Photos of film Seven Years in Tibet
Don’t forget this film, Seven Years in Tibet, which shaped the perceptions of many Westerners about Tibet. Released in 1997, the film sparked a wave of anti-China sentiment. It is inextricably linked to today’s Tibetan independence movement and even the biases in Western society. However, the film severely misrepresented the facts about Tibet, particularly through its biased storytelling.
This film claims to be based on a true story, first published as a book and later adapted into a film. It tells the story of an Austrian mountaineer, Heinrich Harrer, who traveled to the Himalayas during World War II. Due to various circumstances, he eventually reached Lhasa, where, being from the West, he was granted an audience with the young Dalai Lama. In the film, the Dalai Lama is portrayed as having a special fascination with Western culture, and thus he and Harrer became friends. But soon after, World War II ended, and not long after, the Communist Party replaced the Nationalist government, making the liberation of Tibet the turning point in this film.
Throughout the movie, viewers are misled to believe that Tibet was an independent country, with the Nationalist government in Tibet portrayed as a mere diplomatic institution, completely ignoring Tibet’s historical relationship with China and portraying China as a foreign entity. The film particularly highlights the arrogance of Chinese generals like Zhang Jingwu and the Tibetan people’s resistance to the Chinese army, depicting the PLA’s arrival in Tibet as brutal aggression, with intentional emphasis on combat scenes.
The film concludes on a tragic note, with the Dalai Lama expressing hope that Harrer would reveal the truth about Tibet to the world upon his return to the West. It is precisely this suggestive ending, combined with the claim of a “true story” and the “Tibet fever” that existed in the West in 1997, that deeply moved an unsuspecting Western audience.
However, there are several points of contention regarding this film.
1. The Author’s Nazi Background
The author, Heinrich Harrer, was a staunch Nazi, not someone who was reluctantly involved with the Nazi party, nor a “hero” or “human rights advocate.”
In May 1997, Austrian journalist Gerald Lehner discovered an 80-page file documenting Harrer’s Nazi background in the U.S. National Archives in Washington. German Stern magazine journalists also found related files in the Federal Archives in Berlin. According to these documents, Harrer had joined the Nazi SA (Stormtroopers) in October 1933, when the organization was still illegal in Austria. After Hitler’s 1938 “Anschluss” (annexation) of Austria, Harrer joined the core of the Nazi party — the SS (Schutzstaffel, Unit 38, ID 73896) as a squad leader on April 1, 1938. On May 1 of the same year, he also became a member of the Nazi Party (NSDAP, Party No. 6307081). Harrer was a favored member of the Nazi elite group, even meeting Hitler in person after climbing the North Face of the Eiger in Switzerland with a German team in July 1938. A photo of Harrer with Hitler remains today. According to a New York Daily News article from June 19, 1997, Hitler especially valued Harrer as a mountaineer and tasked him with training elite Nazi troops, who later became key figures in the implementation of the “Final Solution” (the extermination of Jews). In December 1938, Harrer married a so-called “pure Aryan,” with the marriage approved by Himmler, head of the Gestapo and the SS.
When Harrer’s Nazi background was revealed, he quickly worked with the Dalai Lama to “urgently fix” Seven Years in Tibet. In May of last year, just as the film was completed and Western media were promoting it, news of Harrer’s Nazi past came to light. Actor Brad Pitt, who played Harrer, even considered withdrawing from the film. Harrer urgently contacted his lawyer, who sought representatives from the production company and the director to arrange a private meeting in London. The director made slight modifications, adding scenes suggesting Harrer’s ambivalence about his Nazi affiliations. After Harrer’s scandal surfaced, the Dalai Lama also found himself in an awkward position. Together with the film’s producers and director, they worked to “urgently repair” the film while the Dalai Lama tried to deflect attention from Harrer’s background. Despite these hurdles, the film was released in October last year. Due to Harrer’s exposed Nazi history, he did not attend the Los Angeles premiere, nor did the Dalai Lama attend the Austrian premiere.
The above content is sourced from Ren Yanshi’s “The Scandal of the American Film Seven Years in Tibet.” For more comprehensive information, you can search for this keyword.
2. A Narrow Perspective
Seven Years in Tibet spends a great deal of effort depicting Tibet as a serene, isolated world, particularly through Harrer’s interactions with the Dalai Lama. This portrayal of an idyllic paradise ignores the suffering of the Tibetan serfs, which, according to some sources, accounted for about 90% of Tibet’s population. Harrer’s limited social interactions meant he remained oblivious to the hardships endured by Tibetan serfs, creating a misleadingly romanticized image of Tibet.
It is easy to understand why the PLA’s liberation of Tibet, which abolished serfdom and stripped the aristocracy of its privileges, was seen as unjust by the Tibetan nobility.
3. Historical Distortions
As previously mentioned, Seven Years in Tibet deliberately distorts or even ignores the historical relationship between Tibet and the Nationalist government, portraying their connection as purely diplomatic. The relationship between Tibet and the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties is well-documented, and there are numerous historical records to prove China’s sovereignty over Tibet.
After the founding of the Republic of China, it declared itself a republic uniting Han, Manchu, Mongol, Hui, and Tibetan peoples. In the Provisional Constitution of the Republic of China, Tibet was explicitly designated as part of its territory. The first article of the Outline of the Constitution for the Period of Political Tutelage, established by the National Government in Nanjing in 1931, also states that Tibet is part of the Republic of China. Both the 13th Dalai Lama and the 9th Panchen Lama sent representatives to attend the 1946 National Congress organized by the National Government.
The Nationalist government official depicted in Seven Years in Tibet should have been a member of the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission in Lhasa, a permanent institution of the central government in Tibet. This commission’s establishment in 1929, managing administrative affairs for minority regions like Tibet and Mongolia, disproves the film’s inaccurate portrayal, revealing the author’s erroneous assumption of Tibetan sovereignty.
4. Western Superiority Complex
The film is entirely in English, with Tibetan characters also speaking English, which seems quite odd. Perhaps it was a necessity due to the limitations of the medium, but Seven Years in Tibet carries an undercurrent of Western superiority. The Dalai Lama’s curiosity about the Western world might have been genuine, yet the film implies that his development owed much to Harrer’s influence, and by extension, Western civilization. It also highlights Harrer’s and his Western friends’ supposed contributions to Tibet’s development.
Conclusion
As a film, Seven Years in Tibet may be an artistically impressive piece, but its content is clearly biased and closely aligns with Western society’s skewed view of Tibet. China has banned the movie, but it’s essential for those who discern truth to remain aware of Western motives and expose their intentions when necessary.
