Eventually, Harrer became a tutor to the young Dalai Lama. Soon, they became part of Lhasa's social elite. Here, Harrer and Aufshnaiter made themselves invaluable to the local authorities with their engineering and gardening skills. Regularly dodging suspicious officials on their way and some very close encounters with the dreaded Khampas (inhabitants of Kham, these nomads had earned a reputation as fearsome as that of the Thugs in the 18th century), the two trudged over 1,000 miles to reach Lhasa in 1946.

By then, the Second World War had broken out and Harrer was interned in a prisoner of war camp at Dehradun.įive years later, he escaped from the camp along with Aufschnaiter, crossed the Himalayas and entered Tibet. In April 1939, he landed in India to take part in an expedition to Nanga Parbat. An Austrian by birth, Harrer had earned a reputation early in life as a skilled mountaineer and Olympic skiing champion. Harrer's story is well known (his accounts were first published in 1952). It ranks with Peter Mathiessen's The Snow Leopard amongst the best travelogues on the great Himalayas and the plateau beyond. To date, Seven Years In Tibet remains the most extraordinary tale ever told of physical endurance and the will to succeed. Clearly, Harrer and not Younghusband was the last great adventurer. Till Heinrich Harrer and his partner, Peter Aufschnaiter, marched right across Tibet to reach Lhasa in 1946. His contingent of Indian sepoys conquered Gyantse and Shigatse before marching into Lhasa.įor most people, there was no adventure left after trekking to Tibet.

Then Francis Younghusband led an expedition to Tibet in 1903.

The British, fearing a Russian takeover of Tibet, had trained several Indians to gather intelligence on Tibet: Pundits Nain Singh and Kishan Singh, the lion-hearted Kintup, Sharat Chandra Das (who made a reappearance as Hurree Babu along with Kintup in Jamyang Norbu's The Mandala Of Sherlock Holmes) all trekked up to Lhasa and brought back a wealth of information on the country. In contrast, several Indian explorers, unknown and unsung, managed to break through the iron wall. If they survived the inhospitable climate and the marauding Khampas, the monks of Lhasa ensured all visitors were turned away before they reached anywhere close to the forbidden city. Most European explorers of the 19th century failed miserably in the effort. Till the Chinese got full control of Tibet and drove out the Dalai Lama from his Potala palace in 1959, reaching Lhasa was the ultimate challenge for any adventurer.

Heinrich harrer return to tibet