my liking of this book went entirely to the adventures of the heroes. Harrer, an experienced mountaineer, had come to these parts of the world to climb the Himalaya and could not imagine staying a prisoner for long. He and some close friends soon planned to escape. They failed the first time but succeeded the second time. A daring escape, as the English would call it. Tibet was their aim, and in this direction, they hurriedly walked and hiked as fast as they could. Harrer and his friend Peter Aufschneiter had some poor road maps and a little money to buy food on the road, but money soon ran out, so they started selling what they could spare, their watch and first aid things and whatever. Unlike Sven Hedin, Heinrich and Peter had no arms for hunting, or to defend themselves against wild beasts like bears and coyotes, nor fight off any robbers of whom they met several and escaped unharmed by a miracle. They had no warm clothing and no shoes that could withstand hundreds of miles of walking in gravel ice and snow. At their first encounters with local populations and minor officials, they encountered enmity and stiff opposition against their project. Food could not be bought except for a high price, if at all. When finally reaching Lhasa in January against all the odds, they were in a state of poor refugees, unwashed and unshaved, starved for many days, blisters on their feet, barefoot and their clothing in shreds. At the first house, they entered fell to the ground and begged for food and shelter. The two men had successfully used a disguise as Indian traders to pass controls by officials on the road. The second part of the story is how they got introduced and accepted in Lhasa, by the population but more importantly by the monks and the Lamas and primarily by the Dalai Lama the God in Person and King of the country. Tens of thousands of monks divided of several large monasteries ruled the country with an iron fist by legislation purely based on religious beliefs. According to the Buddhist religion, the population had been convinced to believe in reincarnation to a new body after death. Moreover, that new body could be any human or animal from the tiniest insect to a goat or an elephant. The Tibetan government did not have to raise taxes; the population gave their last penny to the Lamas at their monasteries to guarantee them a happy afterlife. There were no schools, other than monastery schools, no hospitals, no roads, no drainage system in the towns, no running water nor any basic sanitary installations. One only generator supplied electricity to the Palast printing shop to print religious books. Tibet is a potentially wealthy country in mineral resources and vast agricultural potentials if irrigated and managed. However, that potential needs to be modernised in order to be useful to the country. All influence from the outside world was restricted to the minimum and visits of foreigners forbidden. So the Buddhist monks hoped to remain in power forever. However, it is well known to historians that a country in such a weak position will inevitably attract the envy of a powerful neighbour. So it did. China started invading Tibet in The Dalai Lama at first fled to the south, but then returned to Lhasa, under the control of China. Peter Aufschneiter stayed in Tibet for another year and later went to Nepal to further adventures. Heinrich Harrer, our author, having lost his reason to remain there, left Tibet towards India in April View all 10 comments. Heinrich Harrer, the author of this book, was a mountaineer and an adventurer. He did this int the s. This book, originally published in , is an adventure classic that recounts Heinrich Harrer's escape from a British internment camp in India, his daring trek across the Himalayas, and his seven years in Tibet, coming to an end with the Chinese invasion. He became a dear friend of the fourteenth Dali Lama. Definitely interesting, but in that the narrations follows the time line of the events it was repetitive at points, i. One example of this is how white scarves are used in Tibet as a means of expressing respect and honor. People were handing out scares right and left I kept wondering what was done with all these scarves. Finally near the end of the book it was mentioned that they were reused and handed out to others. And this leads to my next complaint. Listeners are left with questions. Terms are not clearly defined so you search for understanding, to make sense of what you are told. At one point, my husband and I, we were both listening to the audio book together, did not agree on who had been killed! Finally I understood. So the book isn't perfect, but don't let that determine whether to pick it up or not. The reader follows an exciting adventure and there is a lot to learn here about old Tibet, before the Chinese invasion in One other point which I found intriguing is how there are so many rules to be followed In the Buddhist philosophy no creature can be killed, so of course meat cannot be eaten. But, but, but, but people do need some meat so it is quite handy if the people in neighboring Nepal can provide this This bothered me tremendously. Time and time again, the Nepalese were handy to have to do that which the Buddhist faith did not allow to be done in Tibet. And it bothered me that in sport events where it was determined that the Dali Lama must win, he of course always did win. Is that real competition? Never mind, just my own thoughts troubling me. It is amusing to picture a dike being built and a worm appearing on the shovel of dirt. That worm had to be carefully placed aside so no harm came to it. This all sounds so sweet, but to function as a nation bribery and conniving were necessary. I am very glad I read this book. I learned a lot, and it made me see into the reality of a Buddhist culture. It is very hard to get a view into Lhasa, the Forbidden City. View all 14 comments. Oct 24, Nancy rated it really liked it Shelves: far-east , wwii , travel , read , audiobooks Absolutely fascinating; it's a pity the prose was on the pedestrian side. View 2 comments. Dec 01, Daniel Clausen rated it really liked it. I read this book in fits and starts between breaks in class. Restlessness has been the case for me lately. Perhaps the cure is travel books like these. Books that are easy to pick up, put down, and pick up again. The book made no grand promises-- instead the author proposed to give me his notes plainly told about his journey through Tibet, a journey that began just prior to the second World War and ended a few years after it. The author did not over-promise, and sticking to his world, early on, I read this book in fits and starts between breaks in class. The author did not over-promise, and sticking to his world, early on, I found his writing to have a dry, clinical feel to it. Perhaps some of this had to do with it being translated from German, but I think some of it had to do with its limited pretensions. And yet, at least for long moments, I was utterly lost in the account. Perhaps travel writing is the best remedy for someone confined to a desk for any period of time. If his notes were dry, they often seemed to lack any kind of malice or ethnocentrism. More importantly, as I drifted off in my own thoughts, I found I could return to the book without losing too much of the story. The book demonstrates that substance is better than style, and that in order to be a good writer one should live an adventurous life. The parts I liked the most about the book were the little scenes where Harrer was making a new life for himself in Lhasa. Certainly, the earlier scenes where Herrer escaped from prison and managed to survive in the wilderness were exciting, but the scenes where he is creating a new life for himself with the help of the compassionate Tibetans were the most romantic and enjoyable. More than anything, they reminded me of my own small delights living and working overseas. In the end, this book seemed to me as much about home as about travel. More travel writing to come? Fascinating non-fiction travelogue by Heinrich Harrer. Harrer was a skier and mountain climber. He was scaling a mountain in the Himalayas when the British declared war on Germany. He was taken prisoner but escaped many times. He escaped not because the prison camp was so bad but because he was at heart an adventurer. Eventually he, and others, reached Tibet, which was neutral in the war. But Tibet was also secluded and did not like foreigners to be traveling in their country. Harrer and another Fascinating non-fiction travelogue by Heinrich Harrer. Harrer and another escape were able, eventually, to make their way to the capital of Tibet. They remained there until the Chinese invasion in Harrer became acquainted with the Dali Llama, before he had reached his maturity. In fact, the Dali Llama asked Harrer to tutor him about the world outside Tibet. In the book, Harrer not only describes his harrowing journey up the mountains from India to Tibet, but he also describes Tibetans, their religion, their festivals, and the beautiful country. It was really interesting and now Tibet is on my list of places to visit! Jul 16, Molly rated it liked it. Come on Heinrich! Have you heard of momos? And everyone ate a ton of butter, preferably in tea. What this all boils down to is, until Heinrich becomes buddies with the Dalai Lama in the last 40 pages, nearly nothing happens. But Heinrich did an enormously bad job of describing the nothingness because from page one through to the end I had no idea who Heinrich was. How about that time you got a bad case of sciatica and were bedridden during the biggest festival of the year in Tibet? And Heinrich, don't tell me that you weren't the least bit jealous of your friend Aufschnaiter when he got all the praise. And Heinrich, what job are you given? You built the first decorative fountain for a rich guy's garden. Now, I'm in no way downplaying your role, I couldn't build a fountain if I wanted to but you were jealous, I know you were. And showing us how jealous you were could have brought this book from a 3 to a 5, easy. Instead, you took the so-called high road, but in taking the high road you deprived us readers of everything interesting and imperfect about you. Tell it to us straight Heinrich. View all 4 comments. Jul 16, Basham! I'll be the first to say the movie version is It sensationalized aspects of Harrer's life although the part about leaving his pregnant wife turns out to be true and was interestingly omitted by Harrer from the book itself. The film also created a stupidly melodramatic fake love triangle and gave short shrift to just how riveting the journey to Lhasa must have been. Of course, this shouldn't be the surprise. Once you get i I'll be the first to say the movie version is Once you get into this book it's a quite thrilling travelogue. I especially appreciate this book because it provides a different perspective on the Tibet issue than the typical information that I read on the Chinese news sites which, as stories relate to sensitive domestic issues in China are "hilariously" biased and not entirely distinguishable from when The Onion parodied Chinese news in It doesn't provide a perfect picture of Tibet before the Chinese invaded either namely Harrer details corruption and closemindedness among some of the monks and other bureaucrats. Tibet was a feudal society, after all. Nonetheless, there is no mistake here, this book is strongly in favor of Tibetan independence. That is not to say that this book rams politics down your throat except maybe in the epilogue. But it is precisely because Harrer was somewhat of an objective observer of Tibet, able to report it from a "western" perspective and therefore tells the story in a relatable way for many foreign readers, that this book remains a powerful case for Tibetan independence. Seven Years in Tibet ( film) - Wikipedia

He leaves Austria in to climb a mountain in the Himalayas. There, Heinrich's life changes forever as he becomes a close confidant to the Dalai Lama. Sign In. Edit Seven Years in Tibet Jump to: Summaries 5 Synopsis 1. The synopsis below may give away important plot points. Edit page. Watched movie. Top Nineties. Share this page:. Clear your history. I closed my eyes and hearkened to the murmured prayers and the solemn music and sweet incense rising to the evening sky. They reached the summit on July 24th, Harrer had been a member of the Nazi party for just two months. He had also joined the SS with the rank of sergeant. After the ascent he and the rest of the team had a photo op with Adolf Hitler. They were national heroes. His life could have very easily spiraled toward an early death on the battlefield or he could have been compromised in the many atrocities perpetrated by the SS during the war. As it turned out, the only day he wore his SS uniform was the day he got married. The one with the cheesy moustache is Adolph Hitler. Standing on his right is Heinrich Harrer. Harrer renounced any association he had with the SS stated that he was too young to be making those decisions. Harrer was in India with a four man team scouting the viability of climbing the Diamir Face of the Nanga Parbat when war broke out in They were picked up by the British and interned in a detention camp. In after several failed attempts to escape, finally Harrer, Peter Aufschnaiter, and two others are successful. They strike out for Tibet. The other two men, after experiencing the hardship of travel with improper clothing, inadequate food supplies, and a nagging doubt about what life will be like once they do reach Tibet, decide to go back. Harrer and Aufschnaiter press on. They rely on the kindness of strangers. Lucky for them, by nature, Tibetans are kind. Their ultimate goal is to reach Lhasa, but there are public officials, miles of red tape, and many hazards to be faced before they reach that destination. Princess Coocoola, wife of the governor of Tibet is one of the many beautiful Tibetan women. They meet a young couple on the road. She dutifully married three brothers and took care of their household until a handsome young stranger appeared. The couple were fleeing her husbands to start a new life. When the proverbial traveling salesman comes to town she takes the opportunity to escape. January 15th, they finally reach their destination. This moment compensated us for much. We felt inclined to go down on our knees like the pilgrims and touch the ground with our foreheads. They receive reassurances followed by neck snapping counter orders to leave. They begin to ingratiate themselves to the government by designing and producing better irrigation for the city. There are various levels of nobles who are very wealthy, happy; and yet, pious people. There was an uprising and several people were arrested, too many for the local jail. The nobles had to each take responsibility for a prisoner. The Tibetans have a rather gruesome, especially to westerners, way in how they dispose of their recently departed. We followed the group of mourners, who consisted of three men only. A second sat nearby, murmuring prayers and beating on a small drum. The third man scared the birds away and at intervals handed the other two men beer or tea to cheer them up. The bones of the dead girl were broken to pieces, so that they too could be consumed by the birds and that no trace of the body should remain. The consciousness has already moved on towards yet another in a series of countless lives. Their belief that the fly that lands on the rim of the rancid butter tea, that they like to drink, could be their grandmother causes Harrer no ends of problems when he is asked to build a movie theater for the Dalai Lama. Every worm that is disturbed by the shovels must be carefully relocated back to a safe spot. He becomes close to the Dalai Lama, instructing him in Western culture and the way the world works beyond the Tibetan borders. There is even a scene that had me chuckling with the Dalai Lama wanting to shadow box with Harrer. It was just hard for me to imagine this national treasure with his fists raised dancing around throwing punches. Harrer and his friend Aufschnaiter have to abandon their peaceful lives and return to Europe. As he leaves he waves up at the roof where he knows the Dalai Lama, possibly one of the most lonely people in the world, is watching him depart through the singular eye of his telescope. In during a Tibetan uprising the Dalai Lama fearing for his life, fled to India where he established a Tibetan government in exile. Harrer continued to go on mountaineering expeditions around the globe and wrote twenty travel books about his exploits. His photography is considered to be among the best records of Tibetan culture ever obtained. This book was a huge bestseller in America showing the hunger that people felt, and continue to feel to know more about Tibetan culture. It certainly has inspired me to want to know more. Friends for life. We see the movie version of Harrer become a better person under the influence of the people he came to know and love in Lhasa. The movie is visually stimulating and was the reason I decided to read the book. I hope that others who see the movie will be encouraged to explore the subject matter further as well. I often think I can still hear the cries of wild geese and cranes and the beating of their wings as they fly over Lhasa in the clear, cold moonlight. My heartfelt wish is that my story may create some understanding for a people whose will to live in peace and freedom has won so little sympathy from an indifferent world. View all 51 comments. May 01, Lilo rated it liked it Shelves: asia , read-as-paper-book , travelogue , read-decades-ago. I read this book many decades ago. It was interesting. However, I kept asking myself: What did Heinrich Harrer live on until he reached Lhasa after about two years? He had no money. He had no provisions. He had no weapons to shoot animals to eat. And while traveling, he, definitely, had no land to grow any food. From what I remember, there were also no tales that he asked for or was granted hospitality by the inhabitants of the areas he passed. I don't think that anyone will be able to survive o I read this book many decades ago. I don't think that anyone will be able to survive on the scarce vegetation to be found in high elevations. So what did this man eat? I really would have liked to learn. View all 26 comments. Mar 16, Lynne King rated it really liked it Shelves: tibet. This is a book that I bought way back in It was an excellent travel book and I purchased it because of my enjoyment of reading about life in Tibet it always struck me as such an exotic place and I was also very influenced by Buddhism at the time. It was so sad about the situation with China and the Dalai Lama. I must reread this. View all 8 comments. Nov 10, Joselito Honestly and Brilliantly rated it really liked it. I bought my copy of this book from a thrift shop last 27 January Handwritten on its first inside page is the former owner's name followed by: "23 Jan "Los Angeles "California " pm. It's typical of these religious and superstitious people to ascribe meaning to every event, or to the time, place and date it happened. Even when it is just a book purchase. The former owner's name seems to read : "Yee Yitathajisi" but I'm not sure, especially the small I bought my copy of this book from a thrift shop last 27 January The former owner's name seems to read : "Yee Yitathajisi" but I'm not sure, especially the small "s" in the last name. It doesn't really look like an English letter. I also looks like an "r" with a loop on its left side but his "r" in "California" is like the number seven. His two small "s" in "Los Angeles" look like a regular "s" but somewhat written like the number five. Yee struggled with his English. He highlighted English words which are not really difficult "cache", "brooks," "roamed," "vague," "ascent," etc. Many times he also wrote his translations above the English words which gave him difficulties. He read the phrase "small ice floes," for example, and he underlined "floes" then wrote something above it in letters completely foreign to me the closest I can interpret it to something I know how to read is "iiwaliiv" followed by a comma and some flourishes above three letters. I've seen Japanese and Chinese writings but they're not squiggly-looking like this. When the second world war broke out, several German mountaineers were in India which was then still under British rule. They were arrested and imprisoned by the British. They successfully escaped after several attempts. The author, Heinrich Harrer, was one of them. Together with another German guy, they fled on foot towards Tibet. They were in the worst possible state: emaciated, dressed in rags and without money. About half of the book is devoted to the story of their five year stay in Lhasa. So while hellfire infernos were raging in Europe and Asia they were there in those strange and wonderful places trying to fight off starvation, fatigue and disease unaware of the horrors being brought to the world elsewhere, ironically, chiefly by their own countrymen. After the end of the war, or sometime in , they were forced to leave Tibet when China, which considered Tibet as just its province like it is treating Taiwan now , invaded the country. Although I've read literature about Tibet before, especially on how Tibetans determine who their next ruler and spiritual leader shall be their Dalai Lama, a God-King who dies but immediately reincarnates , this has opened my eyes about this wondrous country and its peace-loving and very religious people. Do you know that Tibet's land area is as big as Spain, France and Germany put together? I didn't until I've read this book I thought Tibet was just a small, obscure settlement pearched atop a snowy mountain, like Baguio City. That's the staple food in one of the regions there and this is how it is prepared: "You heat sand to a high temperature in an iron pan and then pour barleycorns onto it. They burst with a slight pop, whereupon you put the corns and the sand in a fine meshed sieve through which the sand runs; after this you grind the corn very small. The resulting meal is stirred up into a paste with butter tea or milk or beer, and then eaten. The Chinese authorities won't allow the filming there or even its showing in China. Tibet is unfree. Free Tibet! View all 9 comments. First off let me say that the writing of this book is nothing spectacular, it's adequate for this type of book and gets all the facts across without lots of embellishment. However, the content is an amazing travelogue of Heinrich Harrier's journey through Tibet and his eventual friendship with his Holiness the Dalai Lama. Quite a large portion of the seven years was spent actually travelling. Harrer doesn't go into a lot of detail about all the climbing and trekking his friend Peter and himself First off let me say that the writing of this book is nothing spectacular, it's adequate for this type of book and gets all the facts across without lots of embellishment. Harrer doesn't go into a lot of detail about all the climbing and trekking his friend Peter and himself did and it's easy to skip over that accomplishment. If you look at a map, their trek started in North Western India and circumvented Nepal to get to Lhasa. Life in Lhasa is well described and I was surprised at how well educated the upper echelons of society were. In the time before the Chinese invasion, Tibetan culture had remained little changed in 2, years. In a sad postscript written almost 50 years later Harrer describes how all that culture has been wiped away. If you have seen the excellent movie by the same name then the book is certainly worth reading. Harrer was a consultant for the film and was most pleased with the decision to have Brad Pitt play him. Not for the fact that Mr Pitt was better looking than him, but for the fact that thousands of people probably went to see the movie just to see Brad Pitt, and in so doing learn't something of Tibet and became aware of that countries plight. View 1 comment. Dec 21, Maria V. This was an ideal book to read before going to visit Tibet. It helped to give me a deeper understanding of the place and the people. The book is a travellers recount of adventures based on diaries kept throughout these years. In those years my liking of this book went entirely to the adventures of the heroes. Harrer, an experienced mountaineer, had come to these parts of the world to climb the Himalaya and could not imagine staying a prisoner for long. He and some close friends soon planned to escape. They failed the first time but succeeded the second time. A daring escape, as the English would call it. Tibet was their aim, and in this direction, they hurriedly walked and hiked as fast as they could. Harrer and his friend Peter Aufschneiter had some poor road maps and a little money to buy food on the road, but money soon ran out, so they started selling what they could spare, their watch and first aid things and whatever. Unlike Sven Hedin, Heinrich and Peter had no arms for hunting, or to defend themselves against wild beasts like bears and coyotes, nor fight off any robbers of whom they met several and escaped unharmed by a miracle. They had no warm clothing and no shoes that could withstand hundreds of miles of walking in gravel ice and snow. At their first encounters with local populations and minor officials, they encountered enmity and stiff opposition against their project. Food could not be bought except for a high price, if at all. When finally reaching Lhasa in January against all the odds, they were in a state of poor refugees, unwashed and unshaved, starved for many days, blisters on their feet, barefoot and their clothing in shreds. At the first house, they entered fell to the ground and begged for food and shelter. The two men had successfully used a disguise as Indian traders to pass controls by officials on the road. The second part of the story is how they got introduced and accepted in Lhasa, by the population but more importantly by the monks and the Lamas and primarily by the Dalai Lama the God in Person and King of the country. Tens of thousands of monks divided of several large monasteries ruled the country with an iron fist by legislation purely based on religious beliefs. According to the Buddhist religion, the population had been convinced to believe in reincarnation to a new body after death. Moreover, that new body could be any human or animal from the tiniest insect to a goat or an elephant. The Tibetan government did not have to raise taxes; the population gave their last penny to the Lamas at their monasteries to guarantee them a happy afterlife. There were no schools, other than monastery schools, no hospitals, no roads, no drainage system in the towns, no running water nor any basic sanitary installations. One only generator supplied electricity to the Palast printing shop to print religious books. Tibet is a potentially wealthy country in mineral resources and vast agricultural potentials if irrigated and managed. However, that potential needs to be modernised in order to be useful to the country. All influence from the outside world was restricted to the minimum and visits of foreigners forbidden. So the Buddhist monks hoped to remain in power forever. However, it is well known to historians that a country in such a weak position will inevitably attract the envy of a powerful neighbour. So it did. China started invading Tibet in The Dalai Lama at first fled to the south, but then returned to Lhasa, under the control of China. Peter Aufschneiter stayed in Tibet for another year and later went to Nepal to further adventures. Heinrich Harrer, our author, having lost his reason to remain there, left Tibet towards India in April View all 10 comments. Heinrich Harrer, the author of this book, was a mountaineer and an adventurer. He did this int the s. This book, originally published in , is an adventure classic that recounts Heinrich Harrer's escape from a British internment camp in India, his daring trek across the Himalayas, and his seven years in Tibet, coming to an end with the Chinese invasion. He became a dear friend of the fourteenth Dali Lama. Definitely interesting, but in that the narrations follows the time line of the events it was repetitive at points, i. One example of this is how white scarves are used in Tibet as a means of expressing respect and honor. People were handing out scares right and left I kept wondering what was done with all these scarves. Finally near the end of the book it was mentioned that they were reused and handed out to others. And this leads to my next complaint. Listeners are left with questions. Terms are not clearly defined so you search for understanding, to make sense of what you are told. At one point, my husband and I, we were both listening to the audio book together, did not agree on who had been killed! Finally I understood. So the book isn't perfect, but don't let that determine whether to pick it up or not. The reader follows an exciting adventure and there is a lot to learn here about old Tibet, before the Chinese invasion in One other point which I found intriguing is how there are so many rules to be followed In the Buddhist philosophy no creature can be killed, so of course meat cannot be eaten. But, but, but, but people do need some meat so it is quite handy if the people in neighboring Nepal can provide this This bothered me tremendously. Time and time again, the Nepalese were handy to have to do that which the Buddhist faith did not allow to be done in Tibet. And it bothered me that in sport events where it was determined that the Dali Lama must win, he of course always did win. Is that real competition? Never mind, just my own thoughts troubling me. It is amusing to picture a dike being built and a worm appearing on the shovel of dirt. That worm had to be carefully placed aside so no harm came to it. This all sounds so sweet, but to function as a nation bribery and conniving were necessary. I am very glad I read this book. I learned a lot, and it made me see into the reality of a Buddhist culture. It is very hard to get a view into Lhasa, the Forbidden City. View all 14 comments. Oct 24, Nancy rated it really liked it Shelves: far-east , wwii , travel , read , audiobooks Absolutely fascinating; it's a pity the prose was on the pedestrian side. View 2 comments. Dec 01, Daniel Clausen rated it really liked it. I read this book in fits and starts between breaks in class. Restlessness has been the case for me lately. Perhaps the cure is travel books like these. Books that are easy to pick up, put down, and pick up again. The book made no grand promises-- instead the author proposed to give me his notes plainly told about his journey through Tibet, a journey that began just prior to the second World War and ended a few years after it. The author did not over-promise, and sticking to his world, early on, I read this book in fits and starts between breaks in class. The author did not over-promise, and sticking to his world, early on, I found his writing to have a dry, clinical feel to it. Perhaps some of this had to do with it being translated from German, but I think some of it had to do with its limited pretensions. And yet, at least for long moments, I was utterly lost in the account. Perhaps travel writing is the best remedy for someone confined to a desk for any period of time. If his notes were dry, they often seemed to lack any kind of malice or ethnocentrism. More importantly, as I drifted off in my own thoughts, I found I could return to the book without losing too much of the story. The book demonstrates that substance is better than style, and that in order to be a good writer one should live an adventurous life. The parts I liked the most about the book were the little scenes where Harrer was making a new life for himself in Lhasa. Certainly, the earlier scenes where Herrer escaped from prison and managed to survive in the wilderness were exciting, but the scenes where he is creating a new life for himself with the help of the compassionate Tibetans were the most romantic and enjoyable. More than anything, they reminded me of my own small delights living and working overseas. In the end, this book seemed to me as much about home as about travel. More travel writing to come? Fascinating non-fiction travelogue by Heinrich Harrer. Harrer was a skier and mountain climber. He was scaling a mountain in the Himalayas when the British declared war on Germany. He was taken prisoner but escaped many times. He escaped not because the prison camp was so bad but because he was at heart an adventurer. Eventually he, and others, reached Tibet, which was neutral in the war.

Seven Years in Tibet by Heinrich Harrer

They are provided food and shelter, and Peter ends up marrying a tailor, Pema Lhaki, while Heinrich befriends the Dalai Lama. They meet regularly; while he satiates the child's curiosity about the world, including Jack the Ripper and 'yellow hair'; he is exposed to the teachings of Lord Buddha, He even constructs a movie theater, while getting news of the end of the war, his divorce, and his son's refusal to communicate. But nothing will prepare him for the devastation about to descend when Communist China decides to attack, leading to the deaths of over 1 million Tibetans, the destruction of over monasteries, and betrayal from their very own people. Brad Pitt stars as the arrogant Heinrich, a famed Austrian mountain climber who leaves behind his wife and infant son to head a Himalayan expedition in , only to fall into the hands of Allied forces as a prisoner of war. As Heinrich waits out the war, his friendship with the Dalai Lama begins to transform him from haughty to humble, but a crisis with China looms. Heinrich Harrer journeys to the Himalayas to climb mountains, leaving his wife behind in Austria. War breaks out while he's gone and he is placed in a prisoner-of-war camp. It's typical of these religious and superstitious people to ascribe meaning to every event, or to the time, place and date it happened. Even when it is just a book purchase. The former owner's name seems to read : "Yee Yitathajisi" but I'm not sure, especially the small I bought my copy of this book from a thrift shop last 27 January The former owner's name seems to read : "Yee Yitathajisi" but I'm not sure, especially the small "s" in the last name. It doesn't really look like an English letter. I also looks like an "r" with a loop on its left side but his "r" in "California" is like the number seven. His two small "s" in "Los Angeles" look like a regular "s" but somewhat written like the number five. Yee struggled with his English. He highlighted English words which are not really difficult "cache", "brooks," "roamed," "vague," "ascent," etc. Many times he also wrote his translations above the English words which gave him difficulties. He read the phrase "small ice floes," for example, and he underlined "floes" then wrote something above it in letters completely foreign to me the closest I can interpret it to something I know how to read is "iiwaliiv" followed by a comma and some flourishes above three letters. I've seen Japanese and Chinese writings but they're not squiggly-looking like this. When the second world war broke out, several German mountaineers were in India which was then still under British rule. They were arrested and imprisoned by the British. They successfully escaped after several attempts. The author, Heinrich Harrer, was one of them. Together with another German guy, they fled on foot towards Tibet. They were in the worst possible state: emaciated, dressed in rags and without money. About half of the book is devoted to the story of their five year stay in Lhasa. So while hellfire infernos were raging in Europe and Asia they were there in those strange and wonderful places trying to fight off starvation, fatigue and disease unaware of the horrors being brought to the world elsewhere, ironically, chiefly by their own countrymen. After the end of the war, or sometime in , they were forced to leave Tibet when China, which considered Tibet as just its province like it is treating Taiwan now , invaded the country. Although I've read literature about Tibet before, especially on how Tibetans determine who their next ruler and spiritual leader shall be their Dalai Lama, a God-King who dies but immediately reincarnates , this has opened my eyes about this wondrous country and its peace-loving and very religious people. Do you know that Tibet's land area is as big as Spain, France and Germany put together? I didn't until I've read this book I thought Tibet was just a small, obscure settlement pearched atop a snowy mountain, like Baguio City. That's the staple food in one of the regions there and this is how it is prepared: "You heat sand to a high temperature in an iron pan and then pour barleycorns onto it. They burst with a slight pop, whereupon you put the corns and the sand in a fine meshed sieve through which the sand runs; after this you grind the corn very small. The resulting meal is stirred up into a paste with butter tea or milk or beer, and then eaten. The Chinese authorities won't allow the filming there or even its showing in China. Tibet is unfree. Free Tibet! View all 9 comments. First off let me say that the writing of this book is nothing spectacular, it's adequate for this type of book and gets all the facts across without lots of embellishment. However, the content is an amazing travelogue of Heinrich Harrier's journey through Tibet and his eventual friendship with his Holiness the Dalai Lama. Quite a large portion of the seven years was spent actually travelling. Harrer doesn't go into a lot of detail about all the climbing and trekking his friend Peter and himself First off let me say that the writing of this book is nothing spectacular, it's adequate for this type of book and gets all the facts across without lots of embellishment. Harrer doesn't go into a lot of detail about all the climbing and trekking his friend Peter and himself did and it's easy to skip over that accomplishment. If you look at a map, their trek started in North Western India and circumvented Nepal to get to Lhasa. Life in Lhasa is well described and I was surprised at how well educated the upper echelons of society were. In the time before the Chinese invasion, Tibetan culture had remained little changed in 2, years. In a sad postscript written almost 50 years later Harrer describes how all that culture has been wiped away. If you have seen the excellent movie by the same name then the book is certainly worth reading. Harrer was a consultant for the film and was most pleased with the decision to have Brad Pitt play him. Not for the fact that Mr Pitt was better looking than him, but for the fact that thousands of people probably went to see the movie just to see Brad Pitt, and in so doing learn't something of Tibet and became aware of that countries plight. View 1 comment. Dec 21, Maria V. This was an ideal book to read before going to visit Tibet. It helped to give me a deeper understanding of the place and the people. The book is a travellers recount of adventures based on diaries kept throughout these years. In those years my liking of this book went entirely to the adventures of the heroes. Harrer, an experienced mountaineer, had come to these parts of the world to climb the Himalaya and could not imagine staying a prisoner for long. He and some close friends soon planned to escape. They failed the first time but succeeded the second time. A daring escape, as the English would call it. Tibet was their aim, and in this direction, they hurriedly walked and hiked as fast as they could. Harrer and his friend Peter Aufschneiter had some poor road maps and a little money to buy food on the road, but money soon ran out, so they started selling what they could spare, their watch and first aid things and whatever. Unlike Sven Hedin, Heinrich and Peter had no arms for hunting, or to defend themselves against wild beasts like bears and coyotes, nor fight off any robbers of whom they met several and escaped unharmed by a miracle. They had no warm clothing and no shoes that could withstand hundreds of miles of walking in gravel ice and snow. At their first encounters with local populations and minor officials, they encountered enmity and stiff opposition against their project. Food could not be bought except for a high price, if at all. When finally reaching Lhasa in January against all the odds, they were in a state of poor refugees, unwashed and unshaved, starved for many days, blisters on their feet, barefoot and their clothing in shreds. At the first house, they entered fell to the ground and begged for food and shelter. The two men had successfully used a disguise as Indian traders to pass controls by officials on the road. The second part of the story is how they got introduced and accepted in Lhasa, by the population but more importantly by the monks and the Lamas and primarily by the Dalai Lama the God in Person and King of the country. Tens of thousands of monks divided of several large monasteries ruled the country with an iron fist by legislation purely based on religious beliefs. According to the Buddhist religion, the population had been convinced to believe in reincarnation to a new body after death. Moreover, that new body could be any human or animal from the tiniest insect to a goat or an elephant. The Tibetan government did not have to raise taxes; the population gave their last penny to the Lamas at their monasteries to guarantee them a happy afterlife. There were no schools, other than monastery schools, no hospitals, no roads, no drainage system in the towns, no running water nor any basic sanitary installations. One only generator supplied electricity to the Palast printing shop to print religious books. Tibet is a potentially wealthy country in mineral resources and vast agricultural potentials if irrigated and managed. However, that potential needs to be modernised in order to be useful to the country. All influence from the outside world was restricted to the minimum and visits of foreigners forbidden. So the Buddhist monks hoped to remain in power forever. However, it is well known to historians that a country in such a weak position will inevitably attract the envy of a powerful neighbour. So it did. China started invading Tibet in The Dalai Lama at first fled to the south, but then returned to Lhasa, under the control of China. Peter Aufschneiter stayed in Tibet for another year and later went to Nepal to further adventures. Heinrich Harrer, our author, having lost his reason to remain there, left Tibet towards India in April View all 10 comments. Heinrich Harrer, the author of this book, was a mountaineer and an adventurer. He did this int the s. This book, originally published in , is an adventure classic that recounts Heinrich Harrer's escape from a British internment camp in India, his daring trek across the Himalayas, and his seven years in Tibet, coming to an end with the Chinese invasion. He became a dear friend of the fourteenth Dali Lama. Definitely interesting, but in that the narrations follows the time line of the events it was repetitive at points, i. One example of this is how white scarves are used in Tibet as a means of expressing respect and honor. People were handing out scares right and left I kept wondering what was done with all these scarves. Finally near the end of the book it was mentioned that they were reused and handed out to others. And this leads to my next complaint. Listeners are left with questions. Terms are not clearly defined so you search for understanding, to make sense of what you are told. At one point, my husband and I, we were both listening to the audio book together, did not agree on who had been killed! Finally I understood. So the book isn't perfect, but don't let that determine whether to pick it up or not. The reader follows an exciting adventure and there is a lot to learn here about old Tibet, before the Chinese invasion in One other point which I found intriguing is how there are so many rules to be followed In the Buddhist philosophy no creature can be killed, so of course meat cannot be eaten. But, but, but, but people do need some meat so it is quite handy if the people in neighboring Nepal can provide this This bothered me tremendously. Time and time again, the Nepalese were handy to have to do that which the Buddhist faith did not allow to be done in Tibet. And it bothered me that in sport events where it was determined that the Dali Lama must win, he of course always did win. Is that real competition? Never mind, just my own thoughts troubling me. It is amusing to picture a dike being built and a worm appearing on the shovel of dirt. That worm had to be carefully placed aside so no harm came to it. This all sounds so sweet, but to function as a nation bribery and conniving were necessary. I am very glad I read this book. I learned a lot, and it made me see into the reality of a Buddhist culture. It is very hard to get a view into Lhasa, the Forbidden City. View all 14 comments. Oct 24, Nancy rated it really liked it Shelves: far-east , wwii , travel , read , audiobooks Absolutely fascinating; it's a pity the prose was on the pedestrian side. View 2 comments. Dec 01, Daniel Clausen rated it really liked it. I read this book in fits and starts between breaks in class. Restlessness has been the case for me lately. Perhaps the cure is travel books like these. Books that are easy to pick up, put down, and pick up again. The book made no grand promises-- instead the author proposed to give me his notes plainly told about his journey through Tibet, a journey that began just prior to the second World War and ended a few years after it. The author did not over-promise, and sticking to his world, early on, I read this book in fits and starts between breaks in class. The author did not over-promise, and sticking to his world, early on, I found his writing to have a dry, clinical feel to it. Perhaps some of this had to do with it being translated from German, but I think some of it had to do with its limited pretensions. And yet, at least for long moments, I was utterly lost in the account. Perhaps travel writing is the best remedy for someone confined to a desk for any period of time. If his notes were dry, they often seemed to lack any kind of malice or ethnocentrism. More importantly, as I drifted off in my own thoughts, I found I could return to the book without losing too much of the story. The book demonstrates that substance is better than style, and that in order to be a good writer one should live an adventurous life. The parts I liked the most about the book were the little scenes where Harrer was making a new life for himself in Lhasa. Certainly, the earlier scenes where Herrer escaped from prison and managed to survive in the wilderness were exciting, but the scenes where he is creating a new life for himself with the help of the compassionate Tibetans were the most romantic and enjoyable. More than anything, they reminded me of my own small delights living and working overseas. In the end, this book seemed to me as much about home as about travel. More travel writing to come? Fascinating non-fiction travelogue by Heinrich Harrer. Harrer was a skier and mountain climber. He was scaling a mountain in the Himalayas when the British declared war on Germany. He was taken prisoner but escaped many times. He escaped not because the prison camp was so bad but because he was at heart an adventurer. Eventually he, and others, reached Tibet, which was neutral in the war. But Tibet was also secluded and did not like foreigners to be traveling in their country. Harrer and another Fascinating non-fiction travelogue by Heinrich Harrer. Harrer and another escape were able, eventually, to make their way to the capital of Tibet. They remained there until the Chinese invasion in Harrer became acquainted with the Dali Llama, before he had reached his maturity. In fact, the Dali Llama asked Harrer to tutor him about the world outside Tibet. In the book, Harrer not only describes his harrowing journey up the mountains from India to Tibet, but he also describes Tibetans, their religion, their festivals, and the beautiful country. When World War II begins in , they are arrested by the authorities for being enemy aliens and imprisoned in a prisoner-of-war camp in Dehradun in the Himalayan foothills, in the present-day Indian state of Uttarakhand. In , Harrer and Aufschnaiter escape the prison and cross into Tibet. After being initially rejected by the isolated nation, they manage to travel in disguise to the Tibetan capital city of Lhasa. There, they become the house guests of Tibetan diplomat Kungo Tsarong Mako. The Tibetan senior official Ngawang Jigme B. Wong also extends friendship to the two foreigners with gifts of custom-made Western suits. Aufschnaiter falls in love with the tailor, Pema Lhaki Lhakpa Tsamchoe , and marries her. Harrer opts to remain single, both to focus on his new job of surveying the land and not wishing to experience another failed relation after his wife. In , Harrer plans to return to Austria upon hearing of the war's end. However, he receives a cold letter from his son, Rolf, rejecting Harrer as his father, and this deters him from leaving Tibet. Soon afterwards, Harrer is invited to the Potala Palace and becomes the 14th Dalai Lama 's Jamyang Jamtsho Wangchuk tutor in world geography, science, and Western culture. Meanwhile, political relations with China sour as they make plans to invade Tibet. However, Ngawang Jigme ends up surrendering and blows up the Tibetan ammunition dump after the one-sided Battle of Chamdo. During the treaty signing, Kungo Tsarong tells Harrer that if Jigme had not destroyed the weapons supply, the Tibetan guerrillas could have held the mountain passes for years; long enough to appeal to other nations for help. As the Chinese occupy Tibet , Harrer condemns Ngawang Jigme for betraying his country, declaring their friendship over. Harrer further shames the senior official by returning the jacket that Ngawang Jigme gave him as a present, which is a grave insult in Tibetan culture. Harrer tries to convince the Dalai Lama to flee, but he refuses; not wanting to abandon his people. The Dalai Lama encourages Harrer to return to Austria and be a father to his son. After the coronation ceremony , in which the Dalai Lama is formally enthroned as the spiritual and temporal leader of Tibet, Harrer returns to Austria in Harrer's son, Rolf, refuses to meet him at first, but Harrer leaves a music box that the Dalai Lama gave him and this piques the boy's interest. Years later, Harrer and Rolf now a teenager are seen mountain-climbing together, suggesting they have mended their relationship. Most of the shooting took place in Argentina, in the city of La Plata the railway station where Heinrich leaves for Unserberg is the Main Train Station of La Plata, for example , and in the Mendoza Province , in such places as the Andes mountains. Some time after the film's release, director Annaud confirmed that two crews secretly shot footage for the film in Tibet, amounting to approximately 20 minutes of footage in the final film. Other footage was shot in Nepal , Austria and Canada. In the film, Harrer, who notably climbed the north face of the Eiger in , is hailed as a 'German hero', and replies "Thank you, but I'm Austrian". To have said that in would have been extremely bold, since Austria had been part of Greater Germany since the Anschluss of April Harrer at the train station in appears hostile to the Nazi Party , taking the Nazi flag with reluctance. The film makes his son a key theme, but in the book, Harrer does not mention his wife or son. He had in fact been married and divorced, as the film shows, but his ex-wife's new husband was killed in the war and Harrer's son was raised by his ex-wife's mother. In the book, Harrer says there was little to tie him to home as one of the reasons for staying in Tibet and not returning to Europe. The pre-invasion visit of Chinese Communist negotiators to Lhasa, arriving at an airfield constructed by Tibetans, and their departure for China after a brief conference with their Tibetan counterparts—including the desecration of the sand mandala as well as the "religion is poison" remark as depicted in the film, do not occur in the book or in any of the numerous histories that have been written about the matter. There was no air link until Lhasa Gonggar Airport was constructed in —when the Dalai Lama visited Beijing in , he used the still-incomplete road system. The whole sequence of negotiations and the installation of the Dalai Lama as ruler are out of sequence.

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