This fascinating account which made news around the world soon after it occurred, is told from the personal testimony of a number of the people involved in this atrocity. Two of the main characters who witnessed the event were Dolma Palkyi, a teenage girl who made the escape attempt with Kelsang, and Luis Benitez, an American climber who led adventurers to climb the high mountains between Tibet and Nepal.
The story takes place in the Cho Oyu Mountains of Tibet, which lie 19 miles east of Mount Everest. Each year, the area is frequented by hundreds of climbers and adventurers who are eager to reach the summit of the sixth highest mountain in the world.
For the local Tibetans who are eager to escape the prison of Chinese communist rule and religious persecution, Cho Oyu is a gateway to freedom. By hiking through a secret glacial path called the Nangpa La they could reach the safety of India.
The murder of fleeing Tibetans by Chinese guards is not an unusual event—these awful acts have been going on for over 50 years. But what is unusual about this story is that Kelsang’s murder by the Chinese border guards on September 30, 2006 was witnessed and filmed by Westerners— the climbers on the Cho Oyu Mountains.
When Green decided to write a detailed account of the details surrounding this event, he chose to talk with the people who were deeply involved—most of whom were there when it occurred. Green spent the last three years traveling the remote parts of the Himalaya researching the amazing story.
In the telling of the story, Green introduces us to a wide variety of people – including adventurers, climbers, local guides, Tibetans fleeing due to religious persecution, and others who were at the “rooftop of the world” on that fateful day. We also get to “meet” the Dalai Lama through Dolma and several other people’s account of being able to meet with him after the event happened.
The story begins with the fascinating account of what life had been like for Kelsang and Dolma as they grew up in a small village in the mountains of Tibet. As a person living in pretty much unlimited religious freedom in the United States, it’s hard to imagine being in a place where even having a picture of the Dalai Lama could land you in jail or subject you to torture or death. We see how their family homes are invaded frequently by Chinese guards searching for any indication of their devotion to their exiled leader, the Dalai Lama.
To much of the world, the Dalai Lama is the spiritual head of one of the world’s oldest religions and a winner of a Nobel Peace Prize. But to the Tibetans, the 14th Dalai Lama is a god in human form. And to the Chinese communist party, he is a public enemy.
Green paints a picture for us of life in Tibet—where even without the oppression of the Chinese government, life is hard. The people have very little, but are dedicated to their families and their religion. About 15 percent of the population live as Buddhist monks and nuns— devoting their lives to meditation, retreat, and Buddha.
The author also gives a historical account of Tibetan history, especially the recent history from 1959 when China invaded Tibet killing thousands of people and starting their relentless quest to turn the Tibetans into Chinese “citizens.” He also details the Dalai Lama’s escape during that year from his home at Potala Palace to India.
Green outlines many details and events from Tibetan life that have probably not been seen or heard before. It is an interesting account of a life and a people that the outside world still does not know very well.
However, the main story here is the account of what happened during the escape attempt by Kelsang, Dolma, and a number of other people.
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Kelsang had left her village the year before the events of this story occurred to become a nun. Kelsang was a lively, outgoing girl with an impulsive nature. Even as a small girl, her dream had been to escape over the mountains to India and be reunited with the hundreds of thousand other Tibetans who had fled over the years to join the Dalai Lama. Her dream became Dolma’s as well and the two decided to escape with a group of others. The story of the trials and terrors they faced trying to leave the country is told in great detail by Green after interviewing Dolma and others about their experiences.
In several other chapters, while we are reading about the events leading up to the escape event, we are introduced to Luis Benitez, an American climber who works for a company that outfits and guides climbers on treks all over the world, including the Himalayas. Luis has made many trips up the mountain, and Green introduces us to the group that was undertaking the climb in September 2006.
We meet a number of them in the book, including a Romanian TV cameraman named Sergiu Matei, whose profession and decision to bring his video camera with him on his climb changed the events of that fateful day on the mountain.
Early in the morning of September 30, 2006, the climbers on the mountain awoke to the sounds of gunfire across the mountain pass and looked over to see an unbelievable sight – a group of Tibetans fleeing as Chinese border guards fired on them. They watched in horror as many of the people were chased down. Finally, they saw Kelsang drop to the ground as she was shot in the back.
The amazing thing is that Matei did not just watch—he grabbed his video camera and started filming the event—and kept on filming until the Chinese started to come into their base camp. He hid the film, terrified he’d be discovered, but was able to get out of the country and upload his film onto YouTube. The film was quickly picked up by news stations all over the world.
The rest of the book is the story of what happened to the climbers and survivors, and the moral dilemma they faced. Would they be willing to tell the world what happened—to tell the story of Kelsang’s death? The climbers faced the knowledge that if they revealed to the world what happened, the Chinese would stop them from climbing in Tibet ever again. The Tibetans, like Dolma, faced the threat that if they talked, their families in Tibet could be arrested or killed, and that they would be banished forever from going back to Tibet.
The fascinating story gives us a picture of Tibet today and what the Chinese government is trying to do to take over the country completely by flooding it with Han Chinese to outnumber the Tibetans. And it also introduces us to the Dalai Lama—through the testimony and witness of the survivors who were able to meet him. This included the author Jonathan Green—and the Dalai Lama told Green the same thing he told the others he met: “Just be honest, tell the truth.” Green said that he felt that would be easy to do but when he started interviews, he realized that it was a complex truth and would impact a great number of people in it’s telling.
As the Dalai Lama told cameraman Sergiu Matei when he met with him, “you managed to do in two minutes what it has taken me fifty years to do. Kelsang did not die for nothing. There is a reason here.”
After reading this book, you cannot help but be moved and realize that we cannot hide ourselves away, afraid to speak up about what is going on in our world. We have to do as these people have done—to be honest and to tell the truth.
