Customer Reviews

Murder in the High Himalaya: Loyalty, Tragedy, and Escape from Tibet

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The main story line is about a mountain climbing expedition intersecting destiny with an escaping Buddhist nun named Kelsang. Merely telling this story would have been interesting enough, but the author goes through many interesting and worthwhile detours to add to the overall mood of the story and the book. There are valuable historical chunks, like the British involvement in Tibet and how they hired spies to map out vast regions of Tibet. There are a lot of chunks about Chinese communism and Tibet as well. The narrative style is the kind that I like, with no overt judgments being made, but instead describing many revealing events in enough detail to feel one is living there, and letting the reader draw his or her own conclusions. There is, for instance, a section on Cordyceps which was called "soft gold" because it was so valuable, and was abundant enough to be a Tibetan natural resource, with many Tibetan towns going from subsistence living to prosperity through it. There are enough descriptions of Tibetan religious life, too, to get a feeling for how Tibetan Buddhism is lived. The author quotes enough source material to indicate that he is well read on the subject. The backdrop of Buddhist quotes counterpoints the drama of the escape and how the nun got shot while escaping. All in all, a very good narrative, a hidden book on history and current events, and an indirect sharing about the life of Tibetan Buddhists in a country sometimes oppressed by a foreign political power.

Murder in the High Himalaya is an exquisitely crafted tale that depicts nearly indescribable horrors. It is actually three vivid stories, woven seamlessly together: the heroic attempts of impoverished Tibetans to survive economically, culturally and spiritually; the ethical dilemma of wealthy Westerners faced with choosing between dangerous self-indulgence and moral imperative; and the abuse and torture inflicted by the Chinese as they pursue genocide in their relentless drive for world dominance.

These three irreconcilable cultures converge at a moment in time - September 30th 2006 - at a single place on Earth: the Nangpa La Pass through the Himalayan Mountain Range between Tibet and Nepal. In the brilliant morning sunlight on snowy mountains, Western climbers witness Chinese border soldiers murdering Tibetans, including a 17-year-old nun, as the Tibetans attempt to go to India to meet their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. The Tibetans want to leave oppressive captivity in their own country - some briefly, some permanently - and are restrained, retained and tortured by the Chinese occupying forces. The Western climbers want to battle the thin air and treacherous ice of the world's highest mountains, and pay extraordinary amounts of money to the Chinese for the right to safely enter Tibet. The Chinese stand at the fulcrum, AK-47s fully loaded in the hands of young soldiers.

It is one thing to tell a story; it is another to tell a story truthfully; it is yet again a much more nuanced and delicate task to be both elegant and objective, and allow the story to unfold itself to the reader. The author has achieved the last of these three, and the death of 17-year-old Tibetan Buddhist nun Kelsang Namtso is all the more heart wrenching because Mr. Green remains objective and lets the facts to be the judge. Additionally, he goes beyond superficial cultural stereotypes as he describes the political history of Tibet, the complexities of current world politics and the motivations and choices of individuals.

There is a fourth thread in this braided tale: the perseverance and courage of the author, award-winning investigative journalist Jonathan Green. He obviously thoroughly researched the history and current events of Tibet and is well schooled in world politics. It is also clear, by implication only, that Mr. Green risked his own welfare, traveling to India, Nepal and the Roof of the World to gather first-hand information for the story. It is clear only by implication because it is the writer's job to step aside and allow the story to emerge, and that is exactly what Mr. Green achieved.

I hope Jonathan's next book is the back-story; the risks and dilemmas he faced in order to tell the truth with extraordinary clarity, depth and compassion. We, the readers, have a responsibility to honor and thank investigative journalists for bringing the world to us in our safe homes and comfortable chairs. Too often, we forget that investigative journalists are irreparably harmed or killed in their commitment to tell the truth.

So I say here: Thank you, Jonathan Green, for all you did to write this book, and then for writing it. It is essential that human rights violations be documented and the details available for all in the world to know.

Subtitled "Loyalty, Tragedy, and Escape from Tibet" , this book tells a harrowing true story that has received international attention. It vividly portrays an incident that occurred in September 2006 when mountaineers planning to climb Mount Cho Oyu witnessed Chinese soldiers firing on unarmed Tibetans who were trying to escape to India through Nepal. A Romanian journalist who was on the mountaineering trip filmed it and later other journalists brought this incident to the world's attention. This story and how it all played out is the subject of this engrossing book. It reads like fiction but, unfortunately, it is all true and the reality of the brutality of the Chinese in Tibet is glaringly brought to light.

The book is told in chapters alternating between two points of view. We first meet two teenage Tibetan girls, one of whom is a Buddhist nun, who are determined to flee from Tibet to India, where the Dalai Lama has lived since the late 1950s. Since then, many Tibetans have made this dangerous trek over icy mountains. The Chinese try to stop these trips, arresting the refugees they catch and subjecting them to horrible tortures. But the thirst for freedom is great and there is a constant stream of people willing to pay their life savings to guides, bribe officials and face the dangers of traipsing over ice and snow in one of the most physically challenging terrains in the world.

We also meet an enterprising tour guide who makes a very comfortable living escorting wealthy climbers up Mount Everest. We learn about the lucrative mountaineering business and the reluctance of the people involved in it to offer help to the refugees and offend the Chinese. The tour guide sees the murder of the young nun and risks his career to bring the story to light.

I read this book with tears in my eyes. I have always known about the cruelty of the Chinese to the Tibetans but this book made it even more real. I was saddened and yet inspired by the people who are trying to bring the truth to the world. I definitely recommend this book. It expands the world in a way that makes our daily inconveniences and upsets seem lightweight.

After I finished the book I did a little googling on the web about this incident. I discovered a full length documentary about it which can be watched online. Check it out: [...]

This non-fiction is as riveting as a finely wrought novel, and as tragic as many classical fiction pieces. I could not put it down, and completed reading within three sittings in two days.

The book is a stark reminder of the costs of relying upon China for electronic, textile and all manner of other manufactured items, not to mention the support of the U.S. deficit and currency.

Human beings with souls as great as the Himalaya themselves are sacrificed as a result. This, as the Dali Lama tells his followers, is the simple truth that all of us must tell.

Please read this book, and tell everyone you know about it. Humanity's safekeeping hangs in the balance.

--- Alyssa A. Lappen

First, let me say that reading this book was an emotionally draining experience for me.

This is a murder mystery where you know that 17-year old Kelsang will end up murdered by Chinese border guards. And yet, the power of Mr Green's writing is such that you keep praying that somehow the story will end differently. Its like watching James Cameron's 'Titanic' and hoping that by some miracle, the ship doesn't actually sink.

Second, Mr Green works his narrative in multiple levels. At its most obvious level, the book is about the sequence of events that conspire to bring a seasoned climber and a teenage refugee together at a crossroads in history. At another level it is about the greater struggle for Tibetan independence. And at yet another level, it is about how geopolitical forces that were set in motion by British imperialists, made this intersection almost inevitable.

Third, there are no good guys in this story. There are the victims of oppression, struggling to keep an even keel, and against them are arrayed multiple forces of evil. Whether its the British of yesteryear, the Nepalese, the international climbing community, or the Chinese, no one comes out of this book looking good. In other words, if 'objectivity' is measured by the abuse each party gets, then this is the most objective book I've read in a long while.

Fourth, the named 'heroes' of the book are mostly flawed individuals - one of them is accused of being a glory-hunter, while the other uses foul epithets in the presence of the Dalai Lama. Surprisingly, it is this that makes the book so compelling. The heroes are simply everyday people.

Sadly most of the villains are everyday people too. It is easy to see oneself in the role of the indifferent and the uncaring, as no great distance separates most of us from the majority of climbers who were spectators to this crime, but did nothing to help.

It surprised me to discover that, in the end, this book is not about refugees ... over half of the escapees it turns out, eventually return to Tibet.

Instead, it is a story about what lengths a people will go to for their faith and beliefs. The trials and tribulations undergone by ordinary Tibetans to get a glimpse of the exiled Dalai Lama seem almost ludicrous to the non believer.

But then how much would a believer of any faith be willing to face - if they were to be promised an audience with their own deity?

In conclusion, while I highly recommend this book, I should also note that it is not for the squeamish. At multiple points in the book I had to stop reading to air out the images in my mind.

There is no fairy tale ending to be found here. As you accompany these weary refugees across the inhospitable Nangpa La pass, they soon become your friends, and their challenges begin to affect you in a very personal way.

Mr Green has indeed written a very compelling book.

Happy Reading!
~Damodar

In 2006, a video began circulating on YouTube [see comments below for links] showing Tibetan refugee's escaping across the border into Nepal while being fired upon by Chinese army goons. In the distance a lone figure falls dead on the mountain. This became known as the Nangpa La shooting, which is the story behind investigative journalist Jonathan Green's book `Murder in the High Himalaya`. It seems like a minor incident now, but Green draws in many facets and people to build a gripping and important contemporary story about Tibet, and a very personal profile of exactly what "human rights abuse" really means.

Green begins with a brief introduction to the history of Tibet and the Chinese occupation in 1950. He then threads a braided human interest narrative about two main characters: Kelsang Namtso, the 17-year old girl murdered on the mountain; and Luis Benitez, an American mountain climber who witnessed it and whose life would be changed forever. Each chapter switches back and forth between the two, moving forward in time until their paths finally cross that fateful day. It reads like a novel.

I don't like to use the Nazi analogy, but its true, Tibet today is like occupied Europe under the Nazis. Not Western Europe, but Eastern Europe, where things were much tougher. It makes for thrilling if not chilling reading with late-night escapes, dogs, searchlights and check-points. Internment camps, sadistic guards, torture, bribes, safe houses, underground railroads, Collaborators and Resisters, etc.. it's all real and happening today. Green's book is one of the few reliable accounts since the wall of secrecy and Tibetan culture still keep most people silent.

`Murder` changed how I view Tibet, its clearly a very bad situation. As well it changed how I see wealthy mountain climbers who hoard the peaks every year in feats of egoistic bravo, while at their feet Tibetans are trying to escape to freedom and being shot. It makes climbing Everest seem somewhat banal and anti-climatic and strips it of its romanticism. The true story of Tibet is clearly not good business for China, or mountain climbing companies, all of whom collaborate to keep silent. The book is full of pseudonyms, people are afraid of being ostracized for speaking out, either from the tight-nit climbing community or by Chinese authorities. The book has been optioned to be made into a film for release in 2012, hopefully this powerful story will reach a wide audience. As the Dali Lama said, Kelsang Namtso did not die for no reason.

I am not sure Jonathan really knows what he accomplished with this book. I have studied and worked with the Tibetan issue for over 15 years and read most of the "must-reads", and I rate this as one of the very best. Cause it does give you a good background on the Tibet Question, a history lesson, but it is actually also a good read. That can not be said about every book written on the subject. Learning so much about the climbing world was new and fascinating for me, and that is an added bonus. Overall though, the worth and value of reading the book is that you gain insight and understanding into the thinking of all those thousands and thousands of Tibetans that risk their life to leave Tibet. Why they leave. How they leave. What they risk.

When I last visited Tibet in January this year I even went through quite a big struggle in order to visit the Nangpa La - the mountain pass that acts as one of the books main characters. I stood there, in the Chinese military camp from which the soldiers descended upon the refugees on that fateful day in 2006 - which is the event which the book is focused on. Standing there I came to fully appreciate how this story and the way it is told by Jonathan Green has influenced me and helped me in my work. I even brought the topic up in an interview I did with His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Read it. Buy it. It is also available as an app if you, like me, actually wish to bring it with you into China.

As I was reading this book, I kept thinking that history keeps repeating itself. We don't learn.
Self interest seems to be present everywhere. People don't change just get worse.

The mountaineering section of the book was interesting.

The book will invigorate Tibet's plight. People tend to forget.

This is a very difficult review for me to write. I don't know if I can fully described my emotions reading this book and do justice to the cause of the Tibetan people oppressed by the Chinese. I'll do my best. Other reviewers have laid out the story line. At the beginning of the book it seemed that there were two unrelated stories going on but soon enough the two stories (Western climbers and Tibetan refugees fleeing Tibet through Nepal) converge and Western climbers see the cold blooded murder of a Tibetan nun in the Himalaya. She was running away from Tibet to serve as a nun in India. What happened next was almost as horrifying as the murder itself- the refusal of the Western climbers to bear witness to what they had seen. They remained quiet, not wanting to put their climbing permits (issued by the Chinese) in jeopardy for the next climbing season. When I starting realizing that the Western climbers were going to turn their backs on this needless, senseless murder, i dropped the book, put my head in my hands and wept. There is no book that has ever done this to me.

Only one Western climber came forward at great risk to his career as an expedition leader to bear witness to what he had seen. He was the first witness since the takeover of Tibet in the 1950's of the murder of Tibetan refugees by the Chinese. This was extraordinarily important to the Free Tibet political movement. In addition, a Romanian climber caught the entire murder with his video camera and snuck the footage out of Nepal and released it to the world. This is a book I highly recommend. I had always known that there was some type of discord going on in Tibet but I really knew nothing more. This book educated me and left me very angry with the Western climbers and the Chinese. It is a very emotional read but very much worth everyone's time. As the Western witness put it "The atrocity of silence was probably greater than the atrocity of the act itself", He was harassed by other climbers because he came forward. Hundreds of climbers witnessed that murder but only a handful would bear witness- what an atrocity.

What can I say about this powerful accounting of a complex, multifaceted tragedy? I'll start by saying that the duality in its message profoundly affected me...heroism vs. cowardice, humility vs. egocentricity,desperate fear vs. unbounded courage, altruism by doing good for good's own sake vs. doing good to look good to others, calamitous deceit vs. faithful blind trust, utter helplessness vs. unwavering hope...

Mr. Green's command of timing, tone and descriptive settings had me hooked and I found myself not wanting to put it down so I could read what was next and yet wanting to read it slowly because I knew the eventual outcome. I couldn't help but become introspective after reading it... feeling some stinging shame at being a westerner, questioning what would I have done if I were there and wondering what do I do now, reflecting upon how much I don't know about the world... This is an important book and I will recommend it often.