Heinrich Harrer

The country through which we had been travelling for days has an original beauty. Wide plains were diversified by stretches of hilly country with low passes. We often had to wade through swift running ice-cold brooks. It has long since we had seen - a glacier, but as we were approaching the tasam at Barka, a chain of glaciers gleaming in the sunshine came into view.

The landscape was dominated by the 25,000-foot peak of Gurla Mandhata; less striking, but far more famous, was the sacred Mount Kailash, 3,000 feet lower, which stands in majestic isolation apart from the Himalayan range.

The country through which we had been travelling for days has an original beauty. Wide plains were diversified by stretches of hilly country with low passes. We often had to wade through swift running ice-cold brooks. It has long since we had seen - a glacier, but as we were approaching the tasam at Barka, a chain of glaciers gleaming in the sunshine came into view.

The landscape was dominated by the 25,000-foot peak of Gurla Mandhata; less striking, but far more famous, was the sacred Mount Kailash, 3,000 feet lower, which stands in majestic isolation apart from the Himalayan range.

There was a time that I would have wished you dead but your shame shall be your torture and your torture will be your life! I wish it to be long.

If only my hand could express, what is in my heart.