The book was a lot better than in the movie. ( )

I'm reading this as an exercise in improving my German. However, native speakers warn me that the language is dated, and perhaps peculiar to Austria. Certainly, there are many words that aren't in my Langenscheidt.

I found it a bit dull in parts, very dry, but still a good read, and some fascinating observations of Tibetan culture. ( )

9.5

Seven Years in Tibet is a classic, to place it into historical context here is a "Brief History of Tibetan Travel Literature":

Prior to 1783, the only Westerners to travel to and write about Tibet were a few Jesuit priests and adventurers [[two early narratives are collected in Clements Markham, ed. Narratives of the Mission of George Bogle to Tibet, and of the journey of Thomas Manning to Lhasa (1876*)]]. These accounts were enough to spark European interest in the region but were too whimsical for ambitious colonialists who had grander designs in need of more specific information. Thus it is not surprising Tibet in 1792 closed its borders to Westerners: a 1783 British East India Company expedition had raised suspicions of Englands imperial intentions. Tibet became "The Forbidden Land", and for the entire 19th century - although many tried - only 3 Westerners reached the capital Lhasa, thus furthering its mystique. By 1904 the British - intending to finally establish diplomatic relations - sent an armed expedition under Francis Younghusband to Lhasa. It was successful, but bloody, causing international outrage [[newspaper reporter Edmund Chandler was there and wrote an account The Unveiling of Lhasa (1905*), as were a number of other books by participants. Travel writer Peter Fleming wrote a "full account" in Bayonets To Lhasa: The First Full Account Of The British Invasion Of Tibet In 1904 (1961*)]]. Kipling's novel Kim (1901*) was popular at the time, and it includes a romantic portrayal of a Tibetan lama which fueled imaginations of all-wise spiritual beings, but instead Younghusband found a reality of poverty and "feudal" backwardness.

After Younghusband's 1904 "gunboat" diplomatic mission, Tibet did allow a few British representatives in, but a steady tide of trespassers kept coming [[as described in Peter Hopkirk's Trespassers on the Roof of the World : The Secret Exploration of Tibet (1983)]]. Some of the more notable include Frenchwoman Alexandra David-Neel who in 1923 disguised herself as a beggar and reached Lhasa [[My Journey to Lhasa (1927)]] - in the same year American William Montgomery McGovern also made it to Lhasa using the same trick [[To Lhasa in Disguise (1924)*]]. By the 1930s modernity had started to make inroads, Tibet's aristocracy began to look outward, the borders were more fluid, and more well known personalities were writing about it in less Shangri-La cliches, notably Robert Byron [[First Russia, Then Tibet (1933)]], Marco Palli [[Peaks and Lamas (1939)*]], and Fosoco Maraini [[Secret Tibet (1952)]]. By the time Heinrich Harrer arrived in 1944 Tibet had only 6 years left before the Chinese Communists would invade and a new type of curtain would fall over The Forbidden Land. Harrer's 'Seven Years in Tibet' marks the end of "Old Tibet" (as a nation, and a western "secret land" literary tradition), and the start of a new contemporary era more focused on human rights, indigenous peoples and post-colonialism.

Seven Years in Tibet is foremost a great adventure story, National Geographic ranks it #20 in its list of all time best Outdoor/Adventure Literature. Some of the works mentioned in this review are also great adventure tales (David-Neel's book ranks at #55), but what sets Seven Years apart is that Harrer had a personal relationship with the Dalai Lama, the first Westerner to ever do so. The Dalai Lama is now a world figure but it was Harrer who first introduced him to the outside as his personal tutor. They remained close friends for life and it is probably no accident that after Harrer died in 2006 the Dalai Lama announced his "retirement" in 2007, a sort of symbolic closure with the West. In any case, although Harrer was not the first Westerner to reach or write about Lhasa, his war-time adventure and friendship with the Dalai Lama sets this account apart as not only great exploration/travel literature, but an important record of Tibet just before its fall to the Communists, and a history of the early life of the still living Dalai Lama.

* (work freely available online)

--Review by Stephen Balbach, via CoolReading (c) 2008 cc-by-nd ( )