Seven Years In Tibet

“Our ship was long overdue and the war-clouds were growing ever denser.”

Harrer foreshadows conflict and war by speaking of how the “war-clouds were growing ever denser,” alluding to World War II. The conflict would lead to his imprisonment in the British prisoner-of-war camp in India. He uses the metaphor of war clouds to suggest a strong sense of foreboding and the anxiety that loomed over him every day.

“This brook, which we had known a week back as a raging, deafening torrent racing down the valley, now wound gently through the grasslands. In a few weeks, the whole country would be green and the numerous camping-places, recognizable from their fire-blackened stones, made us pictures to ourselves the caravans which cross the passes from India into Tibet in the summer season.”

Harrer describes the pilgrimage and the way that the river eventually calms itself into small, approachable streams, introducing the theme of Nature as Barrier and Sanctuary. The river becomes a symbol of Tibetan culture, and how the further one goes into the mountains and this life, the more at peace one feels.

“The scenery was unforgettable. It was the colors which enchanted the eye and I have seldom seen all the hues of a painter’s palette so harmoniously blended. Alongside the clear waters of the Indus were light yellow fields of borax, with the green shoots of springtime springing up near them (for spring in these regions does not come until June). In the background were the gleaming snow peaks.”

This descriptive passage makes use of the visual senses through color and contrast to convey Harrer’s sense of awe at the landscape’s harmony and perfection, conveying nature as barrier and sanctuary. The “painter’s palette” simile emphasizes Harrer as an observer, capturing the Tibetan terrain in his memory. The juxtaposition of green, yellow, and gleaming peaks suggests a layering of cultural, ecological, and spiritual elements that define the landscape.