Seven Years in Tibet (1997 Film) - Plot

Plot

Heinrich Harrer (Pitt) and his pregnant wife Ingrid (Ingeborga Dapkūnaitė) are being driven to the train station in Graz, for Harrer's departure on an expedition to Nanga Parbat in the Himalayas. Harrer, Aufschnaiter (the leader, whom Harrer resents), and the expedition group arrive and begin climbing the mountain. After an avalanche, Aufschnaiter orders the group to retreat back to the base, despite Harrer's determination to reach the summit. On reaching the base, they learn that Britain has declared war on Germany, so they are arrested by British Indian authorities and taken by truck to Dehra Dun prison camp. Ingrid writes to Harrer with divorce papers. After several unsuccessful escape attempts, Aufschnaiter manages to steal a British uniform and several of the prisoners escape. The members of the group go separate ways, with Harrer heading for northern India.

The rest of the group, apart from Aufschnaiter, have been recaptured. Aufschnaiter plans to travel to eastern China to find work. However, he joins group with Harrer and the two cross the border into Tibet and set out east, but are intercepted by two men on horseback who tell them that foreigners are strictly forbidden in Tibet because of an ominous prophecy from the 13th Dalai Lama. They are brought back to India, but they escape and climb up the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. Harrer and Aufschnaiter join pilgrims traveling to Lhasa, covering their faces to avoid recognition as foreigners. When they try to steal food, Kungo Tsarong (Mako) invites them to stay at his home. At the guest quarters of Tsarong's home a Tibetan tailor named Pema Lhaki arrives to measure the two men; though both Aufschnaiter and Harrer take interest in her, Aufschnaiter wins her over and subsequently marries her.

The foreigners are observed through a telescope by the young Dalai Lama from the nearby Potala Palace. The Tibetan regent, Ngawang Jigme (B. D. Wong), on orders of the suspicious government in Lhasa, visits the Chinese embassy in the city and tells the officials there to stop subsidizing the monasteries. A Chinese official offers to bribe Ngawang Jigme, but he refuses. The Dalai Lama's mother (Jetsun Pema) instructs Harrer on courtesy when meeting the Dalai Lama. Harrer enters the interior halls of the Potala Palace. At the Dalai Lama's request, Harrer begins tutoring the Dalai Lama in world geography and the ways of the west.

While Harrer and Afschnaiter are attending a party, a Tibetan turns on the radio and a Chinese announcer proclaims that they plan to invade Tibet. At a meeting with the cabinet, the regent issues an order to banish all Chinese people from Tibet. That night, the Dalai Lama has a prophetic nightmare of Chinese atrocities near the Tibetan border in Taktser, his birthplace, with monasteries being burnt down.

Three Chinese generals fly to Lhasa to speak with the Dalai Lama, but they are visibly contemptuous of him and the leader of the delegation tells Ngawang Jigme that "religion is poison". The Dalai Lama sends Ngawang Jigme to lead the Tibetan army at the border town of Chamdo to halt a Chinese advance, but Ngawang Jigme surrenders and then blows up the Tibetan ammunitions dump after a sadly one-sided battle in which hundreds of Tibetans are slaughtered by better equipped and trained Chinese troops. During a treaty signing in Lhasa, Kungo Tsarong tells Harrer that if Jigme had not destroyed the weapons supply, Tibetan guerillas could have held the mountain passes, buying time to appeal to other nations for help. As the Chinese take control of Tibet, Harrer visits Ngawang Jigme to menace him about "betraying his culture".

The Dalai Lama, now fifteen years old, is formally enthroned as the spiritual and temporal leader of Tibet. Harrer pays a final visit to the Lama on top of the Potala and prays with him. Harrer bids farewell to Aufschnaiter and Pema and returns to Austria in 1951 to visit his son Rolf, now a young boy. His son refused to meet with him. Harrer left the music box that was given by the Dalai Lama when he departed Tibet. Harrer and Rolf are seen mountain-climbing, suggested he did mend his relationship with his son at the end of the film.

The film ends with a series of title cards that list figures that quantify the death and destruction as a result of Chinese occupation. Harrer kept a good relationship with Dalai Lama after he fled from Tibet to India.