Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of I Heart Radio, Hey brain Stuff, Lauren bog Obam Here, James Hilton was simply dreaming of a place that humans have yearned for since they first learned to yearn A heaven of sorts, of paradise, Utopia, Zanna do the Garden Vieden Chambala. Hilton, a popular writer in the first half of the twentieth century, named his happy place Shangri Law, and he made it wondrous and spiritual,
talking it high into the mountains in northwest Tibet. It was the setting of his nineteen thirty three adventure novel Lost Horizon, which instantly became a worldwide bestseller. It was also made into a major Hollywood film, the legendary Frank Capra directed and Ronald Coleman and Jane Wyatt starred in nine seven. From the moment Lost Horizon hit bookstore shelves,
Shangar Law became synonymous with utopia. Back then, it was an ideal, a place to escape too, during a time when the real world had just been through a global war and the Great Depression. Since then, the simple idea of the place has sparked countless trips to Tibet journeys of faith and perseverance, of hope and distant promise of
supposed enlightenment and sometimes disappointment. It's kind of an amazing phenomenon, considering that the place doesn't exist, and it never has except for ten years or so when what's now called Camp David, the Presidential Retreat was founded under the name Shangar Law by then President Franklin Roosevelt in two or at least that was the only time it's existed until recently.
But let's start at the beginning. Hilton reportedly did most of the research for his novel in the British Museum Library, not far from his home in the northeastern part of London. He never actually visited Tibet. Instead, he took inspiration for Shanger Law from another utopian dream, a place known for
centuries as Shambala. We spoke with Ed Bernebaum, who lectures on comparative religion in mythology and wrote The Way to Shambala in He said there was one sort of very very garbled version of the Shambala myth that Hilton read, and one of the Catholic Explorer's writings, but it wasn't at all clear. It was this sort of universal theme, and at that time Tibet was pretty much unexplored, So if you're going to look for a hidden utopia, that
was an ideal place to do it. Shambala is a Tibetan Buddhist legend about a utopian paradise far in the northern mountains of Asia. It's said to be a spiritual place where people of all religions and backgrounds lived together in harmony. It's also said to be the place from which, when war and evil engulfed the rest of the world, a leader will emerge to defeat the forces of chaos and usher in a new age of peace and happiness.
Shambala grows out of the Buddhist teaching of Kala Chakra, or the wheel of Time, which states that the center of the universe is Mount Maru, sometimes called Mount Sumaru, said to be well north of Tibet. Burne Bomb said people sort of looked at Tibet as this mysterious, utopian kind of place, and the Tibetans themselves looked even farther north for that utopia. Shambala. If Hilton, who died in nineteen fifty four, was indeed modeling Shangri Law after the
Buddhist teachings of Shambala. It might pain him to learn what's happened to his imaginary wonderland because it's become real, but not in a particularly Buddhist way. In two thousand one, the Chinese government, which has controlled Tibet since the late nineteen fifties, changed the name of Jongdian County to Shangri Law for a simple purpose to cash in on tourist dollars. Many areas in China had been buying for the right to change their names shangr Law, and it took nearly
a decade to decide on a winner. Jongdian won out in what The Guardian in two thousand six called one of the most audacious rebranding exercises in history. Today, the larger area of Shangri Law boasts a Shangri Law resort, a Hilton garden in Shangri Law, and an airport with daily flights to Beijing, Shanghai and Lassa, the capital of China's Tibet Autonomous Region, in the heart of what westerners
know as Tibet. The visitors can tour the largest Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Yunnan Province, and when they're done, they can quaff down to brew at the Changra Law beer bar tagline beer made in Heaven. Tibet and the newly named Shangra Law are a draw for reasons other than tourist traps. Of course, Tibet is known, after all, is the roof of the world. It shares the highest peak in the world, Mount Everest, but neighboring Nepal, though that's
a long way from Shangra Law. The area's natural beauty is breathtaking, which makes it a destination for outdoor levers. That's especially popular with Chinese tourists. It's harder for Westerners to secure visas to get there. But is this the Shangra Law that James Hilton envisioned? Is it what modern travelers expect? That, it seems is probably up to the pilgrim. Burnbaum said, there are different ways of going to Shambala. To me, what I found most interesting was the symbolism
of it. It sort of reflects an inner journey. Today's episode was written by John Donovan and produced by Tyler Clang. For more on this and lots of other curious topics, visit how stuff works dot com. Brain Stuff is production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.