in Vogue (October, 1997)
Seven Years in Tibet is the classic account of Austrian mountain climber Heinrich Harrer’s 1944 escape from a British prisoner-of-war camp during World War II and his harrowing trek across the Himalayas to Lhasa, where he became the Dalai Lama’s tutor. Actress Lhakpa Tsamchoe, who plays opposite Brad Pitt in Jean-Jacques Annaud’s epic, comes from a family that trekked across the Himalayas—but in the other direction (and before the People’s Liberation Army took over Lhasa). With her long, shiny black hair in a cascade of Tibetan-style plaits that took seven hours to braid each day, Tsamchoe looks very much the traditional Tibetan she is at heart. Before the first day of filming, she asked her mother to pray for her in the local Tibetan Buddhist monastery; Tsamchoe herself prays for people she likes, for people she doesn’t, and for the Dalai Lama. These days, she says, “I also offer thanks for the help given to our director, Jean-Jacques, to Brad, and to all the cast and crew.” [continued]
