Murder in the High Himalaya [Hardcover]

By personalising Namtso s life and death, Mr Green has conjured in the flesh an otherwise anonymous figure from Tibet s shadows --The Economist

A word is missing from the subtitle of Jonathan Green s shocking exposé: cowardice. It shines out of his story of the murder of the 17-year-old Tibetan nun, Kelsang Namtso.... The core of this book is Kelsang s murder and its implications, which Green, an experienced journalist, recounts vividly and with scrupulous attention to evidence... In this book he shows himself to be a first-class reporter. --The Spectator

A gripping tale of routine murder that would have gone unreported but for the fact that a group of Western climbers were silent witnesses to the killing of a young Tibetan woman attempting to cross the border into India. --The Bookseller

The murder of a young Tibetan nun by the hands of Chinese border guards at the rooftop of the world offers a unique parable for the tale of modern Tibet. In August 2006, two young Tibetan women left their hillside village in Biru county to make their way to Dharamsala India. Frustrated by their inability to practice the tenets of Buddhism or Tibetan culture under oppressive Chinese rule, best friends Dolma and Kelsang were determined to secure their right to freedom-and sought comfort in the fact that they might seek counsel with their exiled spiritual leader, his Holiness the Dalai Lhama. Through a secretive underground network of Tibetan guides, the two friends, along with four dozen other refugees, embarked on a perilous journey that would lead them to Nepal along a dangerous former trade route: the Nangpa La Path, through Cho Oyu Mountain. On September 30, 2006, after weeks of harrowing travel, as they were nearing the border of Nepal, the band of refugees was fired at by the Chinese Army Guards. Kelsang, sick, frost-bitten, and delirious in the high altitude was struck by a bullet from behind. Her death was not unusual in its circumstance: Chinese police are instructed to take any measures necessary to protect the border of Tibet. What was unusual on this freezing September morning was that a gaggle of Western climbers, stationed on Cho Oyu's advance base camp, had silently witnessed the event. One of them was Louis Benitez-a fearless Colorado mountain guide who led Himalayan trips for wealthy western thrill seekers. Another was Sergui Matei, a Romanian hiker, who captured Kelsang's murder on video. Both men had a choice-to preserve their climbing careers and turn a blind eye-or to alert the world to the grand scale of human injustice played out daily in Tibet. In "Murder in the High Himalayas", intrepid journalist Jonathan Green investigates the clash of cultures at the rooftop of the world. As he gains entrance to a fascinating network of Tibetan guides and safe-houses operating in the name of freedom, investigates the tradition of extreme mountaineering in Chinese-occupied Tibet, and establishes contact with surviving refugees (including Dolma), he affects a rare, and lasting parable for the plight of modern Tibet.

Award-winning journalist Jonathan Green has written for the New York Times, Men's Journal, Esquire, GQ, The Financial Times Magazine, Men's Health, and The Mail on Sunday, among others. In 2007 The American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA) awarded him first prize for reporting on a 'significant topic', for his story on gold mining in West Africa. Never shy of demanding assignments, he has reported in war-torn Sudan, the jungles of Borneo, and the ice fields of Alaska. He currently resides in Massachusetts with his wife.