MyWestworld

Searching for Shangri-La

Posted on 14. Jan, 2009 by Kerry Banks in International

Over the Christmas holidays I watched an excellent documentary on PBS entitled “The Search for Shangri-La.” The episode, one of a four-part series called “In Search of Myths and Heroes,” was narrated by British historian and broadcaster Michael Wood, who takes us on a remarkable journey into one of the most remote and austere places on the planet. Although many of us today may associate Shangri-La with a tropical utopia, or perhaps a hotel chain, according to James Hilton, the novelist who introduced the word into mainstream culture in his 1933 novel Lost Horizon, Shangri-La was actually located high in the Himalayas.

In his book, Hilton describes a community located in a lost Tibetan valley that is cut off from the world and from time. All the wisdom of the human race is contained in this mystical place, in the cultural treasures stored, and in the minds of the people who have gathered here in the face of an imminent catastrophe. Set in the troubled years before World War Two, Hilton’s escapist fantasy about a lost world of peace, civilization and beauty struck a popular chord. Lost Horizon became an instant bestseller and was turned into a successful movie by director Frank Capra. The appeal of Shangri-La was so strong that the U.S. president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, used the name for his country retreat, later renamed Camp David. Even the Nazis were mesmerized by Shangri-La’s spell. In fact, Heinrich Himmler, head of the S.S., sent several expeditions to Tibet to search for evidence of an ancient master Aryan civilization.

Although Hilton’s tale was purely fictional, it was based on an ancient Tibetan myth about a mythical kingdom called Shambala. Supposedly hidden somewhere in the remotest part of Tibet, on a high plateau, surrounded by a ring of mountain peaks, Shambala was said to be inhabited by beings who are guiding the evolution of mankind. In the last decade there has been a growing interest in tracking down the “real” Shangri-La, about whose location Hilton was intentionally vague. Several sites have been touted as the inspiration, such as the Hunza Valley in northern Pakistan near the Tibetan border, an isolated green valley surrounded by mountains, which Hilton visited a few years before Lost Horizon was published.

Over the years, many communities on the Tibetan-Chinese border have also laid claim to be the setting of the mystical kingdom. In the Chinese province of Yunnan, two towns, Deqin and Cizhong, say they are its inspiration. In 2001, the Chinese cabinet intervened to allow Zhongdian county to officially rename itself Shangri-La. But the neighbouring Sichuan counties of Daocheng, Xiangcheng and Derong also claim to be the original model for the story. And dozens of other villages and towns dotted all over Sichuan and Yunnan appear to have taken the unilateral decision to rename themselves Shangri-La.

However, in his documentary, Wood suggests that the legendary Shangri-La is actually the abandoned western Tibetan city of Tsaparang, the capital of the ancient Kingdom of Guge (goo-gay). Carved entirely out of rock, Tsaparang was home to two of Tibet’s most artistically impressive temples. The kingdom, which was located on a plateau some 1,200 kilometres west of Lhasa in Ngari Prefecture, boasted an extraordinary Christian and Himalayan Buddhist civilization rich with art and culture that flourished for 700 years and then vanished mysteriously in the 17th century.

On his quest to find Shangri-La, Wood examines the Tibetan myth of Shambala and the journey of Antonio Andrade, a Portuguese missionary sent to find it during the 16th century by the Moghul emperor Akbar. In retracing Andrade’s route, Wood embarks on an extraordinary journey through India, Nepal, and Tibet to visit Lake Manasarovar and Mt. Kailash, two of the holiest sites in the Buddhist and Hindu religions. The show will likely be airing again before too long, so I won’t describe what Wood eventually finds in the ruins of Tsaparang, other than to say that it is both moving and poignant. For those who can’t wait for the next telecast, you can order a DVD of the entire four-part series, which includes Jason and the Golden Fleece, the Queen of Sheba and King Arthur, from the PBS website www.pbs.org/mythsandheroes.

Photo Credits:

#1: catherinemarie.wordpress.com

#2: asianart.com

#3: flickr.com

Tags: Movie Travel, Tibet