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During a stint in three Nepalese jails in 1977, I ended up sharing quarters with a handful of Tibetan guerrilla leaders. Ever since my first trip to the Himalayas, I’d been hearing whispers about some sort of dangerous wild men living in the Mustang region above the Annapurna range, but never considered them relevant. My mountains lay elsewhere, and Asia was full of secrets and mysteries. But now, suddenly, the wild men of Mustang were my cell mates.
They were big, robust, dignified men. Mountain men, not city types. Over the coming weeks, I learned that these men and their guerrilla resistance against the Chinese army had been funded and armed by the CIA. Several of these men had received training in covert warfare in the mountains around Leadville, Colorado…my backyard. I’d driven through those mountains many times, and never suspected they held a once top-secret camp for Cold War warriors. (for more on them, Click Here for jail article.)
With them began my education about the destruction of Tibet. After my release I became active in trying to publicize these secret warriors in our Cold War. The CIA had a term for indigenous guerrilla groups they used: Dixie Cups. Use once, throw away. A lot of the Dixie cups you would want to throw away. Think of the Nicaraguan Contras and the Taliban. Our monsters. But the Tibetan guerrillas were uniquely good guys.
Over the next dozen years, I wrote articles and editorials about Tibet. But it was like shouting in a vacuum. Most people couldn’t have found Tibet on a map. Then I realized that the fault didn’t lie with the Western public, but with me as a writer. It was my job to craft a story that would appeal to people. The story always comes first.
In 1990 I went on a BBC film shoot to the Tibetan side of Mt. Everest. While I was lying in a tent one night with the wind howling, I got the idea of using an American expedition as a metaphor for the West. By introducing a little Tibetan monk being pursued by the Chinese, I could have a story with a genuine dilemma and the force of reality. I started writing The Ascent that night.
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