Lost Lhasa

Lost Lhasa is the visual sequel to mountaineer/adventurer Heinrich Harrer's great travel and adventure classic Sevin Years in Tibet, which has sold more than three million copies since its publication in 1953. Its 200 extraordinary photographs provide a unique record of life in and around Tibet's capital city of Lhasa as it will never be seen again, when Tibetan society was still innocent of other 20th-century cultures.During his seven years in Lhasa, the Austrian-born Harrer became a government official and tutor to the young Dalai Lama. Between 1944 and 1950, when the Chinese occupation of Tibet forced him to flee, he took thousands of photographs that give us a last glimpse of Buddhist ceremonies, family celebrations, athletic contests, and the sad flight of Harrer's avid pupil, the 18-year-old Dalai Lama.Mountaineer/photographer Galen Rowell sets Harrer's achievements in perspective and helps make this book, in Harrer's words, "the culmination of my half century of involvement with Tibet".