out of the camp. While Magener and von Have took the train to Calcutta and from there found their way to the Japanese army in Burma, the others headed for the closest border. After Sattler had given up on 10 May, the remaining four entered Tibet crossing the Tsang Chok-la Pass (5,896 metres) on 17 May 1944 and thereafter split into two groups: Harrer and Kopp, Aufschnaiter and Treipel. On 17 June Treipel, exhausted, bought himself a horse and rode back to the lowlands. Several months later, when the remaining three were still without visas for Tibet, Kopp gave up too and left for Nepal (where he was handed over to the British within a few days). Aufschnaiter and Harrer, helped by the former's knowledge of the Tibetan language, proceeded to the capital of Lhasa which they reached on 15 January 1946, having crossed Western Tibet (passing holy Mount Kailash), the South-West with Gyirong County and the Northern Changthang Plateau. From then on Aufschnaiter played an important role in Tibet. Employed by the government he helped plan a hydroelectric power plant and a sewage system for Lhasa and started first attempts at river regulations and reforestation in the area. He also looked into improving the quality of seeds. With Harrer he charted the first exact map of the capital city. His archaeological findings led to a correspondence with the scholar Giuseppe Tucci. His extensive work is described in Heinrich Harrer's Seven Years in Tibet and Harrer's autobiography Beyond Seven Years in Tibet: my life before, during and after. Aufschnaiter's own book, Eight Years in Tibet, includes many of his own photographs and sketches. In October 1950 the advance of the Chinese People's Liberation Army to Lhasa forced Aufschnaiter and Harrer to join the caravan of the Dalai Lama when he retreated to the Chumbi Valley bordering Sikkim and India. Harrer proceeded to India, but Aufschnaiter stayed at Gyantse and left Tibet only 10 months later. Harrer's book, Seven years in Tibet states that, "On 20 December 1950, Peter left Lhasa. Heinrich Harrer had already left for southern Tibet in the middle of November, finally leaving the country in March 1951. But Aufschnaiter wanted to stay in Tibet as long as possible, and in fact remained another ten months. (...) at this time he was on the south-western frontier of Tibet. On the way there he visited the monastery of Rongphu,