ML138499
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Subject: (Interview). Subtitle: Heinrich Harrer. Timecode In: 00:02:30. Timecode out: 01:09:22. Notes: Tibet. Equipment Notes: Stereo=1; Split track. Interview with Heinrich Harrer April 17, 1991 HH = Heinrich Harrer AC = Alex Chadwick Room ambience HH: Nearly 80, the title professor was given by old Presidents of Austrian, I was a professor of Geography and Sports. AC: Your book like adventures stories of Edgar Rice Burroughs I used to read when I was a kid. AC: How did you manage to survive? HH: There were two of us -peter -we were a good team. We survived because we were both mountaineers. We read books about Tibet, it was a forbidden country. When I was a prisoner, planned next escape. . AC: Why to Tibet? HH: To escape to Tibet....being a geographer and a lover of mountains, we planned to escape to Tibet.. ****It was a dream. It was a place of magic and mystery to the whole world. ****To survive for years, we had to bring along interests, be occupied by something. Thought of giving up. No, everything was in Tibet. Kept on. Aim to go to Lhasa. AC: What did you know of Tibet? -Magical? HH: British books. We read of the Swedish explorer, Swen Hadine (?) ....he wrote Trans Himalayas ... . most fascinating place for a geographer....source of water for all the rivers....Mt. Kalas, Holy Mountain. But he had never been to Lhasa. And he asked us to keep notes, diaries, and we did that. AC: Did you have to trick people? HH: If you agree to go back to India, they said we would get things, but we tricked them. Ordered to go to Nepal ....we agreed but didn't say which direction we would go in...Nearing Lhasa, we said we were the cooks for the British who were coming. Finally we reached the gates, felt like Tibetan Buddhists who see the holy place. Feared the gate, but we walked thru the gate. ****Everything that is mysterious and magical that is written about Tibet because no one has been there..... ( .....NO after that cuz he rambles on) When we were inside the gate, were given good then put under house arrest. AC: When the Dalai Lama was 14 years old, and you saw him at his first public appearance at the ceremony....explain the moment HH: .....monasteries.....His Holiness had to undergo examinations like other monks. No exceptions for him. all sciences included in religious books. Had to know 15-25-30 years til knew everything. Thousands of monks watched. AC: describe the scene HH: (he describes the scene and goes on and on, but it's not good tape...then you asked how the DL did. HH noticed he knew more....talks about way of selecting DL -not too unlike going to a kindergarten class and see which boy is the best. For Tibetans it is a spiritual thing only. I think it's democratic. AC: Interesting that you say democratic, because when you write about Tibet, write about it being medieval, feudal. HH: Tibetans are accused of being medieval. But when I was there, there was no hunger, no disease. it's changed since the Chinese came. Country of 2-1/2 million km. There were of course professional beggars.... (he tells story of when he built dams, workers were missing....why should they make more money? AC: Chinese say people are better of. People were slaves. HH: .......Chinese introduced lots of things...built roads and bridges. Tibetans never needed them. AC: Tibetans gave up the wheel HH: Wheel is part of their religious life. Didn't need the wheel .....to have foreigners come and change things, that was wrong. AC: Dalai Lama, how was he when went to teach him? HH: ********** I was very excited when I got the order got horses --When I met him he was like every other young boy. he loved gadgets. would open a watch or a camera. He has a room in Dharamsala where he goes to find out how things work. We both learned English. Heard the radio. could learn from the news. Had films. I made... (Notes truncated)
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- 30 Apr 2009 - Ben Brotman
- Digitized
- 30 Apr 2009 - Ben Brotman
- Edited
- 30 Apr 2009 - Ben Brotman