The Herald
News, June 27, 1992                                                      
Scott Koeneman

                          If the tales of the adventuring archeologist Indiana Jones were based in reality, they would be taken from the life of Johan Reinhard.
He has spent most of the past 28 years doing things most people only experience
through movies, books and imagination. He has climbed more Andean Mountains
than any other person. He has conducted the world’s highest scientific excavation, at 20,000 feet above sea level. He discovered new species in lakes in the craters
of volcanoes. The dives were made  nearly a mile higher than had ever been done
before. He found the last hunter-gatherer tribes in the Himalayas of Nepal.
He found and analyzed the world’s rarest language. At the time, there were only
three people who spoke it, and linguists say it is in a family all its own. He translated a rare Tibetan text that led him to discover three legendary hidden valleys of Tibetan Buddhism. He was a member of  the successful 1976 American Everest Expedition.He was one of the first to make a foot crossing of Tierra del Fuego. He was a member of a team that set a world’s record in sky diving
                          Reinhard brushes off comparisons to the fictional
Indiana Jones. "At least that guy had a job," he said.

                         Getting Started

                          Reinhard’s adventures began when he was 16. He
took a summer job with a  telegraph line gang. The work was hard. He dug
holes for the telegraph poles with picks and shovels. The crew was made up entirely of Southerners, except for Reinhard, Southerners who were older and bigger and who didn’t like Northerners.
                          Almost nightly, they challenged him to boxing matches. Usually, they beat him to the point where he was hurt, but not to the point where the beating would have to be  reported. Eventually, the men gained a grudging
respect for Reinhard, and he got to know them. "These guys didn’t think the same way we do," he said. "I realized there was a culture totally different from mine, right here in the U.S."
                          I learned I could put up with a hell of a lot. I could take it. I thought I would make a good explorer," he said.
                          Reinhard went to the University of Arizona, where
he studied anthropology and archeology. After his sophomore year, he and a
friend decided to mount an expedition to Brazil. The two wanted to explore a
giant plateau where unique species of plants and insects lived. At the time, the
only way to reach the plateau was to hike through jungle and climb the surrounding cliffs.Reinhard and his friend, "Congo Bill",  thought they had a better idea. They would  parachute in.
                          The two learned to sky dive and prepared all
their supplies, including football helmets and pads just in case the landing was rough. Just before they were to leave, everything was stolen.

                         Rolling with the punches

                          With everything gone, Reinhard left Congo Bill and the U.S. for a trip to Europe. He hitchhiked around the continent, finally running
out of money in Tangiers, Morocco. He hitchhiked back to Europe, where he took intensive instruction in the German  language and was accepted into the University of Vienna, Austria.
                          After three years of study, he left for Nepal to do work on his thesis. Here is where he met and studied the few survivors of the Kusunda
and Raute tribes,  hunter/gatherer societies.   [Since 1968 Reinhard has
lived in Nepal for more  than 10 years.  His research has ranged from
studying culture change among a nomadic tribe that took up agriculture, to
such topics as shamanism, mountain worship among Hindus and Tibetan
Buddhists, and the "hidden lands" of Tibetan Buddhism.]

                          Unraveling mysteries

                          An expedition and another theft took him to South America. He spent a summer traveling and studying different aspects of South American culture, including sacred sites in the Andes Mountains. Just before he was
to leave, all his notes and slides were stolen. "The only thing I could repeat was
the work on the mountain tops," he said. "Nobody had any idea why the Incas were building at altitudes that Westerners didn’t reach until hundreds of years
later. While I was there, a hypothesis started to formulate in my mind: sacred
geography," he said.
                          Thirteen years later, Reinhard has returned to the U.S. to write a book on his discoveries and theories. Some of them were outlined in an article in the March issue of National Geographic magazine. Reinhard said
the Incas, as well as many other cultures, see mountains as sacred places. "They
believed mountains controlled the weather," he said. It makes sense: Clouds
form around mountains, and rivers  come down from them. They also saw them as a protector," he said. Studying sacred places took Reinhard to the tops of mountains and to the bottoms of lakes. He has discovered some of the rarest prehistoric artifacts in South America and has put  forth theories unraveling some of its biggest mysteries. Among them are the Nazca Lines. The lines were made famous by Erich von Daniken. In the book Chariots of the Gods, von Daniken theorized the lines were meant for visitors from outer space. He said the lines were in the shapes of animals or geometric figures that could only be recognized from thousands of feet in the air.
                          Reinhard, on the other hand, used his background in sacred geography to show that  the lines were more likely built for mountain
gods. If the gods were pleased by these figures, most of which represent fertility or water, the gods would provide rain and good crops, Reinhard theorized. His theory has become the one accepted by scientists across the world. "He is one of the leaders in the field," said Richard Townsend of the Art Institute of Chicago.
                          Reinhard has written an article for a catalog of the Ancient American Art from Sacred Lands exhibit at the art institute. The exhibit begins in October.
      "His devotion is to the work out in the field," he said. "It has been his life."
                          Mysteries, more than the adventures, Reinhard said, have excited him during his life.
                          "People look at what I’ve done and make the comparison to Indiana Jones. I don’t really like that because what they are thinking about is the adventure. They don’t think about the mystery. I think about it more as delving into the mystery and the knowledge I can find. Everything is a learning experience," he said. "When the pieces come together, and it just clicks I get so
excited I can’t sleep at night.
                          "It’s like a detective story. I want to come up
with a better explanation than there was before," he said.
                          Reinhard has received the Rolex Award for exploration and, most recently, The Golden Puma Award from the Bolivian government.
Only seven other people have  received that award. Only 20 have received the
Rolex Award.
                         Paying the price of his lifestyle

                          Reinhard said his life has not been an easy one.In the past 28 years, with the  exception of a short period in the U.S., he has
not spent more than three months  without going on an expedition. He has spent
years living on rice and lentils. Intellect and insecurity have played equal parts in Reinhard’s life.
                            He is fluent in half-dozen languages. And he has been nearly killed more than 30 times, he said. "I never thought I would live this long," he said. At 48, Reinhard’s hair is receding and dusted with gray, but his body appears fit. His arms are muscular, and his eyes are bright. He said he is not as worried about dying as he is about being badly hurt. "I’ve never really thought about
being permanently disabled," he said."Before, I was either dead or alive. But, now I’m starting to think about those things."
                          The concerns of growing older, however, are not
enough to send him looking for a job  in teaching or at a museum.                            For now, he is in West Virginia working on his book at a home loaned to him by the The Mountain Institute. "The next foreign culture I experience should be the U.S.," he said.