Seven Years in Tibet

lonelyaztec

Hi All,

This is the latest book i have read.

I have seen this movie, and i really loved it.

The last time i went to a book shop, i spotted the book. The minute i took it in my hand, i could not drop it. I finished it all really soon.

This is one of the best travel / adventure / exploration books that i have read.

I think, it is a great book, and you must all read it.

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Aztec

My photoblog

seventies'hippy

And of course based on a true story,,,,,,,,,,,

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ashishkec

by Hiemlich Harrer... read this book a long time back and still consider it to be one of the best books related to Tibet...

Guess related books would be the entire range of T Lobsang Rampa...

Wish I could visit Tibet at least once in this lifetime...
Anyone out here on IM who has been to Tibet??

Putty

Yes, a great book. Be sure to read the sequel "Return to Tibet" about Heinrich's journey back to Tibet in 1982. I read this book so long ago but I do recall Heinrich's regret at the changes that have taken place.

Ashishkec, I went to Tibet on a guided 8-day tour back in 2001. I did the trip with Greenhill Tours in Kathmandu and the trip was wonderful. A photographic dream! We went overland from Kathmandu to Lhasa in landcruisers and flew back to Kathmandu. If you would like more info on Greenhill Tours here is their website www.greenhilltours.com.np - they were really helpful and the night before departure they have an 'information session' where they go through everything you need to know about the trip and answer any questions you might have - they are centrally located right next door to Kathmandu Guest House.

A word of advice - if you decide to go, do take some altitude sickness tablets with you. I didn't and fair dinkum thought I was going to die. The tour group consisted of 17 people in 4 landcruisers. One of the cruisers broke down on the top of a pass (5050m) and, because we had the Tour Guide in our cruiser, we couldn't proceed down the mountain until the other cruiser was fixed. It started with a terrible headache which soon grew to a throbbing migraine, feeling like I was going to pass out and vomit at any moment. The Tour Guide took one look at me and got the driver to take me down off the pass to the next town 15 minutes away. Didn't eat a thing that night, went straight to bed and vomited all night. Felt better within 24 hours and enjoyed the rest of the trip!!

I must have 70 odd books on Tibet on my bookshelf. For anyone interested, I would recommend reading the following:

TIBETAN ACCOUNTS OF THE CHINESE INVASION (these three books will break your heart)
The Autobiography of a Tibetan Monk - Palden Gyatso
Paperback ISBN: 0-8021-3574-9
The Voice That Remembers: A Tibetan Woman's Inspiring Story of Survival - Ama Adhe. Paperback ISBN: 0-86171-149-1
A Strange Liberation: Tibetan Lives in Chinese Hands - David Patt
Paperback ISBN: 1-55939-013-1

DALAI LAMA'S ESCAPE FROM TIBET
In Exile from the Land of Snows: The Definitive Account of the Dalai Lama and Tibet Since the Chinese Conquest - John F. Avedon
Paperback ISBN: 0-06-097741-8

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!
Tears of Blood: A Cry for Tibet - Mary Craig
Paperback ISBN: 1-58243-102-7

If anyone is interested in these books, jump onto Amazon.com and search the books for these titles and read the reviews by people who have read them.

Happy reading. Let me know if you would like the titles of any more books on Tibet.

Cheers,
Putty

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ashishkec

Hey Putty,

Thanks a lot for the Info ! You are the first person I have known who has actually been to Tibet !


Ashish

lonelyaztec

Thanks Putty for the great information on the book.

I want to visit Tibet. Ur information on the travel agent in Nepal is great. Thanks a lot.

Putty

Hi Ashish & LonelyAztec,

Your welcome for the info on Tibet. My interest in Tibet grew from reading the Dalai Lama's first autobiography "My Land, My People" and then the follow up "Freedom in Exile".

With Greenhill Tours I booked everything via email (with a guy called Indra). The cost back in April 2001 for 8 day overland trip was approx. $US585.00.
I'm currently planning my next trip back to the subcontinent for March 2007 when I have 17 weeks leave from work to travel Tibet/Nepal/India again.

I am hoping to do the Tibet trip again.

All the best,
Putty

Dilliwala

Get the movie instead. You'll be done in 4 hours.


Altho there have been liberties taken in the screen-play.

Haylo

The rate I get through books, it's unlikely that the movie would be quicker for me than reading the book.

Plus, on nearly every occasion* when I have read a book and seen the movie, the movie has been vastly inferior and taken great liberties with the plot.


Edited to add: You meant "Seven Years in Tibet" when you spoke of the film?

Nick-H

Swallows and Amazons is my favourite example of a book true to its novel --- except of course, they changed Titty's name. But then, who wouldn't?

The Cruel Sea is also very true to the book*.

(If I mention Brief Encounter, that'll be just about my movie selection all wrapped up in one post. I think it was written as a film script though, so no book to be true to.)



*even maintaining the war-is-just-bloody-and-filthy note of the book, at a time when films were about heroes.

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Haylo

Never seen the film, but I read that book when I was very young, (probably way too young) and it had a real impact on me.

dzibead

The film took liberties with the book and the book took a few liberties with reality. From reading the book or seeing the movie, you'd get the impression Harrer and Peter Aufschnaiter were the first Westerners to enter Lhasa! (I have friends who knew Harrer when he was in Tibet. Six degrees of separation ...)

Dilliwala

Yes, I did hear that about the book. Never read it.

federica

Wasn't it forbidden for foreigners to enter Lhasa before? I just know about Alexandra David-Neel, a French lady who went to Lhasa secretly dressed as a Tibetan nun in 1924. At that time it was a "forbidden city".

dzibead

Nope. This is a common misconception - all part of promoting the "mystique" of Tibet, I guess.

The British had a "presence" in Tibet ever since Francis Younghusband's expedition (invasion, really) in 1904. Younghusband entered Lhasa in 1904 and signed a treaty with the Tibetan government that included a provision that there would be a British trade agency at Gyantse. The numerous British trade agents after that - some of the better known are Charles Bell, Leslie Weir (grandfather of the Bristish actress Joanna Lumley), and Frederick Williamson - regularly visited Lhasa and in 1937 a permanent British residency was established in Lhasa itself.

Even the Americans made it to Lhasa before Harrer. In 1942-1943, Ilia Tolstoy (grandson of the Russian novelist) and Brooke Dolan, two American OSS officers, were in Tibet, including Lhasa, and took a pretty well-known collection of photographs. Harrer didn't get to Lhasa till 1946.

Here's a link to some early photo collections of Tibet, largely taken by various British photographers from the 1920's into the 1940's:
http://tibet.prm.ox.ac.uk/index.php

Here are links to films taken by Frederick Williamson, one of the British trade agents in the 1930's:
http://www.thdl.org/collections/special/williamson.html
http://www.digitalhimalaya.com/colle...amsonfilms.php

Here's a memoir by Frederick Williamson's wife that includes accounts of her travels in Tibet, including Lhasa, in the 1930's:
http://www.amazon.com/Memoirs-Politi.../dp/0861710568

And here are two interesting books by Tibetan women about their lives in Tibet from the early 20th C. until they were forced into exile in 1959 - the first one, House of the Turquoise Roof, was written by the aunt of a friend of mine :
http://www.amazon.com/House-Turquois...1522147&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/Daughter-Tibet...1522208&sr=1-1

In my opinion, Harrer was a shameless self-promoter who inflated his place in the scheme of things. I don't recall either of the the books by the two Tibetan woman even mentioning him (if they did, they only mention him in passing), even though they were members of the upper-class circle that Harrer associated with. I don't mean they didn't know him - my friend's mom, who is now 90, and is the sister-in-law of the woman who wrote House of the Turquoise Roof, certainly knew him - there are pictures of her and other family members in Harrer's book "Lost Lhasa" --, but they didn't think he was any big deal - which is not the impression he gives in his book. He puffs himself up as being more important that Peter Aufschnaiter, but Aufschaiter actually spent more time in Tibet and Nepal than Harrer did!