Lost in Tibet: A The Untold Story of 5 American Airmen, a Doomed Plane, and the Will to Survive - Hardcover

Murcutt, Miriam; Starks, Richard

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1592285724 ISBN 13: 9781592285723

Publisher: Lyons Pr, 2004

Synopsis

Set against the majestic yet unforgiving Himalayan landscape of World War II Tibet-an unknown and tightly sealed land deeply suspicious of foreigners--LOST IN TIBET recounts the taut adventure of five American airmen facing the greatest challenge of their young lives. Hundreds of miles off course and running low on fuel, the airmen bail out of their foundering plane over what they thought was India. Instead, they parachute into the high Himalayan ridges of a Tibet riven with political intrigue and pressed tightly between Westerners involved in a war they didn't understand and Chinese who threatened their very existence. Surviving the parachute drop from the plane was only the airmen's first challenge, and perhaps their easiest. Impeccably researched and well paced, LOST IN TIBET tells the previously untold story of the group's struggle to escape back to the relative safety of their base in India.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

November 1943.

Caught in a violent storm and blown far off their intended course, five American airmen—flying the dangerous Himalayan supply route known as “The Hump”—were forced to bail out just seconds before their plane ran out of fuel. To their astonishment, they found they had landed in the heart of Tibet.
Miraculously, all five survived the jump. But their ordeal was just beginning.
After crossing some of Tibet’s most treacherous mountains, the five airmen rode on borrowed mules into the fabled city of Lhasa. Their arrival was not a matter of choice; instead they were escorted to Lhasa by a suspicious Tibetan government, trapped in a tightening vise between China and the West.
The five were among the first Americans ever to enter the Forbidden City (two years before Heinrich Harrer, author of Seven Years in Tibet), and among the last to see it before the Chinese launched their invasion.
While in Tibet, the five Americans had to confront what, to them, seemed a bizarre - even alien - people. At the same time, they had to extricate themselves from the political turmoil that even then was raging around Tibet’s right to be independent from China.
To avert an international incident - and to assure their own safety - the five men were forced to leave Lhasa in a hurry. They set out, in the middle of winter, on a perilous journey across the Tibetan plateau - only to find themselves caught in a desperate race against time.
Lost in Tibet is an extraordinary story of high adventure, cultural conflict, and political intrigue. It also sheds light on the remarkable Tibetan people, just at that moment when they were coming to terms with a hostile outside world.

From the Inside Flap:

Caught in a violent storm and blown far off their intended course, five American airmen--flying the dangerous Himalayan supply route known as "The Hump"--were forced to bail out just seconds before their plane ran out of fuel. To their astonishment, they found they had landed in the heart of Tibet. There they had to confront what, to them, seemed a bizarre--even alien--people. At the same time, they had to extricate themselves from the political turmoil that even then was raging around Tibet's right to be independent from China.

'Lost in Tibet'  is an extraordinary story of high adventure that sheds light on the remarkable Tibetan people, just at the moment when they were coming to terms with a hostile outside world.

About this edition

• Publisher: Lyons Pr
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 1592285724
• ISBN 13: 9781592285723
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336