On my 18th birthday I received Heinrich Harrer's autobiographical travel book "Seven years in Tibet". It was a gift from my first girlfriend, with whom I had seen the movie adaptation one month before at the Monumental theater in Lisbon. Obviously, the narrative was quite different from the cinematic adaptation, but it sparked a huge interest in Tibetan culture, geography and history. Fortunately, at the time a small Tibetan center with a range of books, Buddhist symbols and cuisine items had just opened in Lisbon.
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| Santiago: Lo Curro, Camino del Cóndor |
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| Santiago: Korean Pagoda |
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| Santiago: Mapocho river in Vitacura |
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| Santiago: Cherry blossoms |
20 years later I still have not visited Tibet, but I have lived far among foreign cultures. I have been nine years in the city of Santiago in Chile. Last weekend I was running along the city river Mapocho in the area of Vitacura. Spring has come and the defrosting enlivens the trees amid the rocks in the hills. The stream waters flow more smoothly and with a silver glow. Suddenly, the view of the bare hills in these early spring days reminded me of Harrer's and other travelers' pictures of the city of Lhasa. The hillside homes of wealthy residents in the Cóndor neighborhood look a tiny bit like the Potala palace complex. Also, one can see the blossoming cherry trees in Santiago now and a bit further south along the Mapocho stream we find a small Buddhist pagoda, a gift from the South Korean Republic to Chile.
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| Lhasa: Potala palace, 1903 |
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| Tibet: Karakash river |
With a bit of fantasy and a few pictures of Santiago and Lhasa, the similarities easily come out!
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| Tibetan cherry tree |
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| Lhasa: Potala palace |
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