"Seven
Years in Tibet" by Heinrich Harrer
"Stones of Silence" by George B. Schaller
"The Trekker's Guide to the Himalaya and
Karakoram" by Hugh Swift
Reviewed
by John Gabree
The
Himalayas, the forbidding 1,800-mile mountain range that divides the
Indian subcontinent from Asia, have held a particular fascination
for westerners. Not only are these barren giants physically treacherous,
but the ancient civilizations they sheltered are especially alien
to or own. Despite the intrusion of pilgrims and traders from the
West, details of the social functioning of the dozens of tiny kingdoms
went largely unrecorded for centuries. As late as the end of the 19th
Century, maps of the Himalayas still showed such large areas as Tibet,
Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan as "unexplored."
Of all
the people of the Himalayas, the most mysterious and thus most fascinating
were the Tibetans. Except for a brief invasion by the British in 1904,
Tibet remained shrouded in a thick veil of mystery. Partly this was
a matter of the physical remoteness of the plateau, but also it reflected
a determination on the part of the Tibetans to remain aloof and apart.
At any event, in "Seven Years in Tibet" we have one of the
few in-depth accounts through western eyes of Tibetan life.
In 1943, Heinrich
Harrer, an Austrian mountain climber, escaped with a companion from
a British POW camp in the foot hills of the Himalayas. Two years later,
they reached Lhasa, Tibet's capitol. Within a relatively short time,
Harrer had risen from almost illegal status as an alien pauper to
the position of tutor to the Dalai Lama, the political and spiritual
leader of the country. In 1952, the Chinese invasion forced him to
leave Tibet. "Seven
Years in Tibet" is a rousing tale of adventure as well as an
intimate journal of daily life in a social environment that has been
lost forever. Because of the nature of Harrer's journey and because
he is a very courageous but in other ways ordinary person, "Seven
Years in Tibet" is unlike any other travel book you've read.
"Stones
of Silence: Journeys in the Himalaya"
is an adventure story of a different kind. It is the record by one
of the world's foremost animal biologists of his study of Himalayan
sheep and goats over the better part of a six-year period. These animals,
known by such obscure names as markhor, tahr, urial, argali and bharal,
had been little studied before Schaller, who hoped to answer such
fundamental scientific questions as whether the bharal was in fact
a goat or a sheep. The biology of sheep and goats may seem a trifle
esoteric, but Schaller in one of those rare scientists who can write
absorbingly for the layman. Like Harrer, the scientist is attempting
to preserve something in danger of being lost, and his passion for
his subject informs every page. Neither book should be missed by anyone
who enjoys armchair adventures.
If you go, as they say in newspaper travel sections, be sure to take
Hugh Swift's "The Trekker's Guide to the Himalayas and Karakoram,"
which the publisher touts as the only guidebook to the entire mountain
system. Included are chapters on the history, cultures and natural
history of the region, 22 maps, glossaries to seven Himalayan languages,
and lots of advice for the would-be trekker. All three volumes are
illustrated with photographs or line drawings. (1982)
Buy
Seven
Years in Tibet by Heinrich Harrer
Buy Stones of Silence by George B. Schaller
Buy The
Trekker's Guide to the Himalaya and
Karakoram by Hugh Swift
