Seven Years in Tibet 
asked by oden on November 21, 2006 3:34 PM
Originally published in 1953, this adventure classic recounts Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer's 1943 escape from a British internment camp in India, his daring trek across the Himalayas, and his happy sojourn in Tibet, then, as now, a remote land little visited by foreigners. Warmly welcomed, he eventually became tutor to the Dalai Lama, teenaged god-king of the theocratic nation. The author's vivid descriptions of Tibetan rites and customs capture its unique traditions before the Chinese invasion in 1950, which prompted Harrer's departure. A 1996 epilogue details the genocidal havoc wrought over the past half-century.
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My boyfriend give me this book to read after I finished Reading Heinrich Harrer's White Spider, I am an avid armchair climber. I love reading anything about Nepal and Tibet, so when I started reading Seven years in Tibet I could hardly put this book down. It is an amazing account of multi escapes from POW camps in India in to life / struggle in Tibet where they welcomed into a unknown society with open arms (most of the time LOL). I loved reading about all the temples, celebrations and adventures they got up to in Tibet.
reviewed by caramel on November 25, 2006 9:00 AM
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Heinrich Harrer was one of those men you'd describe as a "force of nature," one of the very few Germans to have "a good war" in the 1940s, and a good friend of the Dalai Llama.
Harrer was such a phenomenal athlete that he was invited to compete in the Olympics; unfortunately a glitch prevented him from doing so. At the time, he had his heart set on going to the Himalayas, and knew that he stood little chance of being invited to do so, because he neither had the money or connections generally needed to be invited to take part in such expeditions. So he quickly went and climbed the northern face of the Eiger (13,000 ft), a feat that had never been accomplished before, and which was so dangerous that the local authorities, tired of sending expeditions out to gather corpses, had banned.
This resulted in his being invited to join a German-Austrian expedition to the Himalayas, and then on the day, that the second world war broke out, in being taken a prisoner of war in India. British POW camps were cushy, but not for men of action like Harrer; his first attempt to escape didn't work out, but his second did. The only place for him to go was Tibet, which was then an independent country governed by monks which banned all foreigners from entering the country. After a long, arduous and surreptitious trek of over 1200 miles by foot, which entailed crossing no less than 50 mountain passes lower than 16,000 feet and learning Tibetan, Harrer and his companion reached Lhasa. I would imagine that such was the respect for his trek - many Tibetans, and presumably British were in awe of his trek - that the British acquiesced to his staying in Tibet. In the following years, he got to know many Tibetans, including the Dalai Llama, and helped to bring European science to Tibet. When Tibet fell to the Chinese Communists, Heinrich Harrer become a spokesman for Tibetan culture and Tibetan freedom.
To sum up, this is a phenomenal book, which I heartily recommend.
Harrer was such a phenomenal athlete that he was invited to compete in the Olympics; unfortunately a glitch prevented him from doing so. At the time, he had his heart set on going to the Himalayas, and knew that he stood little chance of being invited to do so, because he neither had the money or connections generally needed to be invited to take part in such expeditions. So he quickly went and climbed the northern face of the Eiger (13,000 ft), a feat that had never been accomplished before, and which was so dangerous that the local authorities, tired of sending expeditions out to gather corpses, had banned.
This resulted in his being invited to join a German-Austrian expedition to the Himalayas, and then on the day, that the second world war broke out, in being taken a prisoner of war in India. British POW camps were cushy, but not for men of action like Harrer; his first attempt to escape didn't work out, but his second did. The only place for him to go was Tibet, which was then an independent country governed by monks which banned all foreigners from entering the country. After a long, arduous and surreptitious trek of over 1200 miles by foot, which entailed crossing no less than 50 mountain passes lower than 16,000 feet and learning Tibetan, Harrer and his companion reached Lhasa. I would imagine that such was the respect for his trek - many Tibetans, and presumably British were in awe of his trek - that the British acquiesced to his staying in Tibet. In the following years, he got to know many Tibetans, including the Dalai Llama, and helped to bring European science to Tibet. When Tibet fell to the Chinese Communists, Heinrich Harrer become a spokesman for Tibetan culture and Tibetan freedom.
To sum up, this is a phenomenal book, which I heartily recommend.
reviewed by success06 on November 26, 2006 9:44 AM
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Sadly, Mr. Harrer has passed on recently, but he leaves us with an intellectually inspiring record of what he observed in what was once the free nation of Tibet. Heinrich Harrer was a famous Austrian mountain-climber, and was arrested by the British while on an epedition when World War II erupted. There was a moderately interesting movie somewhat based on the book, but thoroughly "Hollywoodized" with pretty-boy Brad Pitt miscast as Harrer (I think Liam Neeson resembled the actual Mr. Harrer much more). The account begins with a failed attempt to climb a Himalayan peak, arrest and imprisonment by the colonial British government of India, and a number of escape attempts. The one that succeeded resulted in one of the most thorough narratives of life and culture in Tibet in the last years of its existance.
Heinrich Harrer and Peter Aufschneider survived a harrowing trek across the Himalayas to the city of Lhasa, where they eventually became part of a small community of foreigners living in the country. It is here that Harrer and Aufschneider waited out World War II and became closely acquainted with the Dalai Lhama and several government officials.
The sad end to all of this, was the brutal invasion and on-going occupation of Tibet by the communist government of China. Tibet, formally the most thoroughly Buddhist nation, has been decimated by the communists. There were once some 3000 monasteries and temples functioning throughout the land, now there are 3. All of these ancient religious centers were physically destroyed by the communists, and untold thousands of the monks and nuns who once lived in them, have been systematically slaughtered. This is just a fraction of the genocide which the Chinese are still inflicting on the native Tibetans to this day.
There was a brief and irritating bit of hysterics some time ago over Mr. Harrer's affiliation with the Austrian Nazi party, prior to World War II. Mr. Harrer was never an outspoken Nazi, and never took it very seriously. It should be considered, that many people affiliate with the party in power for what benefit they can get from it, and may not adhere to every policy it stands for. At the time that Harrer was recruited into the SS, the full intentions of National Socialism were not fully clear to everyone. The SS, and the Nazi party in general, were keen on recruiting as many famous and accomplished people as possible (every political party does this), in order to entice the masses into supporting them, and to utilize the skills of those famous individuals. Harrer was already a famous mountaineer at the time. His loving reminiscence of the Tibetan people is certainly evidence enough that Mr. Harrer was no Nazi.
Heinrich Harrer and Peter Aufschneider survived a harrowing trek across the Himalayas to the city of Lhasa, where they eventually became part of a small community of foreigners living in the country. It is here that Harrer and Aufschneider waited out World War II and became closely acquainted with the Dalai Lhama and several government officials.
The sad end to all of this, was the brutal invasion and on-going occupation of Tibet by the communist government of China. Tibet, formally the most thoroughly Buddhist nation, has been decimated by the communists. There were once some 3000 monasteries and temples functioning throughout the land, now there are 3. All of these ancient religious centers were physically destroyed by the communists, and untold thousands of the monks and nuns who once lived in them, have been systematically slaughtered. This is just a fraction of the genocide which the Chinese are still inflicting on the native Tibetans to this day.
There was a brief and irritating bit of hysterics some time ago over Mr. Harrer's affiliation with the Austrian Nazi party, prior to World War II. Mr. Harrer was never an outspoken Nazi, and never took it very seriously. It should be considered, that many people affiliate with the party in power for what benefit they can get from it, and may not adhere to every policy it stands for. At the time that Harrer was recruited into the SS, the full intentions of National Socialism were not fully clear to everyone. The SS, and the Nazi party in general, were keen on recruiting as many famous and accomplished people as possible (every political party does this), in order to entice the masses into supporting them, and to utilize the skills of those famous individuals. Harrer was already a famous mountaineer at the time. His loving reminiscence of the Tibetan people is certainly evidence enough that Mr. Harrer was no Nazi.
reviewed by jerseymike on November 26, 2006 7:24 PM