seven years in tibet, by heinrich harrer

next up on the world book tour: Seven Years in Tibet, by Heinrich Harrer

a fantastic portrait of a country taken by a modern man, of a pre-modern society, at its height, before the Chinese invasion erased a millennium of culture and tradition. it is hard to fathom just how isolated the country was: no foreigners, no external diplomacy, very little communication with the outside world, a pure theocracy with a God-King. Harrer does well with his straight forward descriptions and keen eye to capture the quotidian workings of the forbidden city, Lhasa, at the heart of Tibet.

I loved the descriptions of Tibetans sifting the earthworms from a spade full of dirt, and putting them back in the ground (because they could be a reincarnated ancestor or relative). And the description of a fully self sustaining society--a strange creature that we can only imagine in the interconnected world we live in today.

The book illuminates the status of Tibet vis a vis China. In Tibet's eyes, they had always been independent,but never bothered really to let the outside world know (which sounds totally crazy until you get inside the feudal isolation of the Tibetan mindset). So when China invaded them in the 50s, the world community really didn't understand Tibet as an independent state, so it was easy to conquer (especially since they didn't have much on a military), prop up a competing Lama (who'd know the difference?). They took advantage of Tibet's limited connection to the rest of the world, and in a funny irony, created in the Dalai Lama, a world figure, an exile Mandela that roams the rest of the world sowing distrust and embarrassment for the Chinese and support for Tibetans.