Tintin in Tibet

Tintin in Tibet (Tintin au Tibet)
Cover of the English edition
Date	1960
Series	The Adventures of Tintin
Publisher	Casterman
Creative team
Creators	Hergé
Original publication
Published in	Tintin magazine
Date of publication	17 September 1958 – 25 November 1959
Language	French
ISBN	978-2-203-00119-0
Translation
Publisher	Methuen
Date	1962
ISBN	978-0-316-35839-2
Translator	Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper Michael Turner
Chronology
Preceded by	The Red Sea Sharks, 1958
Followed by	The Castafiore Emerald, 1963

Tintin in Tibet (French: Tintin au Tibet) is the twentieth volume of The Adventures of Tintin, the comics series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé. Serialised from September 1958 to November 1959 in Tintin magazine, it was then published as a book in 1960. Hergé considered it "intensely personal" and came to see it as his favourite Tintin adventure, as it was created while he was suffering from traumatic nightmares and a personal conflict over whether he should leave his wife of three decades for a younger woman. The story tells of the young reporter Tintin, assisted by his friends, searching for Tintin's friend Chang Chong-Chen. The group treks across the Himalayan mountains to the plateau of Tibet to look for Chang, whom the authorities claim died in a plane crash in the mountains. Convinced that Chang has survived, Tintin searches for him, along the way encountering the mysterious Yeti.

Published after the character-filled Tintin adventure The Red Sea Sharks (1958), Tintin in Tibet differed from other stories in the series in that only a few familiar characters were cast, and it was also the only Tintin adventure not to pit Tintin against an antagonist. Tintin in Tibet is highly regarded by critics. It has also been publicly praised by the Dalai Lama, who awarded his Light of Truth Award to the book and Hergé. Tintin in Tibet has been adapted for television, radio, documentary, theatre, and a video game, and it inspired a museum exhibition.

Synopsis

While on holiday at a resort in the French Alps with Snowy, Captain Haddock, and Professor Calculus, Tintin reads about a plane crash in the Gosain Than Massif in the Himalayas of Tibet. Tintin believes that his friend Chang Chong-Chen (introduced in The Blue Lotus) is badly injured and calling for help from the wreckage of the crashed plane. He flies to Kathmandu with Snowy and a sceptical Captain Haddock. They hire a Sherpa named Tharkey and, accompanied by porters, travel overland from Nepal towards the crash site.

The porters abandon the group in fear when mysterious Yeti tracks are found, whilst Tintin, Haddock and Tharkey go on and eventually reach the crash site. Tintin sets off with Snowy to trace Chang's steps, and, after glimpsing a silhouette in the snow, finds a cave where Chang has carved his name on a rock. Tharkey believes that Tintin saw the Yeti and convinces him to abandon his friend, since the area is too large to search. However, Tintin spots a scarf on a cliff face, concludes Chang is near, and continues on with the Captain. While attempting to climb upwards, Haddock slips and hangs down the cliff wall, imperilling Tintin, who is tied to him. He tells Tintin to cut the rope to save himself, but Tintin refuses. Haddock tries to cut it himself, but drops his knife, alerting Tharkey, who has returned. They lose their tent and must trek onwards, unable to sleep lest they freeze, arriving within sight of the Buddhist monastery of Khor-Biyong before collapsing from exhaustion.

Blessed Lightning, a monk at the monastery, has a vision of Tintin, Snowy, Haddock, and Tharkey in peril. Tintin regains consciousness and, unable to help himself, gives Snowy a note to deliver. Snowy runs to the monastery and is recognised as the dog from Blessed Lightning's vision. Tintin, Haddock and Tharkey regain consciousness in the monastery and are brought before the Grand Abbot. The Abbot tells Tintin to abandon his quest, but Blessed Lightning has another vision, through which Tintin learns that Chang is still alive inside a mountain cave at the Horn of the Yak—and that the "migou" is also there. Tintin and Haddock travel on to the Horn of the Yak.

They arrive at a cave. Tintin ventures inside and finds Chang, feverish and shaking. The Yeti suddenly appears, revealed as a large anthropoid, reacting with anger at Tintin's attempt to take Chang away. Tintin sets off the flash bulb of his camera, scaring the Yeti into fleeing. Chang explains that the Yeti saved his life after the crash. The Grand Abbot presents Tintin with a silk scarf in honour of the bravery he has shown for his friend Chang. As their party travels home, Chang muses that the Yeti is not a wild animal, but instead has a human soul. The Yeti sadly watches their departure from a distance.

History

Background and early ideas

Hergé used pictures of the Tibetan landscape from magazines as inspiration for his drawings

In 1958, Hergé saw the nineteenth of his Tintin adventures, The Red Sea Sharks, published in book form following its serialisation, and considered a number of plot ideas for his next story. Fondly recalling the Scouting days of his youth, his first idea was to send Tintin back to the United States, as he had done in the third adventure, Tintin in America, and have the reporter meet again with Native Americans. However, Hergé came to realise that retracing old ground would be a step backward. Another idea had Tintin striving to prove that Haddock's butler Nestor was framed for a crime committed by his old employers, the Bird brothers. He dismissed this as well, but kept the idea of an adventure with no guns or violence. This would become the only Tintin story without an antagonist. A third idea sent Tintin and Professor Calculus to a snow-covered polar region, where a stranded group of explorers needed Calculus to save them from food poisoning. Although the setting in a snowy environment was kept, this plot was also abandoned.

Hergé's idea to set the story in Tibet was influenced by his collaborator Jacques Van Melkebeke, who suggested it in 1954, likely influenced by the play he adapted for Hergé in the 1940s, M. Boullock A Disparu (The Disappearance of Mr Boullock). Initial ideas for the title were Le Museau de la Vache (The Cow's Snout), Le Museau de l'Ours (The Bear's Snout), and Le Museau du Yak (The Yak's Snout), all of which would have been the mountain featuring in the latter part of the story. Although it was initially claimed that the title of Tintin in Tibet was chosen by market research suggesting that sales would be better if the book used Tintin's name in the title, "in reality," said Harry Thompson, "the title reflected the solo nature of [Tintin's] undertaking."

Hergé's psychological issues

Hergé had reached a particularly traumatic period in his life and suffered a mental breakdown. In 1956, he realised that he had fallen out of love with his wife Germaine, whom he had married in 1932. Instead, he and Fanny Vlaminck, a far younger woman who was a colourist at Studios Hergé, had developed a deep mutual attraction. By 1958, he contemplated divorcing Germaine to marry Fanny, with whom he shared many interests, something which he and Germaine did not. His Catholic upbringing and Boy Scout ethic, however, caused him to feel tremendous guilt. As he later related to interviewer Numa Sadoul:

"It meant turning upside down all my values—what a shock! This was a serious moral crisis: I was married, and I loved someone else; life seemed impossible with my wife, but on the other hand I had this scout-like idea of giving my word for ever. It was a real catastrophe. I was completely torn up."

During this period, Hergé had recurrent nightmares in which he faced images of what he described as "the beauty and cruelty of white"—visions of white and snow that he could not explain. As he later told Sadoul:

"At the time, I was going through a time of real crisis and my dreams were nearly always white dreams. And they were extremely distressing. I took note of them and remember one where I was in a kind of tower made up of a series of ramps. Dead leaves were falling and covering everything. At a particular moment, in an immaculately white alcove, a white skeleton appeared that tried to catch me. And then instantly everything around me became white."

He travelled to Zürich to consult Swiss psychoanalyst Franz Riklin, a student of Carl Jung, to decipher his disturbing dreams. Riklin latched on to the "quest for purity" which featured so prominently in Hergé's dreams and, ultimately, in Tintin in Tibet. He told the author that he must destroy "the demon of purity" in his mind as soon as possible: "I do not want to discourage you, but you will never reach the goal of your work. It comes to one or the other: you must overcome your crisis, or continue your work. But, in your place, I would stop immediately!" Although Hergé was tempted to abandon Tintin at Riklin's suggestion, devoting himself instead to his hobby of abstract art, he felt that doing so would be an acceptance of failure. In the end, Hergé decided to follow the Scout Law: "A scout smiles and sings through all his difficulties." He left his wife to marry Fanny and continued work on Tintin in Tibet, trusting that completing the book would exorcise the "white demons" he felt possessed him. "It was a brave decision, and a good one", said Michael Farr. "Few problems, psychological included, are solved by abandoning them." Belgian Tintin expert Philippe Goddin summarized: "[Hergé] sought to regain a lost equilibrium, that he imposes on his hero a desire to seek purity ... considering it necessary for Tintin to go through the intimate experience of distress and loneliness ... and discover himself."

Influences

Drigung Monastery in the Himalayan mountains of Tibet, similar to the Buddhist monastery depicted in the book

In creating Tintin in Tibet, Hergé drew upon a range of influences. Setting its plot in the Himalayas, a snow-covered environment, followed his recurring dreams of whiteness and his need to create an adventure which "must be a solo voyage of redemption" from the "whiteness of guilt". The idea of a solo voyage led to Tintin being accompanied only by Snowy and a reluctant Haddock—who supplies the needed counterpoint and humour.

While considering the character of Chang, absent since The Blue Lotus, Hergé thought of his lost Chinese friend Zhang Chongren, whom he had not seen since the days of Le Petit Vingtième over twenty years earlier. Zhang had moved back to his homeland and Hergé had lost contact with him after the Japanese invasion of China. Hergé felt Chang and Tintin must be reunited, just as he hoped to see his friend again someday.

Another influence came from Fanny, who was interested in extrasensory perception and the mysticism of Tibetan Buddhism, prominent themes in the story, which also fascinated Hergé. Hergé's principal source of the many aspects of the Tibetan esoteric was Belgian explorer and writer Alexandra David-Néel.

To learn about the Yeti, which he depicted as a benevolent creature, Hergé contacted cryptozoologist Bernard Heuvelmans, who had helped him envision lunar exploration for Destination Moon and Explorers on the Moon. After reading the section on the Yeti in Heuvelmans' book Sur La Piste Des Bêtes Ignorées (On the Tracks of Unknown Animals), Hergé went on to research the cryptid as much as possible. He interviewed mountaineers, including Maurice Herzog, who had spotted the tracks of an enormous biped that stopped at the foot of a rock face on Annapurna. Even the creature's care for the starving Chang derives from a Sherpa account of a Yeti that rescued a little girl in similar circumstances.

Hergé collected a varied assortment of clippings, some from National Geographic, which he used as a basis to draw Tintin in Tibet. His pictures of monks with musical instruments, Sherpa with backpacks, and the airplane crash wreckage were based on those clippings. Members of his studio helped him gather source material; for instance, collaborator Jacques Martin researched and drew the story's costumes.

Publication

Panel from Tintin in Tibet, depicting the plane crash. When Air India reacted negatively to having their plane pictured in a crash, Hergé changed the logo to Sari-Airways.

Due to his desire for accuracy, Hergé added the logo of Air India to the crash debris in Tintin in Tibet. This upset Air India and a representative complained to Hergé about the adverse publicity the airline might suffer, arguing, "It's scandalous, none of our aircraft has ever crashed; you have done us a considerable wrong." Air India had been cooperating with Hergé; facilitating his research by providing him reading material, contemporary photographs, and film footage of India and Nepal, particularly Delhi and Kathmandu. While the crashed aircraft's tail number remained "VT", the country code for all Indian aircraft, Hergé agreed to change the airline logo in the published edition to the fictional Sari-Airways, dryly noting that there were so many Indian airlines it was possible that there really was a Sari-Airways.

During production, Hergé kept abreast of the turbulent political developments in Tibet. In March 1959, Tibet's foremost political and spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, fled the region into self-imposed exile in India following disagreements with the governing Communist Party. When Tintin in Tibet was published in the People's Republic of China, state authorities renamed it Tintin in China's Tibet. When Hergé and his publishers protested, the authorities restored the book's original title.

Reception

Critical analysis

Tintin in Tibet was well received by prominent literary critics and writers on the art of the comics medium. Michael Farr called it "exceptional in many respects, standing out among the twenty-three completed Tintin adventures ... an assertion of the incorruptible value of bonds of friendship." Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier lauded it as "the ultimate Tintin book ... voted the best French-language graphic novel ever done in a poll of professionals, editors, and critics" and "arguably the best book in the series". They detailed the story's many emotional moments: Haddock's willingness to sacrifice his life for Tintin's, Tharkey's return, the tearful reunion of Tintin and his starving friend Chang, the reverence paid to Tintin by the Grand Abbot and the monks, and the Yeti's sadness while watching the departure of his only friend. "For a comic book to handle such powerful emotions, convey them to the readers, and make them feel what the characters are feeling is a rare and precious achievement." Harry Thompson called it "a book of overwhelming whiteness and purity," saying that the "intensely personal nature of the story made this Hergé's favourite Tintin adventure," adding that if readers wondered whether "the effects of the enormous weight lifted from Hergé's shoulders, [this] can be seen in his next book, The Castafiore Emerald, a masterpiece of relaxation." Given that the book was translated into 32 languages, Donald Lopez, professor of Buddhist and Tibetan studies, called it the "largest selling book about Tibet."

Jean-Marie Apostolidès, in a psychoanalytical review of Tintin in Tibet, observed that Tintin is more firmly in control of the plot than he was in recent adventures. Apostolidès noted a new side of his character; never before has Tintin displayed such worry or emotion, a "therapeutic opportunity for the hero to take stock of his life and sort out his issues." In his analysis, he called Tintin a "foundling" and his friend Chang "the lost child" and "Tintin's twin". "For both Chang and Tintin, the Tibetan adventure is a series of abandonments ... The heroes have to struggle to great heights to escape the temporality and pervasive values of [the] universe." He saw the Yeti, who "internalises certain human characteristics", as more complex than Hergé's previous bestial character, Ranko in The Black Island: "The monster loves Chang with a love as unconditional as Tintin's love for his friend."

Likewise, the literary analysis of Tom McCarthy compared Tintin's quest to Hergé's conquest of his own fear and guilt, expounding, "this is the moira of Hergé's own white mythology, his anaemic destiny: to become Sarrasine to Tintin's la Zambinella." McCarthy suggested the "icy, white expanses of Hergé's nightmares [may] really have their analogue in his own hero", especially as "Tintin represents an unattainable goal of goodness, cleanness, authenticity."

Pierre Assouline concluded that "Tintin in Tibet would remain Hergé's favourite. He thought it an ode to friendship, composed 'under the double sign of tenacity and friendship.'" "It's a story of friendship," Hergé said about his book years later, "the way people say, 'It's a love story.'"

Awards

At a ceremony in Brussels on 1 June 2006, the Dalai Lama bestowed the International Campaign for Tibet's Light of Truth Award upon the Hergé Foundation in recognition of Tintin in Tibet, which introduced the region to audiences across the globe. ICT executive director Tsering Jampa said, "For many, Hergé's depiction of Tibet was their introduction to the awe-inspiring landscape and culture of Tibet." During the ceremony, copies of Tintin in Tibet in the Esperanto language (Tinĉjo en Tibeto) were distributed. Accepting the award for the foundation, Hergé's widow Fanny Rodwell said, "We never thought that this story of friendship would have a resonance more than 40 years later".

Adaptations

Eight years after Hergé's death, Tintin in Tibet was adapted into an episode of The Adventures of Tintin (1991–92), the television series by French studio Ellipse and Canadian animation company Nelvana. The episode was directed by Stéphane Bernasconi, with Thierry Wermuth voicing Tintin. Tintin in Tibet was also a 1992 episode of the BBC Radio 4 series, The Adventures of Tintin, in which Richard Pearce voiced Tintin. The book became a video game of the same name for PC and Game Boy in 1995.

Tintin et moi (2003), a documentary by Danish director Anders Høgsbro Østergaard based on Numa Sadoul's 1971 interview with Hergé, includes restored portions of the candid interview that Hergé had heavily edited and rewritten in Sadoul's book. With full access to the audio recordings, the filmmaker explored the author's personal battles while creating Tintin in Tibet and how they drove him to create what is now regarded as his most personal adventure.

As the centenary of Hergé's birth approached in 2007, Tintin remained popular. Tintin in Tibet was adapted into a theatrical musical, Hergé's Adventures of Tintin, which ran from late 2005 to early 2006 at the Barbican Arts Centre in London. The production, directed by Rufus Norris and adapted by Norris and David Greig, featured Russell Tovey as Tintin. The musical was revived at the Playhouse Theatre in London's West End before touring in 2007. In 2010, the television channel Arte filmed an episode of its documentary series Sur les traces de Tintin (On the Trail of Tintin) in the Nepalese Himalayas, exploring the inspiration and setting of Tintin in Tibet. From May to September 2012 the Musée Hergé in Louvain-la-Neuve hosted an exhibition about the book, entitled Into Tibet with Tintin.

References

Bibliography

• Apostolidès, Jean-Marie (2010) [2006]. The Metamorphoses of Tintin, or Tintin for Adults. Jocelyn Hoy (translator). Stanford: Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-6031-7. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Assouline, Pierre (2009) [1996]. Hergé, the Man Who Created Tintin. Charles Ruas (translator). Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-539759-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Billington, Michael (15 December 2005). "Hergé's Adventures of Tintin". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 31 July 2013. {{cite news}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Farr, Michael (2001). Tintin: The Complete Companion. London: John Murray. ISBN 978-0-7195-5522-0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• French, Patrick (9 March 2009). "The view from the roof of the world: It's 50 years since the Dalai Lama fled Tibet". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 31 May 2014. {{cite news}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Goddin, Philippe (2011). The Art of Hergé, Inventor of Tintin: Volume 3: 1950-1983. Michael Farr (translator). San Francisco: Last Gasp. ISBN 978-0-86719-763-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Hergé (1960) [1960]. Tintin in Tibet. Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper and Michael Turner (translators). London: Egmont. ISBN 978-1-4052-0631-0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Lofficier, Jean-Marc; Lofficier, Randy (2002). The Pocket Essential Tintin. Harpenden, Hertfordshire: Pocket Essentials. ISBN 978-1-904048-17-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Lopez, Jr., Donald (1999). Prisoners of Shangri-La: Tibetan Buddhism and the West. USA: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-49311-4. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• McCarthy, Tom (2006). Tintin and the Secret of Literature. London: Granta. ISBN 978-1-86207-831-4. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Peeters, Benoît (1989). Tintin and the World of Hergé. London: Methuen Children's Books. ISBN 978-0-416-14882-4. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Peeters, Benoît (2012) [2002]. Hergé: Son of Tintin. Tina A. Kover (translator). Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-1-4214-0454-7. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Pollard, Lawrence (22 May 2007). "Belgium honours Tintin's creator". London: BBC News. Retrieved 22 June 2013. {{cite news}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Sadoul, Numa (1975). Tintin et moi: entretiens avec Hergé (in French). Tournai: Casterman. ISBN 978-2-08-080052-7. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
• Smurthwaite, Nick (13 December 2007). "Hergé's Adventure of Tintin". The Stage. London. Retrieved 14 June 2013. {{cite news}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Thompson, Harry (1991). Tintin: Hergé and his Creation. London: Hodder and Stoughton. ISBN 978-0-340-52393-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• "Dalai Lama honours Tintin and Tutu". London: BBC News. 2 June 2006. Retrieved 22 December 2012. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
• "Hergé – The Adventures of Tintin: Tintin in Tibet". BBC Radio 4. 1993. Retrieved 7 May 2014.
• "Hergé's Adventures of Tintin at the Barbican Theatre". Barbican.org.uk. 1 December 2005. Retrieved 10 December 2013.
• "Hergé's Adventures of Tintin [Musical]". SoniaFriedman.com. November 2007. Retrieved 14 July 2013.
• "Musée Hergé Temporary exhibition: Into Tibet with Tintin". Musée Hergé. May 2012. Retrieved 28 April 2013.
• "Népal: Tintin au Tibet". Sur les traces de Tintin. Arte. 10 December 2010. Retrieved 26 April 2014.
• "Rufus Norris to direct World Premiere of Tintin". YoungVic.org. November 2005. Archived from the original on 9 November 2006. Retrieved 9 September 2006. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
• "Tintin and I: Film Description". PBS.com. 11 July 2006. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
• "Tintin in Tibet (1995)". MobyGames.com. 1995. Retrieved 30 September 2013.
• "Tutu and Tintin to be honoured by Dalai Lama". Washington, D.C.: International Campaign for Tibet. 17 May 2006. Archived from the original on 1 September 2006. Retrieved 11 March 2011. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)

External links

• Tintin in Tibet Official Website
• Tintin in Tibet at Tintinologist.org