Out of This World: Across the Himalayas to Forbidden Tibet, by Lowell Thomas, Jr. (HC, 1950, $4)
Hardly anyone visited Tibet, especially Lhasa, the capital. Not only did you have to be invited personally by the Dalai Lama, but you also had to travel 21 days by mules "over the highest mountain ranges and into the most remote county in the world". Only six other Americans had been there. Tibet and America did not even have official deplomatic contact.
So why suddenly were Americans invited to Lhasa? The answer- Communism. "Accutely aware of the Red's [Chinese] intentions [to control Tibet], the Lhasa government was considering how America might be made to realize Tibet's serious problem of defense against Asiatic Communism. Moreover, they wanted America and all the world to know that they are now, and have always considered themselves, an independent nation."
China wanted Tibet. Not only did China want to control Tibet's mineral wealth (uranium), they also wanted to control its 18,000 mile border with India. Would China invade India? No one knew.
As we all know, even if China did not invade India, it sure invaded Tibet. Neither the United States nor Europe intervened on Tibet's behalf. Now not only have monasteries been destroyed, and Tibetans killed, but so many Chinese live there that Tibetans are now becoming a minority in their own country. (Or not, depending on who you listen to.) Many roads and schools have been built. Infant mortality and life longevity are all supposed to be drastically better, again depending on who you listen too. What is not questioned, except by China, are religious repression and human rights abuses.
On a more humorous note, be sure to catch the last chapter listing what was needed on a trip to Tibet. For food, canned or dried vegetables and fruit were a must, as the only fruit and vegetables in Tibet were cabbage, potatoes and radishes. For gifts to Tibetan nobles, best bring Scotch, sherry or cigars. For the Dalai Lama himself, a 16 mm. Tarzan or Marx Brothers film would work. For yourself, sunburn lotion, water purification tablets, penicillin and lots of laxitives.
What Lowell did not bring with him was morphine or splints. On their return trip through the mountains his father's horse threw him. For 200 stormy mountainous miles Tibetans carried the ill man on a stretcher. Only when they reached New York did they learn Lowell had shattered his hip as well as broken his leg in eight places!
Look for this book on the new non-fiction table, as of July 5th.
