Seven Years in Tibet - Softcover

Heinrich Harrer Richard Graves (Translator) Peter Fleming (Introduction)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0874772176 ISBN 13: 9780874772173

Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated, 1982

Synopsis

Imprisoned in India by the British when WWII was declared, Austrian climber Heinrich Harrer escaped, crossing the Himalayas to Tibet. Settling in Lhasa, the Forbidden City, he became the tutor and friend of the present Dalai Lama in this classic of adventure literature.

Heinrich Harrer, already a famous mountaineer and Olympic ski champion, was caught by the outbreak of the Second World War while climbing in the Himalayas. An Austrian national, he was imprisoned by the British in India. By an almost super-human effort, on his third attempt he succeeded in escaping from the internment camp and fled into Tibet.

After a series of remarkable experiences in a country never crossed before by a Westerner, Harrer reached the forbidden city of Lhasa. He stayed there for seven years, learned the language and acquired a greater understanding of Tibet and the Tibetans than any Westerner had ever before achieved. He became the friend and tutor of the young Dalai Lama and finally accompanied him into India when he was put to flight by the Red Chinese invasion.

Made into a successful motion picture starring Brad Pitt, this is a stunning story of incredible courage and self-reliance set against the backdrop of a mysterious and magnificent culture.

About this title

Review

‘Like the voyage of the Kon-Tiki, it deserves to take its place among the few great travel stories of our own times’
The Times

‘Few adventureres in this century have had the combined luck and hardihood to return with such news as this. Fewer still have rendered it so powerfully unadorned.’
Times Literary Supplement

‘Some books, like some mountains, are lonely and unrivalled peaks, and this is one of these.’ Economist

From the Back Cover

In the summer of 1939, climber and Olympic ski champion Heinrich Harrer was in India when war was declared. He found himself a prisoner of the British and was interned at the POW camp at Dehra- Dun.

‘Up here,’ says Harrer, ‘we had the Himalayas right in front of us. How attractive to a mountaineer was the thought of winning through to Tibet over the passes... Even if my plan failed it would be worth having a spell of high freedom in the high mountains.’ So began an adventure of epic proportions.

With few possessions and little money, Harrer escaped in 1944 and succeeded in reaching Tibet only to discover that the Tibetans did not welcome strangers. Eventually, after great hardship and some remarkable experiences, battling against both the ferocity of the elements and the indifference of officials to his plight, he succeeded in reaching the forbidden city of Lhasa where he became a tutor and friend of the present Dalai Lama, then a young boy, only leaving the country when the Red Chinese invasion forced the Dalai Lama to flee.

“Like the voyage of the Kon Tiki, it deserves to take its place among the few great travel stories of our own times.”
THE TIMES

“Few adventurers in this century have had the combined luck and hardihood to return with such news as this. Fewer still have rendered it so powerfully unadorned.”
TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
• Publication date: 1982
• ISBN 10: 0874772176
• ISBN 13: 9780874772173
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 318