Sham
Somewhere high up in the Himalayas, surrounded by a range of snow-capped peaks treacherous enough to defeat even the most intrepid mountaineer, lies a kingdom of unparalleled splendor, peace, and tranquility. This place, known as Shambhala, is home to palaces built of rare stone and pure gold and bedecked with a lapidary’s laundry list of precious gems, glasses, and colored corals. There are lakes where Shambhala’s noble, healthy, and prosperous subjects cavort in boats carved from jewels, and a lush sandalwood grove where they can peacefully contemplate an enormous, three-dimensional Mandala of unparalleled opulence. But beyond this bountiful earthly splendor, Shambhala is also a privileged spiritual realm—those who are born there are guaranteed to achieve Enlightenment in the span of a single lifetime. It is, in short, a paradise….
Cabinet Magazine, of which I’d never heard, has a great article on the mythical Himalayan kingdom of Shambala. The article does a fine job of telling us the content of the myth, its probable origins, its influence on various Western thinkers, including Madame Blavatsky and Heinrich Himmler, and the various expeditions that have been launced to find it. Shambala is a delusion—not just the mythical kingdom, but the very idea that such a one-dimensional ideal could exist in a world that is made complex by the messy, impermanent, and non-dual nature of reality. An entertaining and informative read.
