Murder in the High Himalaya: Loyalty, Tragedy, and Escape from Tibet by Jonathan Green.

What I most took away from this book was the sheer, monumental tragedy of the goals and aspirations of almost all of the people in the book: the Tibetan refugees whose lives were/are dedicated to the Dalai Lama, a mere man who is worshipped as a god; the Chinese police who follow orders to torture and kill for the sake of a good salary; the Western mountain climbers whose goals seem to be a mixture of fame and a personal transcendent experience at the top of one of the highest mountains in the world; the guides for both the refugees and for the climbers who also pursue fame and fortune at the risk of their own lives and to the detriment of their moral compass. I did not find one truly admirable person among the lot of them, unless it was the girl Kelsang Namtso who died or her friend Dolma who lived to tell the story. Even they, although highly courageous and idealistic, seem to my eyes to be so dreadfully deluded and blinded to the truth; their hope rests in reincarnation, “a good rebirth.”