A review by halfmanhalfbook
The Friendship Highway: Two Journeys in Tibet by Charlie Carroll
4.0
Carroll has been obsessed with Tibet for as long as he can remember. Seizing the opportunity to visit he takes it with both hands and heads off to China. When he arrives he finds out that the border is closed, but he is advised to wait for a little while so he looks around the town of Repkong. Suddenly the borders are open, and he will be allowed to enter, but he must accompany a group to be permitted. So he goes.
Carroll travels over all the country, seeing the capital and other landmarks. He even makes it to the foot of Everest before setting back off to the border with China again. He does manage to meet the locals without supervision from his guide, and in one of these surreptitious sojourns meets Lobsang, a frightened young man who has just had all his possessions stolen.
Lobsang was a child when he had to flee with his family following his brothers murder. He grows up in Kathmandu and becomes a student in Delhi, where he meets Drolma, a privileged student from Tibet. They fall in love, but at the end of his course she leaves for home, and he cannot follow. But he does, and crosses the border illegally to find her again. Working as an illegal he is taking huge risks of being caught, but one day he is made aware that Drolma has been arrested for revolutionary activities, and he is now at much greater risk, and need to cross the border once again to return to his family in Kathmandu.
It is this chance meeting that makes this book so poignant. Lobsang tells Charlie his whole story, extracting from him the promise that he will tell the world.
Lobsang's story is intertwined throughout the book with Carroll;s journey and experience of this country of Tibet. He tells of the majestic landscapes and high mountains, the mass of humanity in the cities, now populated by Han Chinese to dilute the local population, but also of the brutal suppression of the people by the Chinese. It makes for tragic reading at times.
Whilst he does not find much hope fro the chance of Tibet becoming an independent country once again, he does still see the spirit from the people to never forget their history in the country.
Well worth reading.
Carroll travels over all the country, seeing the capital and other landmarks. He even makes it to the foot of Everest before setting back off to the border with China again. He does manage to meet the locals without supervision from his guide, and in one of these surreptitious sojourns meets Lobsang, a frightened young man who has just had all his possessions stolen.
Lobsang was a child when he had to flee with his family following his brothers murder. He grows up in Kathmandu and becomes a student in Delhi, where he meets Drolma, a privileged student from Tibet. They fall in love, but at the end of his course she leaves for home, and he cannot follow. But he does, and crosses the border illegally to find her again. Working as an illegal he is taking huge risks of being caught, but one day he is made aware that Drolma has been arrested for revolutionary activities, and he is now at much greater risk, and need to cross the border once again to return to his family in Kathmandu.
It is this chance meeting that makes this book so poignant. Lobsang tells Charlie his whole story, extracting from him the promise that he will tell the world.
Lobsang's story is intertwined throughout the book with Carroll;s journey and experience of this country of Tibet. He tells of the majestic landscapes and high mountains, the mass of humanity in the cities, now populated by Han Chinese to dilute the local population, but also of the brutal suppression of the people by the Chinese. It makes for tragic reading at times.
Whilst he does not find much hope fro the chance of Tibet becoming an independent country once again, he does still see the spirit from the people to never forget their history in the country.
Well worth reading.