Shangri-La
Shangri-La is a fictional place described in the 1933 novel
Lost Horizon by British author James Hilton. Hilton describes Shangri-La as a
mystical, harmonious valley, gently guided from a lamasery, enclosed in the
western end of the Kunlun Mountains. Shangri-La has become synonymous with any
earthly paradise but particularly a mythical Himalayan utopia — a permanently
happy land, isolated from the outside world. In the novel Lost Horizon, the
people who live at Shangri-La are almost immortal, living years beyond the
normal lifespan and only very slowly aging in appearance. The word also evokes
the imagery of exoticism of the Orient.
In the ancient Tibetan scriptures, existence of seven such places is mentioned
as Nghe-Beyul Khimpalung.[1] Khembalung
is one of several beyuls ("hidden lands" similar to Shangri-La)
believed to have been created by Padmasambhava
in the 8th century as idylic, sacred places of refuge for Buddhists
during times of strife (Reinhard 1978)
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