Shangri-La – Myth or reality |
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Shangri-La - the tale of an earthly paradise is among the most enduring myths in the world. It has been a popular theme for writers throughout the ages. The writers have written from the Sumerian epic to the ‘islands of the blest’ in Celtic literature. The paradise has lured many readers throughout ages, there have been many controversies around these paradises being myth, but it has not lessened the charm. People have been drawn to the dream of a lost paradise where the ravages of time and history have been held back, where human beings live in harmony with nature, and where the wisdom of the planet is saved for future generations like the Shangri-La. |
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Shangri-La was first heard of in the novelist James Hilton’s fictional tale of the legendary Tibetan paradise Shambala. In Hilton’s 1933 novel, Lost Horizon, he changed the name of the paradise to Shangri-La. This place in Tibet is a paradise valley cut off from the world. In this novel the insight of the human race is being preserved against the threat of impending disaster.
It is an ancient Tibetan myth, having a sacred landscape. Conventionally, Shambala is located in the Himalayas, in the remotest part of Tibet, on a high plateau, surrounded by a ring of mountain peaks. The tale is that there is a land behind the Himalayas full of peace and harmony where isolated people live in accordance with Buddhist precepts preparing for the day when the world will be ready to live in peace. The kingdom is in the shadow of a white crystal mountain, approachable only through a ring of peaks. Next to the mountain are a lake and a palace. Here the wisdom of humanity is conserved, ready to save the world when needed. This idea of a lost kingdom somewhere in the Himalayas has also been prevalent in Tibetan Buddhist teaching for centuries. It came first to the knowledge of western people around four centuries ago. It starts with a mysterious map - this one lost, then rediscovered a hundred years ago in Calcutta, India. It was part of a remarkable manuscript that contained the autobiography of a 16th-century Western missionary at the court of the Moghul emperor Akbar. The name Shambala first appears in Kalachakra tantra - or Wheel of Time teaching. In Shambala, the people lived in peace and harmony, faithful to the principles of Buddhism, and the concepts of war and sorrow were unknown. Shambala is a magic land, unlike any place on earth, and rests in the shadow of a magnificent white mountain. It is a valley and is only approachable through a ring of snow peaks like the petals of a lotus. At the centre is a nine-storey crystal mountain which stands over a sacred lake, and a palace adorned with lapis, coral, gems and pearls. Shambala is a kingdom where humanity’s wisdom is spared from the destructions and corruptions of time and history, ready to save the world in its hour of need. The tales of Shangri-La is a modern tale and reflect our desire that something of our world will survive, and that our connection with our past will not be entirely erased, even as we move faster and faster into an uncertain future. These are tales that we still need to believe in today’s world.
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