2008 Woodie Awards
RSSTibetan studies scholar: Shangri-La does not exist
By Allie Rolnik
Issue date: 10/23/07 Section: News
The mystical, magical, peaceful land known as Shangri-La does not exist here on earth, said Donald Lopez, professor of Buddhist and Tibetan studies, during his speech "The Search for Shangri-La," held Wednesday in Sinclair Auditorium.
Lopez's speech is part of the academic programming that leads up to the Dalai Lama's visit to Lehigh in July 2008.
Lopez spoke to an audience of more than 100 people about the tendency in the U.S. to romanticize Tibet and associate it with Shangri-La, a fictional land of wisdom.
When Internet surfers search for Shangri-La through Google, over 3 million matches result, most of them luxury beach resorts, Lopez said.
This is fitting because Shangri-La is thought to be a deserted, isolated, beautiful utopia where people can go to relax.
However, both Shangri-La and Tibet do not meet these expectations, Lopez said.
The concept of Shangri-La comes from James Hilton's 1933 novel "Lost Horizon."
The characters in the book find housing in a monastery called Shangri-La after surviving a plane crash.
Since the novel, many people believe Shangri-La to be a place in Tibet, but Tibetans never believed that Shangri-La was a place in their country, Lopez said.
Instead, Tibetans believe it to be a place somewhere in Europe.
Shangri-La has become a universal term, Lopez says.
"The story of Shangri-La is fascinating, old and modern, ranging in characters," Lopez said. "Many people have played a part."
During his lecture, Lopez led the audience through the history of Tibet, concentrating on its loss of identity in the 1950s when the country became a Chinese colony.
According to Lopez, the Chinese claimed they wanted Tibet to return to the Motherland.
Although it is now a police state, Lopez said many people still associate Tibet with Shangri-La.
Lopez shared a famous use of the term from the 1940s.
During Gen. Jimmy Doolittle's aerial raid over Japan, in the heat of World War II, President Teddy Roosevelt would not reveal where American planes had taken off from.
Lopez's speech is part of the academic programming that leads up to the Dalai Lama's visit to Lehigh in July 2008.
Lopez spoke to an audience of more than 100 people about the tendency in the U.S. to romanticize Tibet and associate it with Shangri-La, a fictional land of wisdom.
When Internet surfers search for Shangri-La through Google, over 3 million matches result, most of them luxury beach resorts, Lopez said.
This is fitting because Shangri-La is thought to be a deserted, isolated, beautiful utopia where people can go to relax.
However, both Shangri-La and Tibet do not meet these expectations, Lopez said.
The concept of Shangri-La comes from James Hilton's 1933 novel "Lost Horizon."
The characters in the book find housing in a monastery called Shangri-La after surviving a plane crash.
Since the novel, many people believe Shangri-La to be a place in Tibet, but Tibetans never believed that Shangri-La was a place in their country, Lopez said.
Instead, Tibetans believe it to be a place somewhere in Europe.
Shangri-La has become a universal term, Lopez says.
"The story of Shangri-La is fascinating, old and modern, ranging in characters," Lopez said. "Many people have played a part."
During his lecture, Lopez led the audience through the history of Tibet, concentrating on its loss of identity in the 1950s when the country became a Chinese colony.
According to Lopez, the Chinese claimed they wanted Tibet to return to the Motherland.
Although it is now a police state, Lopez said many people still associate Tibet with Shangri-La.
Lopez shared a famous use of the term from the 1940s.
During Gen. Jimmy Doolittle's aerial raid over Japan, in the heat of World War II, President Teddy Roosevelt would not reveal where American planes had taken off from.
