Tim in Tibet

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tim in Tibet ( French original title: Tintin au Tibet ) is a comic album from the Tintin series by the Belgian author Hergé , which was published in 1959.

action

Tim and his two friends Captain Haddock and Professor Bienlein are spending their vacation in the Alps when Tim receives a letter from his old Chinese friend Tschang announcing his visit. A short time later, however, Tim found out from the newspaper that the plane in which Tschang wanted to arrive crashed in the Himalayas and there were no survivors. Tschang appears in Tim's dreams and Tim decides to travel to the Himalayas to save Tschang. After initial hesitation, Captain Haddock accompanies him.

Together with the mountain guide Tharkey, they reach the crash site of the DC-3 after a long walk , but cannot find Tschang there. When Tim gets lost alone in the snow and goes to an ice cave to protect himself from a blizzard, he finds the name “Tschang” carved in stone. A short time later, Tim finds a scarf in a rock wall that he believes belongs to Tschang. Tschang itself remains undetectable. Together with Captain Haddock and Tharkey, Tim makes his way back. The three are caught in an avalanche and then nursed back to health by Tibetan monks . Tschang appears to one of the monks and explains to Tim in a kind of trance that Tschang is being held captive by the Yeti .

Near the monastery, Captain Haddock and Tim can locate the cave where the Yeti lives. When the Yeti leaves the cave, Tim sneaks into the cave and discovers Tschang, who is in poor health. When leaving the cave they are surprised by the Yeti; however, this is put to flight by Tim's camera flash when he accidentally touches Tim's camera. Tschang tells that he was the only survivor after the plane crash and that he was rescued and fed by the Yeti.

Tim and Captain Haddock carry Tschang down to the valley, where they are received by the Tibetan monks, who also keep Tschang healthy and a few days later the friends set off with a caravan to Nepal and thus back home.

background

The story of Tintin in Tibet is in many ways a special album from the Tintin series . The author Hergé was - before he began working on the story - mentally badly damaged. He later said that at that time he suffered severely from nightmares in which large white areas kept appearing. He went to a psychoanalyst who advised him not to continue working on Tintin. Hergé decided against it and decided to deal with his psychological problems in the story of Tim in Tibet . At the same time, Hergé's marriage fell apart; and he started a new relationship with a considerably younger employee (Fanny Vlamynck).

In contrast to most of the other Tintin series stories, there is no villain in Tintin in Tibet . Even the Yeti is not characterized as evil, but rather as pitiful. Also none of Tim's regular companions appear in the story, such as B. the figures Schulze and Schultze or Bianca Castafiore . Rather, the story focuses on the close friendship between the protagonists Tim and Captain Haddock, between Tim and Tschang and also between Tschang and the Yeti. Another new passion Hergé found influence in the story: The mysticism of Tibetan Buddhism as well as supernatural perceptions - the latter are depicted several times in Tim in Tibet .

Another specialty of Tim in Tibet is the characterization of Tim. While Tim has some hair-raising experiences in all of his other adventures, he always meets them with an immobile serenity. In Tim in Tibet, however, Tim experiences several emotional outbursts. Even at the beginning of the story, Tim cries for the supposed death of his friend Tschang. Zhang Chongren , the real role model of Tschang Tschong-jen, and Hergé lost sight of each other until 1975, only in 1981 did they meet again.

Bernard Heuvelmans was asked about the Yeti, as was Maurice Herzog . Another source were the works of Alexandra David-Neel et al. a. the camp of the Sherpa, "Trampa", the food of the Sherpa (barley flour with tea and butter), the decorated headgear of the monks, the silk scarf as a gift and the custom of sticking out the tongue in greeting were taken over.

The beginning of the story takes place in Vargese in Haute Savoie instead. The Qutub Minar and the Red Fort appear in short scenes . All these details testify once again to the precision with which Herge worked. The price was that his crashed machine had to be renamed the DC-3 because the airline did not want to be associated with it.

Publications

The story appeared from September 1958 to November 1959 in 63 sequels in Tintin magazine and then as a colored 64-page album. The story was published in German in 1963 in the book series Tim, the smart reporter of the Casterman publishing house. Also in 1963 the Hamburger Abendblatt published episodes of the story on the children's page, followed in 1964 by the Berliner Morgenpost with hand - lettered two-color printing. The album edition by Carlsen Verlag appeared in 1967.

As part of the 39-part television series Les Aventures de Tintin from 1991, “Tim in Tibet” was also released as the sixth episode, divided into two episodes (the episodes The Mysterious Star , The Treasure Rackham's Red and Tim in America are individual episodes, all of them other episodes were two-part). The film is included on the DVD "Tim and Struppi No. 3", Universum Film 82876 65976 9.

The Hergé Foundation, which administers the estate and the rights to the comics, prevented the volume Tintin from appearing in Tibet in China in 2001 under the title Tintin in Tibet , China . For this reason, the Hergé Foundation received the Light of Truth Award from the Dalai Lama in May 2006 by the International Campaign for Tibet (ITC) .

In cooperation with the Hergé Foundation, the International Campaign for Tibet has published a special calendar edition Tintin on the Roof of the World for 2009 with motifs from the Tim-in-Tibet comic.

Literature and Sources

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Farr: In the footsteps of Tintin and Struppi . Carlsen Comics, Hamburg 2006, p. 162; 165
  2. ↑ Michael Farr: In the footsteps of Tintin and Struppi . Carlsen Comics, Hamburg 2006, p. 168
  3. ^ Exhibition catalog Tintin and Struppi. A look into the studio . éditions moulinsart 2001. ISBN 2-930284-50-1 . P. 86 f.
  4. ↑ Tintin in Tibet. Clear political line. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . May 22, 2006.

Web links