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.