”Now the Living Buddha was approaching. He passed quite close to our window. The women stiffened in a deep obeisance and hardly dared to breathe. The crowd was frozen. Deeply moved we hid ourselves behind the women as if to protect ourselves from being drawn into the magic circle of his power.We kept saying to ourselves, ‘It is only a child.’ A child, indeed, but the heart of the concentrated faith of thousands, the essence of their prayers, longings, hopes. Whether it is Lhasa or Rome--all are united by one wish: to find God and to serve Him. I closed my eyes and hearkened to the murmured prayers and the solemn music and sweet incense rising to the evening sky.” 14th Dalai Lama as a childHeinrich Harrer was part of a four man team who were the first to successfully scale the North face of the Eiger. They reached the summit on July 24th,1938. 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 1939. They were picked up by the British and interned in a detention camp. In 1944 after several failed attempts to escape Harrer, Peter Aufschnaiter, and two others are finally 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. A young woman fleeing her THREE husbands. 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. Most cultures still do or once did allow men, usually wealthy men to collect wives, but this is the first time I’ve heard of a culture that allows a wife to collect three husbands. The problem, of course, is always choice, and she wasn’t a willing participant to marry the three brothers. When the proverbial traveling salesman comes to town she takes the opportunity to escape. January 15th, 1946 they finally reach their destination. ”We turned a corner and saw, gleaming in the distance, the golden roofs of the Potala, the winter residence of the Dalai Lama and the most famous landmark of Lhasa. 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.” PotalaBecause of their uncertain status Harrer and Aufschnaiter, despite the pleasant welcome they received, were always worried that they would sent back to India and internment. 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. Harrer builds a fountain for the backyard of one of his friends and soon all the nobles want a fountain (seems to be a human tendency regardless of country to compete with the Jones’s). 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.”As a result one found in almost every house a convict in chains with a wooden ring round his neck.”Talk about putting a damper on your social situations. The Tibetans have a rather gruesome, especially to westerners, way in how they dispose of their recently departed. ”The decorated pine tree which stood on the roof was removed and the next day at dawn the body was wrapped in white grave cloths and borne out of the house on the back of a professional corpse carrier. We followed the group of mourners, who consisted of three men only. Near the village on a high place recognizable from afar as a place of ‘burial’ by the multitude of vultures and crows which hovered over it, one of the men hacked the body to pieces with an ax. 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.”To them the body of the deceased is an empty shell. 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. ”The more life one can save the happier one is.” Henrich HarrerHarrer becomes a paid government official, a translator and court photographer that along with his side projects gives him a satisfactory income. 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. In October 1950 the army of the People’s Republic of China invade, defeat a Tibetan army, and take over the country. 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 1959 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.A movie was made of Seven Years in Tibet in 1997 starring Brad Pitt. The movie focuses more on Harrer’s abandonment of his wife and child (not a subject he discusses in the book), and also revealed an arrogance and a selfishness that is not in the book either. 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. ”Wherever I live, I shall feel homesick for Tibet. 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.”
Come on Heinrich! From what I’ve gathered independent of this book, Tibet is the shit. Have you heard of momos? Obviously Heinrich hadn’t. I get that they probably weren’t a thing before the Chinese invasion brought the dumpling but still, if you aren’t going to tell us about momos, then at least tell us what tsampa is, cause right now, 300 pages later, I’m picturing either some steamed weeds or a ball of paste. And no I won’t google it, you should have told me what it was more than once because your description of it was clearly not memorable. All I got from this book is that Tibet in the 40’s kinda looked like the land around Lake Erie but with more jagged mountains. 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. And honestly, I don’t need anything to happen to like a book, generally I hate books where things happen, in my eyes, books should be about flawed characters doing minor things, badly. 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. Lesson 1 of exploration: When you fail at something or something doesn’t go as you intended, you have to show humility, not pretend it was part of the plan all along. How about that time you got a bad case of sciatica and were bedridden during the biggest festival of the year in Tibet? But oh, according to you, since you missed it, it’s actually like, not that big of a deal, the spring festival that you do end up going to is loads better, I wouldn’t have even bothered with that other festival. And Heinrich, don't tell me that you weren't the least bit jealous of your friend Aufschnaiter when he got all the praise. You guys both arrive in Lhasa together and without even trying Aufschnaiter is given a power plant to fix, then the city’s sewage system, then a reforestation project for the entire country - the government loves this guy, they can't do without him. And Heinrich, what job are you given? Gardening. 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. However, I must hand it to you, the way you referred to the 14-year-old Dalai Lamai as the “boy king” when everyone else just referred to him as “god”, was rather gutsy, even if you didn’t say it to his face. So for that Heinrich, I’ll give you props.
What do You think about Seven Years In Tibet (1997)?
Harrer, an Austrian, was a mountain climber/adventurer who the first person to climb the North Face/Wall of the Eiger Mountain in Switzerland in the 1930s. He was in India to climb mountains when he was imprisoned by the English merely because his native language was German. This book, originally published in 1953, is an adventure classic that recounts 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. I did like this book and would recommend it if you can find it. Jeff checked it out of the Provo Library for me during a recent visit.
—Richard
Heinrich Harrer, the author of this book, was a mountaineer and an adventurer. He was the first to climb the North Face of the Eiger Mountain in Switzerland. He did this int the 1930s. This book, originally published in 1953, is an adventure classic that recounts Heinrich Harrer's 1943 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.e. a particular theme was discussed many times. 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! Neurotic as I am to understand EXACTLY what has happened I rewound and listened again and again. Finally I understood. In fact I was right in the mini battle with my husband, but the point is that what you hear/read can easily be misinterpreted.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 1950.One other point which I found intriguing is how there are so many rules to be followed.......but there is always a way to get around them. 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......then all is OK! 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.
—Chrissie
A memoir by a dude who was (A) an Olympic skier and (B) a famous mountaineer, who became (C) a POW in India when WWII broke out and decided to become (D) a fugitive to hoof it into the mighty Himalayas where he started a career as (E) a starving wanderer in a land where you cannot possibly survive without human assistance. And that's just the beginning. He goes on to do and be many other amazing things throughout the course of his tale. This is the kind of life story that anybody would want, and it's only seven years of his life!In the preface, Harrer explains that he's never tried his hand at authorship before, and so he will simply stick to the "unadorned facts". This simple approach serves as his greatest stylistic strength, as he is continually presenting truly astonishing facts, life events that will make your jaw drop one after the other, as if they were just the routine stuff of everyday life. For an American, and especially a modern one, I imagine it would be difficult to resist the temptation to sensationalize this stuff with heightened drama and suspense, but Harrer's Austrian rationale doesn't bother with that crap. His tone is friendly, simple, and straightforward, making this amazing tale one of the most readable books I've come across lately.This is the kind of book that makes a guy want to live a life as dynamic, exciting, and exotic as the author's, and it's also the kind of book that inspires one to have a reasonable, unpretentious attitude toward life.
—Flyin
