Seven Years in Tibet by Heinrich Harrer

Heinrich Herrer steals into Tibet over the Himalayas after becoming bored and restless in an Indian Prisoner of War camp but instead of focusing on the suffering of his nearly-barefoot passage over the mountains in the winter, he instead focuses on fascinating descriptions of Tibet. Herrer was one of few European explorers not to come close to a developing country from an advanced position when he arrived in Lhasa, he had nothing but the clothes he wore, and his firsthand knowledge of the Tibetan people's kindness means his writing does not have the cultural typecasts common in the travel prose written at that time. His description of Tibetan people in its last days before the Chinese assault had me in tears.

5 Stars