''Seven Years in Tibet: My Life Before, During and After'' (1952; german: Sieben Jahre in Tibet. Mein Leben am Hofe des Dalai Lama; 1954 in English) is an

autobiographical An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life. It is a form of biography. Definition The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...

travel book written by

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n mountaineer and

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

SS sergeant

Heinrich Harrer Heinrich Harrer (; 6 July 1912 – 7 January 2006) was an Austrian mountaineer, sportsman, geographer, ''Oberscharführer'' in the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS), and author. He was a member of the four-man climbing team that made the first ascent of th ...

based on his real life experiences in

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa, Taman ...

between 1944 and 1951 during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

and the interim period before the Communist Chinese People's Liberation Army invaded Tibet in 1950.

Plot

The book covers the escape of Harrer and his companion,

Peter Aufschnaiter Peter Aufschnaiter (2 November 1899 – 12 October 1973) was an Austrian mountaineer, agricultural scientist, geographer and cartographer. His experiences with fellow climber Heinrich Harrer during World War II were depicted in the 1997 film ' ...

, from a British

internment camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. Harrer and Aufschnaiter then traveled across

Lhasa Lhasa (; Lhasa dialect: ; bo, text=ལྷ་ས, translation=Place of Gods) is the urban center of the prefecture-level Lhasa City and the administrative capital of Tibet Autonomous Region in Southwest China. The inner urban area of Lhas ...

, the capital. Here they spent several years, and Harrer describes the contemporary

Tibetan culture Tibet developed a distinct culture due to its geographic and climatic conditions. While influenced by neighboring cultures from China, India, and Nepal, the Himalayas, Himalayan region's remoteness and inaccessibility have preserved distinc ...

in detail. Harrer subsequently became a tutor and friend of the

14th Dalai Lama The 14th Dalai Lama (spiritual name Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso, known as Tenzin Gyatso (Tibetan: བསྟན་འཛིན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་, Wylie: ''bsTan-'dzin rgya-mtsho''); né Lhamo Thondup), known as ...

. It has been said that the book "provided the world with a final glimpse of life in an independent Tibetan state prior to the Chinese invasion."

Publication

''Seven Years in Tibet'' was translated into 53 languages, became a bestseller in the United States in 1954, and sold three million copies. At the beginning of the

Flamingo Flamingos or flamingoes are a type of wading bird in the family Phoenicopteridae, which is the only extant family in the order Phoenicopteriformes. There are four flamingo species distributed throughout the Americas (including the Caribbea ...

edition of the book, a message from the

praises the work: "Harrer has always been such a friend to Tibet. His most important contribution to our cause, his book, ''Seven Years in Tibet'', introduced hundreds of thousands of people to my country." When Harrer died in 2006, the Dalai Lama repeated his praise of the author and sent a message of sympathy to Harrer's widow.

Films

Two films have been based on the book: '' Seven Years in Tibet'' (1956), a 76-minute documentary directed by Hans Nieter which includes both movies shot by Harrer during his stay in Tibet and various scenes from his adventures reconstructed by Harrer himself, and '' Seven Years in Tibet (1997)'', directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud and starring Brad Pitt as Harrer and

David Thewlis David Wheeler (born 20 March 1963), better known as David Thewlis (), is a British actor, author, director and screenwriter. Thewlis rose to prominence when he starred in the film ''Naked'' (1993), for which he won the Cannes Film Festival Awa ...

as Aufschnaiter.

Song

There is also a

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...

song entitled " Seven Years in Tibet", from his album '' Earthling'' (1997).

References

External links

Copy of the book on the Internet Archive
* 1952 non-fiction books Travel books Tibetan Buddhist art and culture Memoirs of imprisonment Austrian books Books about Tibet Non-fiction books adapted into films Cultural depictions of the 14th Dalai Lama Austrian autobiographies Books about India Rupert Hart-Davis books {{Tibet-stub