Seven Years in Tibet by Heinrich Harrer (1953)

This is a 1990s paperback reprint, to tie into the movie starring a very young Brad Pitt.

Author Heinrich Harrer is notable in climbing circles for being part of the first team to successfully ascend the Eiger North Face, a story told ably in his book The White Spider. After the ascent of the Eiger, Herr. Harrer went to fight in WW2, where he ended up in a Britsh POW camp. He escaped from the camp and made his way to Tibet, where he lived for seven years, including devloping a friendship with the child Dalai Lama. THis book tells the story of his escape through the Himlayas and time living in Tibet. It is an exceptional adventure story and ethnographic study in one.

329 pages, including a new 1996 epilogue and a few black-and-white photos. Foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.