I have finished Murder in the High Himalaya:
Loyalty, Tragedy and Escape from Tibet by Jonathan Green, but I don’t
know where to start.
Maybe I should start with current headlines?
Two Tibetan teens self-immolate in protest of Chinese control (http://goo.gl/7mRPd). That makes fifty-one since 2009. Tibetans still
struggle for their freedom.
Maybe I should start at the beginning, go
back to 1950, or earlier? There is a lot I don’t know. That, I think, is the
crux of it. I am the norm. Most people in the U.S. do not know about Tibet.
Most of the world does not know what is happening there.
In attempting to write a review of Mr.
Green’s heart-wrenching book, I feel like there is so much that needs to be
said. There is not enough room on this blog to post it all, but I have some
thoughts I would like to share.
First, there is the author’s writing style.
More than an account of a tragic event, he puts his heart into this story. It
is far more than a fact-based report. As I told him, when I read his
descriptions of the land, I can see his love for that part of the world. The
mountains are characters themselves. They stand over time as silent witnesses.
What is the story? It is about a young nun
killed while trying to escape to a better life. It is about many others
surviving that escape. It is about Chinese control of a beautiful, mystical
country. It is also about the values of spirituality and faith clashing with
commercialism and socialism.
In Mr. Green’s account, Dolma Palkyi and
Dolkar Tomso were best friends from childhood. Dolkar took her vows at the age
of sixteen to become a nun, known as Kelsang Namtso. In 2006, the two decide to
escape Chinese controlled Tibet in hopes of meeting their spiritual leader, the
Dalai Lama. This simple act of expressing religious freedom, something too many
of us take for granted, would cost Kelsang her life.
At the same time, the story interweaves the
travels of Luis Benitez, a mountain climbing expert and guide. His occupation
was to lead the rich and privileged on luxury expeditions to the tops of the
world’s tallest mountains. The way the author builds his narrative, it is
interesting to watch Benitez’s path come together with Kelsang and Dolma. Even
before the fateful event, they unknowingly cross paths in Lhasa on the same
day.
The story is also about the world’s silence
when it comes to Chinese control of Tibet. The climbers, like Benitez,
witnessed the shooting of Kelsang, but would not speak out against the Chinese,
primarily for financial concerns. They did not want to lose money over the
death of one person. The book extrapolates that idea as the way the world views
China’s treatment of Tibet – the “superpowers” do not want to upset business
over one “little” country.
A lot of the much-needed history of Tibet,
China and even mountain climbing is thoroughly detailed. Filled with footnotes
and an extensive bibliography, it is clear that the author had a dedicated
passion for telling this story.
Many events stood out for me. In the author’s
words, “the unfiltered sun at 12,000 feet on the plateau drew the world into
sharp focus with startling clarity.” I think
his descriptions and attention to detail brought the story into “sharp focus
and clarity” repeatedly. I felt the tension of the late night truck ride. I
felt Choeden’s compassion as he helped the young children on their journey,
risking his own life. There are others instances: Jamyang’s experience at
Gyalpung base, Sergiu Matei’s paranoia and Benitez meeting with Dolma. That
meeting, more than the shooting, brought me to the verge of tears. As a reader,
I could identify more with the American entrepreneur and truly felt his
emotions. At the same time, I tried to imagine what the Tibetans felt. I
thought about how they left behind family. I thought about how they dropped the
last of their worldly possessions on the side of the mountainous path. Some of them
walked until their feet bled and they went snow blind. In the end, they risked
their life on a treacherous glacier while being shot at. I tried to think about
what might motivate me to take those risks. People are dying and sacrificing
themselves, while we try to decide what Kindle book to download next. I went
from the verge of tears to shedding them only a few pages later when Kelsang’s
family received word of her death.
That, I think, is the subtle power of
Jonathan Green’s book. In a way, it sneaks up on you. At the beginning,
everything was foreign to me and I was introduced to so many people. At that
moment near the end, I felt compassion and sorrow. As much as discovering a
tragedy on the other side of the world, it also made me look at my own life. It
made me want to do something to help those people, but I don’t have money or
power. I realized that I could help them by doing something in my own life,
with my wife, my children. Start small, teach them about truth and faith
(things I hope I have been doing). Let those actions take root and grow into
something better. Also, I could share the book. Tell people about it. That’s a
start, so I strongly recommend this book to anyone that wants to feel human.
I would like to close with a quote in the book
from His Holiness, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama:
Never
give up
No
matter what is happening,
No
matter what is going on around you
Never
give up
About
the author: Jonathan
Green is an award-winning author and journalist. He has reported from Sudan on
jihadist militias, the guerilla-controlled jungles of Colombia on the cocaine
trade, corruption in oil-rich Kazakhstan, the destruction of the rainforest in
Borneo and human rights abuses connected to gold mining in West Africa. He has
been the recipient of the Amnesty International Media Award for Excellence in
Human Rights Journalism, the American Society of Journalists and Authors award
for reporting on a significant topic and Feature Writer of the Year in the
Press Gazette Magazine and Design Awards. His work has appeared in Men’s
Journal, the New York Times, Fast Company, the Financial Times, British GQ and
Esquire and the Mail on Sunday among many other publications. Green has been
interviewed about his work on CNN, the BBC, radio and television, and NPR among
others. He lives in Massachusetts with his wife. (from the author’s website)
About the book: In 2006, an impulsive, naïve young Tibetan nun and her best
friend, both yearning for religious freedom from Chinese rule, joined a group
of fellow Tibetans desperate to escape to India, where the Dalai Lama has lived
since the 1950 annexation of Tibet by China. Kelsang Namtso and Dolma Palkyi
embarked on the brutal journey over the Himalayas. Smuggled by illegal guides
past Chinese border police, the group braved freezing temperatures and snow,
the high altitude, and perilous crevasses. Green alternates the refugees' trek
with that of Luis Benitez, an American celebrity mountain guide leading a rich
group of international clients to the Himalayan peak Cho Oyu. The two groups
met on the peak as Chinese guards, alerted to the refugees' presence, chased
after the escapees with machine guns ablaze, and Kelsang was killed in full
view of the Westerners. One of Benitez's clients filmed the incident, which
gained worldwide notoriety. Awkwardly written and poorly edited, freelance
journalist Green's earnest chronicle trumpets his disdain for the exploitation
of the Himalayas by rich, macho mountaineering novices, his hatred of Chinese
Communists for human rights violations, and his reverence for Tibetan culture. (June) Copyright © Reed Business
Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
You
can read
Murder in the High Himalaya
It
is also available in paperback, on BN Nook, iTunes, IndieBound and GoogleBooks.
Links to more information:
Watch the documentary
(images borrowed from author's website)
