Very rare first edition!!!Seven years in Tibet - Heinrich Harrer - 1953

Seven Years in Tibet - Heinrich Harrer - Traslated from the german by Richard Graves - With introduction by Peter Fleming - Rupert Hart-Davis - 1953, fifth impression - 288pp, 24 plates in b/w & colour, map, colour photograph of the Dalai Lama receiving the sacred relic  - Hardcover in very good condition; original blue cloth, spine with gilt lettering - Dustcover (Org. jacket in colour) shows some rubbing on spine, small part missing of top spine, rest in good condition - Internally: some netting visible in front but book is tightly bound and clean ; no foxing. Postage R45.00

Seven Years in Tibet relates the author's account of the seven years he spent living in the remote and then little-known country of Tibet after escaping from a British internment camp in India in 1943. The chief value of the book is in its privileged glimpses into the Tibetan way of life -- customs and rituals, morals and manners, politics, religion, festivals and costumes. It is a rare and fascinating record of a now almost extinct culture. Harrer's description of Lhasa is particularly vivid, and he is generous in his praise of those Tibetans; it is fair to say that Harrer portrays quite accurately the Tibetan national character, at least as it once was, prior to the Chinese invasion in 1952. The book concludes with Harrer return to Europe and the fate of Tibet still very uncertain. Harrer's final statement reads: "My heartfelt wish is that this book may create some understanding for a people whose will to live in peace and freedom has won so little sympathy from an indifferent world.