The Philadelphia Inquirer

Sunday, December 15, 1996

A story behind the story of a life-and-death trek.

After years of prison and torture, there is only one way out for many Buddhist monks and nuns escaping Communist oppression in Tibet: a two-week trek across the Himalayas, the tallest mountains in the world.

Today's Inquirer Magazine follows 15 Tibetans on that life-and-death journey.

The trek was headed by a guide who led the group through rivers and over glaciers, stealing past Chinese soldiers and wild dogs. Some of the refugees suffered from altitude sickness and subzero temperatures as they crossed a mountain pass 18,000 feet above sea level.

Their goal was India, the home of the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled religious and political leader. They knew that if they were caught, they would face long prison sentences and torture.

In August, reporter Loretta Tofani, photographer Vicki Valerio and interpreter Thubten Wangchuk arranged with a Tibetan guide to secretly join a trek headed from Lhasa, Tibet's capital, to Nepal and then on to India. The trek was forced to turn back when Tofani broke her right leg while the group was climbing a mountain past a Chinese military checkpoint in the night.

Several weeks later, Valerio and Wangchuk joined another trek. But that one also abruptly ended when a Buddhist nun fell sick. A third trek was begun in October when reporter Jeffrey Fleishman joined Valerio and Wangchuk. The journey was delayed for three days in Lhasa because the guide -- who had to be met secretly -- was worried about a recent Chinese crackdown. The trek left Lhasa in mid-October with 15 Tibetans.

After seven days -- including one during which the group scaled a 16,500-foot mountain pass -- one of the journalists became ill.

The journalists and the interpreter decided to go to a village while the Tibetans pressed ahead. They arranged to rejoin the Tibetans on the other side of the Nangpa La pass, the border between Tibet and Nepal. Five days later, the journalists met the group and stayed with it for three more days of interviews and photographs.