Book Review: Seven Years In Tibet by Heinrich Harrer

 I must be a true adventure story reader.  Or, perhaps I was influenced by Larry McMurtry, who was not only a great writer, he was also a great reader.  In fact, books were his passion; the reading, buying and selling of them, that occupied essentially all of his adult life.  This is the central theme of his memoir, appropriately titled Books (Simon and Schuster, 2008).  In Books (chapter 62), Larry McMurtry writes:  "For most of my fifties, what I read for pleasure was travel writing, and the book that introduced me to the pleasures of inspired travel writing was called Tent Life in Siberia by George Kennan (1845-1924), originally published in 1871 by S. Low, Son & Marston and reprinted in 1986 by Gibbs M. Smith, Inc.  Larry McMurtry wrote the introduction to the reprinted edition of Tent Life in Siberia.  

For no particular reason, but surely influenced by Larry McMurtry after reading his memoir, I visited a dusty used bookstore in Ann Arbor, Michigan named West Side Book Shop (rare and antiquarian) on Liberty Street.  The place was a mess, of course.  Books shelved and otherwise stacked everywhere, as if the owners (two brothers?) had given up trying to keep order.  The owner, dressed in a crumpled suit and tie, sat at a small desk in front of the store doing a crossword puzzle.  He greeted people as they walking in.  I was there for browsing, not buying, and so I started in the front and worked my way to the back room.  On one of the bottom shelves, I saw a green spine, with large black letters Tent Life in Siberia printed within an ochre border.  I pulled it from the shelf and there, at the bottom of the front cover, Introduction by Larry McMurtry.  Was I surprised and delighted?  You know the answer.  Cost:  $7,50.  I purchased this and a near perfect hardcover 1945 Grosset and Dunlap illustrated edition of Black Beauty by Anna Sewell for $10.  When the owner, saw Tent Life in Siberia, he gave me a double look.  I'm sure of it.

I began reading McMurtry's introduction to Tent Life ... and Kennan's "travel" book that night.  I was riveted and it was one of the best, if not the best, book I read in 2025.  George Kennan wrote other books, one of which is Siberia and The Exile System Vol. 1, which I ordered from an on-line used bookstore. This book is still considered by most as the definitive book about Russia's exile system.  

Why this long lead-in when I am reviewing Seven Years in Tibet?  Again, another happy finding; this time at my local library's monthly used book sale, I happened to see Seven Years in Tibet by Heinrich Harrer, publisher Jeremy P. Tarcher/the Penguin Group, 1953, with a $2 price sticker.  I picked it up, then thought of all of the books still to be read lined up at home, and placed it back on the table.  Usually the small paperbacks are priced at $1, but Seven Years in Tibet was doubled.  The line of books at home is aspirational reading for sure and so what harm is there in adding another, and besides, what's the difference between $1 and $2?  Really none, as nowadays money in the United States is essentially meaningless.  Oh sure, we all need to pay our bills, buy groceries, fuel for our cars and clothes for our bodies, but corruption and multi-billion dollar wealth as whittled away the value of money.  So just spend.  Money may worth even less tomorrow. 

Many years ago, I met a young Tibetan woman who was doing training on a new electronic medical system (EMS) at the hospital where I was employed.  I am IT challenged and self-conscious about it, but she was such a delightful and easy to work with individual that I never forgot her.  She had arrived in the United States at age 14, went to high school and was a recent graduate of a highly-regarded state university.  He father had been selected from a lottery to bring his family to the United States from India where they were living.  I believe this included her grandmother.  I recall a discussion where I learned that her grandmother lived through and remembered the events that are described by Heinrich Harrer in his Seven Years in Tibet.  My own first trip to India was still several years away in 2020, and also included three or four days in the state of Assam which borders the southern part of Tibet.  I recall that the appearance of many people in Assam was different than Indian-appearing people.

I finished reading Seven Years in Tibet, adventure writing, or as Larry McMurtry might describe it, travel writing of the highest order, last night.  Seven Years in Tibet has a 1982 forward by the 14th Dalai Lama himself.  Yes, that Dalai Lama, born July 6, 1935 in the village of Taktser, located in the Qinghai province China and identified as the reincarnation at the age of two.  The Dalai Lama is the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, recognized for his nonviolent struggle to end Chinese domination of Tibet.  The Dalai Lama is still alive and lives in Dharamshala, India which serves as the headquarters for the Tibetan government-in-exile, specifically at the Namgyal Monastery.  He has traveled the world extensively and is known worldwide.  Remarkably, the 14th Dalai Lama's name even pops up in the Epstein files, more than 150 times according to records released as recently as February 2026.  The Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama has unequivocally denied any connections or meeting with Epstein, stating that the references do not suggest any wrongdoing, misconduct or personal relationship.  Indeed, additional summaries reveal that Jeffrey Epstein would attempt to wrap his tentacles around any famous person for personal gain.  In the 1996 paperback edition of Seven Years ... there is a photo (page 212) of the Dalai Lama at age three begin carried in a parade through the streets of Lhasa to the monastery he will rule.  As a three year old he looks like the Dalai Lama we know as a 90 year old.

With a little background out of the way, now the review of this adventure book.  Author Heinrich Harrer was an Austrian soldier in the German army and is captured by the British in Karachi, India (the partition of 1947 was still eight away) in 1939 and imprisoned in a prisoner-of-war camp in India.  Along with others, he escapes the camp, not once by twice, as he his caught and returned following his first escape attempt.  His escapes are well planned as the POWs have access to books and maps and, using this information, the escapes routes are well-planned.  Tibet was neutral during the WWII and this made it the goal for the escapees.  The escapes are remarkable enough on their own, and on the successful second attempt, Harrar and his friend Peter Aufschnaiter, make it into Tibet and Harrar's adventure proceeds from there as they set their goal on making it to Lhasa.  A third of the way through the book, the author and his friend Aufschnaiter, finally make it to the Forbidden City.  But, not before the adventure of a lifetime to get there.  Chapter six, one of the longest and, for me, one of the best, The Worst Trek of All is riveting.  Bit by bit, they escape one calamity after another, experience loss, starvation, inadequate clothing for the weather, but their goal is so powerful that they are able to persist onward.  They meet a young married couple also traveling to Lhasa to begin their life together.  Harrer's sweetest writing is in this difficult passage:  "I remember this young woman as a gleam of sunshin in those hard, heavy days.  Once as we were resting she took out her wallet and smilingly handed each of us a dried apricot.  This modest gift was as a precious to us as the white bread the nomad had given us on Christmas Eve" (page 117).  He goes on the describe how strong and enduring Tibetan women are, and how the young woman would easily be able to earn her living in Lhasa.

Reaching Lhasa their luck, while not immediately certain, improves as they are treated with the generosity that the peaceful Tibetan people are known for.