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39-452: Ancient Tibetan scriptures mention the existence of seven such places as Nghe-Beyul Khembalung . Khembalung is one of several Utopia beyuls (hidden lands similar to Shangri-La) which Tibetan Buddhists believe that Padmasambhava established in the 9th century CE as idyllic, sacred places of refuge for Buddhists during times of strife. In a 1936 interview for The New York Times , Hilton states that he used "Tibetan material" from

78-512: A New York Times gossip column in which he reveals that his cultural inspiration for Shangri-La, if it is anywhere, is more than 250 km north of Muli on the route travelled by Huc and Gabet. Between 2002 and 2004 a series of expeditions were led by author and film maker Laurence Brahm in western China which determined that the Shangri-La mythical location in Hilton's book Lost Horizon

117-724: A Bishop since 1962. Meanwhile, in the Tibetan Autonomous Region , both the Government-controlled Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association and the pro- Vatican Underground Church have a presence, although statistics for the latter are understandably hard to come by. With regard to Protestantism , both the Caesaropapism Three-Self Patriotic Movement and the independent House Church Movement also have

156-740: A presence in Tibet, mostly in Lhasa. Tantric school of Nepalese Hinduism and Buddhism reach to Tibetan region through Nepal route, buy very few in Nepal's border region with China. Tsaparang Samding Dorje Phagmo Tsaparang ( Tibetan : རྩ་བྲང , Wylie : rtsa-brang ) was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Guge in the Garuda Valley , through which the upper Sutlej River flows, in Ngari Prefecture (Western Tibet) near

195-609: Is a Tibetan folk religious sect in Amdo County named the "Heroes of Ling", which was founded in 1981 by a Tibetan called Sonam Phuntsog, who claimed to be an incarnation of the legendary hero Gesar , which was later banned as a disruptive and "splittist" sect. Tibetan Muslims, also known as the Khache ( Tibetan : ཁ་ཆེ་ , lit.   ' Kashmiris ' ), are Tibetans who adhere to Islam . Many are descendants of Kashmiris , Ladakhis , and Nepalis who arrived in Tibet in

234-729: Is the ancient religion of Tibet, but nowadays the major influence is Tibetan Buddhism, a distinctive form of Mahayana and Vajrayana , which was introduced into Tibet from the Sanskrit Buddhist tradition of northern India. Tibetan Buddhism is practiced not only in Tibet but also in Mongolia (During the Yuan Dynasty , the Mongol rulers of the Yuan Dynasty made Tibetan Buddhism the state religion and from there it spread to

273-650: The British Museum , particularly the travelogue of two French priests, Évariste Régis Huc and Joseph Gabet , to provide the Tibetan cultural and Buddhist spiritual inspiration for Shangri-La. Huc and Gabet travelled a round trip between Beijing and Lhasa in 1844–1846 on a route more than 250 kilometres (160 mi) north of Yunnan. Their famous travelogue, first published in French in 1850, went through many editions in many languages. A popular "condensed translation"

312-621: The Classical Tibetan literary language , Fr. Desideri sought to demolish those foundations of Tibetan Buddhism , especially the doctrines of reincarnation and emptiness , that prevented Tibetan belief in the Christian God and conversion to the Catholic Church in Tibet . Fr. Desideri also deftly used conventions from Tibetan literature and passages from the dharma and vinaya to defend his thesis. Fr. Desideri

351-669: The Han Chinese majority. The first Christians documented to have reached Tibet were the Nestorians , of whom various remains and inscriptions have been found in Tibet. They were also present at the imperial camp of Möngke Khan at Shira Ordo, where they debated in 1256 with Karma Pakshi (1204/6-83), head of the Karma Kagyu order. Desideri, who reached Lhasa in 1716, encountered Armenian and Russian merchants. Roman Catholic Jesuits and Capuchins arrived from Europe in

390-677: The Himalayas . After a harrowing journey (they were the first known Europeans to traverse the Himalayas) they arrived in Tsaparang, where they managed to gain permission from the king of Guge to freely preach their religion throughout the kingdom, and left after less than a month. After gaining formal permission and funds to start a mission in Tibet from the Jesuit superior at Goa , Andrade, Marques, and three other Jesuits journeyed to Tsaparang

429-718: The Karma Gon Monastery ambushed and murdered Fr. Maurice Tornay C.R.S.A., who was travelling in disguise to Lhasa to appeal directly to the Dalai Lama for religious toleration to be granted to Tibetan Christians. Pope John Paul II beatified Fr. Tornay as a martyr for the Catholic faith on May 16, 1993. As far as Roman Catholicism is concerned, Tibet officially belongs to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kangding , which has been without

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468-595: The sky caves found there, in search of Shangri-La. His findings offer no proof that Shangri-La is or was real. Religion in Tibet Religion in Tibet, China (estimates as of 2012) The main religion in Tibet has been Buddhism since its outspread in the 8th century AD. As of 2022 the historical region of Tibet (the areas inhabited by ethnic Tibetans ) is mostly comprised in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) of China and partly in

507-628: The "Shangri-La" episode of the BBC TV/PBS documentary series In Search of Myths and Heroes , suggested that Tsaparang was the historical origin of the legend of Shangri-La , and that its two great temples were once home to the kings of Guge in modern Tibet. According to some accounts, Tsaparang was made the capital of the Kingdom of Guge by Namde Wosung , one of the sons of the Langdarma the anti-Buddhist king of Tibet 838-841 CE, after Langdarma

546-756: The 14th to 17th centuries. There are approximately 5,000 Tibetan Muslims living in China , over 1,500 in India , and 300 to 400 in Nepal . The government of the People's Republic of China does not recognize the Tibetan Muslims as a distinct ethnic group; they are grouped with Tibetan adherents of Buddhism and Bon . In contrast, the Chinese-speaking Hui Muslims are distinguished from

585-458: The 17th and 18th centuries. Portuguese missionaries Jesuit Father António de Andrade and Brother Manuel Marques first reached the kingdom of Guge in western Tibet in 1624 and was welcomed by the royal family who allowed them to build a church later on. By 1627, there were about a hundred local converts in the Guge kingdom. Later on, Christianity was introduced to Rudok , Ladakh and Tsang and

624-675: The Chinese god of war Guandi is identified with the cross-ethnic Chinese, Tibetan, Mongol and Manchu deity Gesar . The temple is built according to both Chinese and Tibetan architecture. It was first erected in 1792 under the Qing dynasty and renovated around 2013 after decades of disrepair. Built or rebuilt between 2014 and 2015 is the Guandi Temple of Qomolangma ( Mount Everest ), on Ganggar Mount, in Tingri County . There

663-527: The Chinese provinces of Qinghai and Sichuan . Before the arrival of Buddhism, the main religion among Tibetans was an indigenous shamanic and animistic religion, Bon , which would later influence the formation of Tibetan Buddhism and still attracts the allegiance of a sizeable minority of Tibetans. According to estimates from the International Religious Freedom Report of 2012, most Tibetans (who comprise 91% of

702-507: The Gospel to the Tibetan people." During the 1905 Tibetan Rebellion Tibetan Buddhist monks attacked, tortured and murdered French Catholic missionaries including Fr. André Soulié and massacred ethnic Tibetan Catholics, including both recent converts and those whose ancestors converted to Catholicism. In 1949, after driving him from his parish in Yerkalo , Tibetan Buddhist monks from

741-701: The Mongolian region. ), parts of northern India, the Buryat Republic , the Tuva Republic , and in the Republic of Kalmykia and some other parts of China. Tibetan Buddhism has four main traditions (the suffix pa is comparable to "er" in English): Most of the Han Chinese who reside in Tibet practice their native Chinese folk religion . There is a Guandi Temple of Lhasa (拉萨关帝庙) where

780-602: The Muli monastery in this remote region was the model for James Hilton's Shangri-La, which they thought Hilton learned about from articles on this area in several National Geographic magazines in the late 1920s and early 1930s written by Austrian-American explorer Joseph Rock . Vaill completed a film based on their research, "Finding Shangri-La", which debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007. However, Michael McRae unearthed an obscure James Hilton interview from

819-448: The border of Ladakh . It is 278 km south-southwest of Senggezangbo Town and 26 km west of the 11th-century monastery at Tholing , and not far west of Mount Kailash and Lake Manasarovar . The Tsaparang Dzong was located here. Nearby is the Bon monastery of Gurugem . Tsaparang is a huge fortress perched on a pyramid-shaped rock rising about 500 to 600 feet (152 to 183 m) at

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858-598: The end of a long narrow spur. It contains numerous tunnels and caves that have been carved out of the rock. At its base was a village where the common people lived. Above them were two public temples - the Lhakhang Marpo (Red Chapel) and the Lhakhang Karpo (White Chapel), and quarters for the monks. Up, a twisting stone staircase in a tunnel were the royal quarters, and at the very top, the summer palace. The English TV presenter and historian Michael Wood , in

897-546: The following summer and built a church at the foot of the citadel and another one at Rudok 130 miles (209 km) away. António de Andrade left Tibet in 1628, and in 1630 the king of Ladakh, Senge Namgyal, invaded and overthrew the kingdom of Guge, taking the pro-Jesuit king (Tri Tashi Drakpa) and his family captive. Under Ladakhi rule the mission quickly fell into disarray; Andrade was assassinated in Goa in 1634. In 1640 Manuel Marques led an expedition back in an attempt to reestablish

936-505: The government-sponsored atheist proportion of the Tibetan population. According to some reports, the government of China has been promoting the Bon religion, linking it with Confucianism . Bön, the indigenous animist and shamanic belief system of Tibet, revolves around the worship of nature and claims to predate Buddhism. According to Bon religious texts: three Bon scriptures – mdo 'dus , gzer mig , and gzi brjid – relate

975-708: The highest. Traditionally, the Nine Vehicles are taught in three versions: as Central, Northern and Southern treasures. The Central treasure is closest to Nyingma Nine Yānas teaching and the Northern treasure is lost. Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche elaborated the Southern treasure with shamanism . Religion is extremely important to the Tibetans and has a strong influence over all aspects of their lives. Bön

1014-456: The kingdoms of Guge, Purang, and Maryul (= Ladakh). Guge controlled an ancient trading route between India and Tibet. It emerged in the region previously known as Zhangzhung and became an important regional power by the 10th century CE. In the summer of 1624 two Portuguese Jesuit missionaries , Fr. António de Andrade and Brother Manuel Marques , came to the region looking for Christian kingdoms that had long been rumored to lay beyond

1053-476: The mission but he was captured and the rest of his party fled. He wrote a pitiful letter to the Jesuit headquarters at Agra in India begging to be rescued, but was never heard from again. In 1679–80 Tsaparang and the Guge kingdom were conquered by Central Tibet, based in Lhasa under the 5th Dalai Lama . In spite of massive damage done then, and the destruction of most of the statues and murals in both chapels by

1092-402: The mythos of Tonpa Shenrab Miwoche. The Bonpos regard the first two as gter ma rediscovered around the eleventh century and the last as nyan brgyud (oral transmission) dictated by Loden Nyingpo, who lived in the fourteenth century. In the fourteenth century, Loden Nyingpo revealed a terma known as The Brilliance (Wylie: gzi brjid ), which contained the story of Tonpa Shenrab. He

1131-530: The population of the Tibet Autonomous Region) are associated with Tibetan Buddhism, while a minority of 400,000 people (12.5% of the total population of the TAR) profess the native Bon religion. Other groups in Tibet practise folk religions which share the image of Confucius ( Tibetan : Kongtse Trulgyi Gyalpo ) with Chinese folk religion , though in a different light. The statistics do not cover

1170-457: The sacredness of Tagzig Olmo Lungting and Mount Kailash, the Bonpo regard both the swastika and the number nine as auspicious and as of great significance. Tonpa Shenrab Miwoche visited Kongpo and found people whose practice involved spiritual appeasement with animal sacrifice. He taught them to substitute offerings with symbolic animal forms made from barley flour. He only taught according to

1209-442: The student's capability with lower shamanic vehicles to prepare; until with prayer, diligence, devotion and application they could incarnate to achieve sutra, tantra and Dzogchen. Bon teachings feature Nine Vehicles, which are pathway-teaching categories with distinct characteristics, views, practices and results. Medicine, astrology, and divination are in the lower vehicles; then sutra and tantra, with Dzogchen great perfection being

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1248-588: The tourist destinations of Zhongdian County, claim the title. In 2001, Zhongdian County in Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture , northwestern Yunnan province, officially renamed to Shangri-la . It is known as "香格里拉" (Xiānggélǐlā) in Chinese, "སེམས་ཀྱི་ཉི་ཟླ།" in Tibetan and "ज्ञानगंज" [gyanganj] in India. American explorers Ted Vaill and Peter Klika visited the Muli area of southern Sichuan Province in 1999, and claimed that

1287-413: Was assassinated. The Tibetan Empire was then plunged into civil war and split into a number of independent kingdoms. Other accounts say that two of Langdarma's grandsons fled to Western Tibet about 919 CE. The eldest one, Kyide Nyiamagon , established himself at Purang and conquered a large area including Ladakh and parts of Spiti . After his death his kingdom was split up between his three sons into

1326-625: Was based on references to the southern Yunnan Province from articles published by National Geographic's first resident explorer Joseph Rock . On 2 December 2010, OPB televised one of Martin Yan 's Hidden China episodes, "Life in Shangri-La", in which Yan said that "Shangri-La" is the actual name of a real town in the hilly and mountainous region in southwestern Yunnan Province, frequented by both Han and Tibetan locals. Martin Yan visited arts and craft shops and local farmers as they harvested crops, and sampled their cuisine. However, this town

1365-845: Was joined by Capuchins in 1707–1711, 1716–1733 and 1741–1745, Christianity was used by some Tibetan monarchs and their courts and the Karmapa sect lamas to counterbalance the influence of the Gelugpa sect in the 17th century until in 1745 when all the missionaries were expelled at the lama's insistence. In 1877, the Protestant James Cameron from the China Inland Mission walked from Chongqing to Batang in Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture , Sichuan province, and "brought

1404-609: Was not originally named Shangri-La, but was renamed so in 2001 to increase tourism. In the "Shangri-La" episode of the BBC documentary series In Search of Myths and Heroes , television presenter and historian Michael Wood suggested that the legendary Shangri-La might be the abandoned city of Tsaparang , and that its two great temples were once home to the kings of Guge in modern Tibet. The Travel Channel in 2016 aired two episodes of Expedition Unknown that followed host Josh Gates to Lo Manthang , Nepal and its surrounding areas, including

1443-448: Was not the first Bonpo tertön, but his terma became one of the definitive scriptures of Bon religion. It states that Shenrab established the Bon religion while searching for a horse stolen by a demon. Tradition also tells that he was born in the land of Tagzig Olmo Lung Ring (considered an axis mundi) which is traditionally identified as Mount Yung-drung Gu-tzeg ("Edifice of Nine Sauwastikas"), possibly Mount Kailash, in western Tibet. Due to

1482-825: Was published in the United Kingdom in 1928. Hilton visited the Hunza Valley , located in Gilgit−Baltistan , close to the China–Pakistan border , a few years before Lost Horizon was published. Being an isolated green valley surrounded by mountains, enclosed on the western end of the Himalayas, it closely matches the description in the novel, and is believed to have inspired Hilton's physical description of Shangri-La. Today various places, such as parts of southern Kham in northwestern Yunnan province, including

1521-549: Was welcomed by the ruler of the Tsang kingdom , where Andrade and his fellows established a Jesuit outpost at Shigatse in 1626. In 1661 another Jesuit, Johann Grueber , crossed Tibet from Sining to Lhasa (where he spent a month), before heading on to Nepal. He was followed by others who built a church in Lhasa . Italian Jesuit missionary Fr. Ippolito Desideri (1716–1721) gained a particularly deep knowledge of Tibetan culture, language and Buddhism. In his many extant writings in

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