![]() ![]() Divorced from his Nazi past, he chose to live the rest of his days in solitude.This movie is a case of something important that's just not that well communicated. On the side, he went on mountaineering expeditions to Everest, Shishapangma, and Chusumdo Ri, and visited ancient sites throughout the country. He got jobs in mapmaking, engineering, and humanitarian aid. He spent the next couple of years climbing and working for local governments in Nepal and India. Aufschnaiter chose to follow his own path and separated from his comrades. When China invaded Tibet in 1950, the Dalai Lama fled, taking the renegade Austrians with him. ![]() A skilled cartographer, he also made accurate maps, particularly of Lhasa. He designed a hydropower station and a small airport runway. This included working on sewage systems and irrigation. While Harrer bonded with the Dalai Lama by teaching him about Western culture, Aufschnaiter immersed himself in projects to better help the Tibetans. His introverted personality suited this adopted hermit lifestyle well. He went on religious pilgrimages and studied ancient Buddhist texts. He adopted many of their customs, including owning few possessions. Photo: ÖWAĪufschnaiter took an immediate shine to the Tibetans and their modest and reticent mountain culture. Peter Aufschnaiter surveys a project within view of Lhasa’s Potala palace. He and Harrer befriended the locals, including the young Dalai Lama. He could speak some Tibetan beforehand and continued to learn it rather quickly. ![]() Their success at hiding in Tibet owes much to Aufschnaiter’s linguistic prowess. Aufschnaiter and Harrer split from the others and made their way to Lhasa, Tibet. After attempting to escape and being recaptured, Aufschnaiter, Harrer, and a couple of others managed to escape the camp under the guise of local workmen. Rather, Aufschnaiter and Harrer found themselves in a British POW camp in Ahmednagar, India. Even mountaineering was considered a propaganda tool to demonstrate German superiority.īut the expedition to Nanga Parbat did not yield a triumphant summit. The Nazi party itself funded the Nanga Parbat attempt. Harrer was also a member of the Nazi Party and the SS. In 1939, he accompanied Heinrich Harrer on an expedition to Nanga Parbat. This gave him a job some years later at the German Himalaya Foundation. In 1933, he decided to join the Nazi Party because of the prospect of Austrian-German unity. He was also an avid mountaineer who undertook expeditions to the Alps and the Himalaya. After serving in the First World War, he studied agriculture. A retiring man, he preferred to spend time with nature than with people. Yet his was a life not many can measure up to.Īufschnaiter was born in Kitzbühel, Austria in 1899. Aufschnaiter was an elusive man who preferred to stay out of the limelight. But a third character occasionally appeared in that story: Peter Aufschnaiter, the second Austrian climber with him. Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer’s travel classic, Seven Years in Tibet, chronicles his seven years as a fugitive in Tibet (and confidant of the young Dalai Lama) during the Second World War.
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