Back to the Classics -- 7 Jahre in Tibet.

Seven Years in Tibet

Well, I did roll a 7 - marking me for a very long classic, but looking for this book in the shelves I stumbled across Seven Years in Tibet written in 1953 by Heinrich Harrer. Translated into Danish by Lars Rosenkvist. That is a book I have wanted to read for many years, but I just never got to reading it before now.
I tentatively put this book in category
10: A Classic form Africa, Asia or Oceania. 


Link to the Back to the Classics Challenge.

I think what happens in the book is not new for very many people, but it was to me.

It is an autobiography written by the Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer, it covers the years from 1939, the beginning of WWII to 1961, Harrer is not a writer, but he has a story to tell, and he knows how to write after all.
He begins by being on a mountaineering expedition then being interned in India. He tries to get away more times, but only succeeds on his 3rd try together with 2 other  prisoners. Those three walks all the way from India to Tibet by foot, an exhausting and cold journey in the wintertime. Tibet is not welcoming strangers of any kind, and all the time they're told to return to India or go on to Nepal. But they stubbornly continues further into Tibet. One of his followers are not as physically fit as Heinrich and Aufschnaiter, and goes to Nepal, where he's welcome.
Heinrich and Aufschnaiter now tries their luck. They want to visit Lhasa, the forbidden city and capital of Tibet. That journey, in the winterlocked mountainous land, is a trial of strength unlike anything I've ever read before. They finally succeed and stay in Lhasa, first as unwelcome strangers, then as tolerated mysteries, then as trusted workers and teachers. In the end Heinrich meets the young Dalai Lama and makes friend with him. The story ends with them fleeing Tibet as the Chinese red army takes over the country.

It is a truly amazing book and a totally immersing read. Read the book, don't bother watching the movie.
With this said what strikes me - apart from the wonder of it all - is the disarming naivete with which it is written, Heinrich stayed for over 7 years in Tibet, learned to speak the language almost to perfection, and got a feeling for and understanding of Tibetan culture and life that is totally amazing. Yet his sentimentality, or what you may call it, is amazing. It is not the "white man's burden"-stuff, he's too wise for this. It is a reluctance to accept that Christmas is not celebrated in Tibet, and that the monks do not go somewhere private to relieve themselves. A funny lack to accept foreignnes, just as a small child, believing that deep inside everybody thinks in his (or her) own language. Also his political musings and thoughts on the roles of women and men in society are so bound to his own time and culture to be unwillingly comical. Luckily the edition, I read, had removed many of these passages.
And somewhere towards the ending he says that Dalai Lama number 14 was prophesied to be the last. In my ignorance I wondered how the next one had been chosen - until the truth dawned on me. He is the same one! His young Dalai Lama is the same as "my" old one.

-- 📚 -- updated list -- 📚 --

 1. 19th Century Classic:  Alice in Wonderland

 2. 20th Century Classic: READ - Trapp Family Singers.

 3. Classic by a Female Author: ?

 4. Classic in Translation: ?

 5. Classic Comedy: Don Quijote

 6. Classic Tragedy. The Odyssey or The Iliad.

  7. Very Long Classic: ?

  8. Classic Novella: ?

  9. Classic From the Americas: Huckleberry Finn or Tom Sawyer.

10. Classic From Africa, Asia, or Oceania (includes Australia):  THIS ONE

11. Classic From a Place You've Lived: Maybe Hamlet or Glasperlenspiel by Hermann Hesse. (I lived a year in Germany)

12. Classic Play: Jedermann.