Shambhala

For other uses, see Shambhala (disambiguation).

pure land, a fabulous kingdom whose reality is visionary
In Tibetan Buddhist and Hindu traditions, Shambhala or spiritual as much as physical or geographic. It was in
this form that the Shambhala myth reached Western Europe and the Americas, where it inuenced non-Buddhist
as well as Buddhist spiritual seekers and, to some extent, popular culture in general.

1 In the Buddhist Kalachakra

teachings

Kalachakra thangka* [1] from Sera Monastery (private collection).

(Sanskrit: ambhala, also spelled Shambala or

Shamballa or Shambhallah"; Tibetan: , Wylie:
bde 'byung ; Chinese: ; pinyin: xingbl) is a
mythical kingdom. It is mentioned in various ancient
texts, including the Kalacakra Tantra* [2] and the ancient
Zhangzhung texts of western Tibet. The Bon scriptures
speak of a closely related land called Tagzig Olmo Lung
Ring.* [3]
Hindu texts such as the Vishnu Purana (4.24) mention
the village Shambhala as the birthplace of Kalki, the nal
Manjurkrti, King of Shambhala
incarnation of Vishnu who will usher in a new Golden
*
Age (Satya Yuga). [4]
Main article: Kalachakra
The legends, teachings and healing practices associated
with Shambhala are older than any of these organized religions. Shambhala may very well have been an indige- Shambhala is ruled over by Maitreya, the future buddha.
nous belief system, an Alti-Himalayan shamanic tradi- The Kalacakra tantra prophesies that when the world detion, absorbed into these other faiths. This pre-existing clines into war and greed, and all is lost, the 25th Kalki
belief system, also called Mleccha (from Vedic Sanskrit king will emerge from Shambhala with a huge army to
mleccha, meaningnon-Vedic), and the amaz- vanquishDark Forcesand usher in a worldwide Golden
ing abilities, wisdom and long life of these 'sun wor- Age. Using calculations from the Kalachakra Tantra,
*
shipers' (the Siddhi from the Vedic Sanskrit of scholars such as Alex Berzin put this date at 2424. [5]
the ancient Surya Samadhi ) is documented in Manjurkrti is said to have been born in 159 BCE
both the Buddhist and Hindu texts. Whatever its histori- and ruled over a kingdom of 300,510 followers of the
cal basis, Shambhala (spelling derived from the Buddhist Mlechha religion, some of whom worshipped the sun. He
transliterations) gradually came to be seen as a Buddhist is said to have expelled 20,000 people from his domain
1

4 EXPEDITIONS

who clung to 'Surya Samadhi' (sun realization) rather than bala), and thought it was another name for Cathay or
convert to Kalachakra (Wheel of Time) Buddhism .
China. In 1627 they headed to Tashilhunpo, the seat
of the Panchen Lama and, discovering their mistake, returned to India.* [9]
In Altai Mountains folklore Mount Belukha is also believed to be a gateway to Shambhala.* [10]
The Hungarian scholar Sndor Krsi Csoma, writing in
1833, provided the rst geographic account of a fabulous country in the north...situated between 45' and 50'
north latitude. Interestingly enough, due north from
India to between these latitudes is eastern Kazakhstan,
which is characterized by green hills, low mountains,
rivers, and lakes. This is in contrast to the landscape
of the provinces of Tibet and Xinjiang in eastern China,
which are high mountains and arid.

3 Theosophy
During the late-19th century, Theosophical Society cofounder Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky alluded to
the Shambhala myth, giving it currency for Western
Portrait of an Alti Himalian Shaman. Detail fromA Sorceress occult enthusiasts. Madame Blavatsky, who claimed to
from Tungusy1812-1813 by: E. Karneje
be in contact with a Great White Lodge of Himalayan
Adepts, mentions Shambhala in several places, but withThese expelled Rishis, seers, sages and saints, who had re- out giving it especially great emphasis.
alized truth and eternal knowledge exclaimed, "We want
Later esoteric writers further emphasized and elaborated
to remain true to our Sun-Chariot. We do not wish to give
on the concept of a hidden land inhabited by a hidden
up our belief system to change to another. This shows
mystic brotherhood whose members labor for the good
there may have been a fundamental dierence between
of humanity. Alice A. Bailey claims Shamballa (her
the 2 time-cycle based doctrines. After realizing these
spelling) is an extra-dimensional or spiritual reality on the
were the wisest and best of his people and how much he
etheric plane, a spiritual centre where the governing deity
was in need of them, he later asked them to return. Some
of Earth, Sanat Kumara, dwells as the highest Avatar of
did. Those who did not return were said to have set up
the Planetary Logos of Earth, and is said to be an expresanother magical city elsewhere, the Shambhallah of myssion of the Will of God.* [11]
tic legend. Manjurkrti initiated the preaching of the
Kalachakra teachings in order to try to convert those who
returned and all still under his rule. In 59 BCE he abdicated his throne to his son, Purika, and died soon af- 4 Expeditions
terwards, entering the sambhogakaya of buddhahood was
Nicholas and Helena Roerich led a 1924-1928 expedition
made a posthumous Buddhist saint.* [6]* [7]
aimed at Shambhala.* [12]

Western receptions and interpretations

Some westerners have been fascinated with the idea of

Shambhala, often based on fragmentary accounts from
the Kalachakra tradition. Tibet and its ancient traditions
were largely unknown to westerners until the twentieth
century; whatever little information westerners received
was haphazard at best.* [8]
The rst information that reached western civilization
about Shambhala came from the Portuguese Catholic
missionary Estvo Cacella, who had heard about Shambhala (which he quite accurately transcribed as Xem-

Inspired by Theosophical lore and several visiting Mongol

lamas, Gleb Bokii, the chief Bolshevik cryptographer and
one of the bosses of the Soviet secret police, along with
his writer friend Alexander Barchenko, embarked on a
quest for Shambhala, in an attempt to merge Kalachakratantra and ideas of Communism in the 1920s. Among
other things, in a secret laboratory aliated with the secret police, Bokii and Barchenko experimented with Buddhist spiritual techniques to try to nd a key for engineering perfect communist human beings.* [13] They contemplated a special expedition to Inner Asia to retrieve the
wisdom of Shambhala - the project fell through as a result of intrigues within the Soviet intelligence service, as
well as rival eorts of the Soviet Foreign Commissariat
that sent its own expedition to Tibet in 1924.

3
Similarly, Heinrich Himmler and Rudolf Hess sent a
German expedition to Tibet in 1930, and then again in
1934-35, and in 1938-39.* [14]

Beyul
El Dorado
Ys

Contemporary modern times

French Buddhist Alexandra David-Nel associated

Shambhala with Balkh in present-day Afghanistan, also
oering the Persian Sham-i-Bala, elevated candle
as an etymology of its name.* [15] In a similar vein,
the Gurdjiean J. G. Bennett published speculation
that Shambalha was Shams-i-Balkh, a Bactrian sun
temple.* [16]
Chgyam Trungpa, a Tibetan Buddhist lama, used the
Shambhalaname for certain of his teachings, practices,
and organizations (e.g. Shambhala Training, Shambhala
International, Shambhala Publications), referring to the
root of human goodness and aspiration. In Trungpa's
view, Shambhala has its own independent basis in human
wisdom that does not belong to East or West, or to any
one culture or religion.* [17]

In ction

The concept of Shangri-La, as rst described in James

Hilton's 1933 novel Lost Horizon, is claimed to have been
inspired by the Shambhala myth (as well as then-current
National Geographic articles on Eastern Tibet Kham).
Shambala appears in several science ction stories of the
1930s. The legendary locale also serves as a lure to visionaries and adventurers in Thomas Pynchon'sAgainst
the Day(2006).
The Fullmetal Alchemist feature-length lm, "Conqueror
Of Shamballa", taking place in 1923, features Hess working with the Thule Society in their search for Shamballa.
In the PlayStation 3 video game Uncharted 2: Among
Thieves, much of the plot revolves around nding
Shambhala, and therein, a powerful relic known as the
Cintamani Stone. The protagonist and his partners ultimately nd Shambhala at the game's conclusion, located
in the mountains of Tibet and portrayed as a large abandoned city with lush vegetation and cursed brutish, blue,
savage creatures that were once men.

Hyperborea
Ile-Ife
Iram of the Pillars
Kitezh
Shambala(song)
Shangri-La
Sagala
Thule
Utopia

8 Footnotes
[1] Crossman, Sylvie and Jean-Pierre Barou, eds. Tibetan
Mandala, Art and Practice (The Wheel of Time). New
York: Konecky & Konecky, 2004. ISBN 1-56852-4730. pp.20-26
[2] The Tantra by Victor M. Fic, Abhinav Publications, 2003,
p.49.
[3] The Bon Religion of Tibet by Per Kavrne, Shambhala,
1996
[4] LePage, Victoria (1996). Shambhala: The Fascinating
Truth Behind the Myth of Shangri-La. Quest Books. pp.
125126. ISBN 9780835607506.
[5] Berzin, Alexander (1997). Taking the Kalachakra Initiation. Retrieved 2016-06-20.
[6] Das, Sarat Chandra (1882). Contributions on the Religion
and History of Tibet, in Journal of the Asiatic Society of
Bengal, Vol. LI. Reprint: Manjushri Publishing House,
Delhi. 1970, pp. 812.
[7] Edwin BernbaumThe Way to Shambhala: A Search for
the Mythical Kingdom Beyond the Himalayas1980 &
Albert Grnwedel Der Weg nach Shambhala1915

In the Marvel Studios lm Doctor Strange, shamballa

is the Wi-Fi password of Kamar-Taj.* [18]

[8] Lopez, Donald S. Jr. Prisoners of Shangri~La, Tibetan

Buddhism and the West, The University of Chicago Press,
1998

[9] Bernbaum, Edwin. (1980). The Way to Shambhala, pp.

18-19. Reprint: (1989). Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc., Los
Angeles. ISBN 0-87477-518-3.

See also
Agharta
Atlantis
Avalon

[10] http://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-asia/
mysteries-kingdom-shambhala-001529
[11] Bailey, Alice A, A Treatise on Cosmic Fire 1932 Lucis
Trust. 1925, p 753

10 FURTHER READING

[12] Archer, Kenneth. Roerich East & West. Parkstone Press

1999, p.94
[13] Znamenski (2011)

Tibetan Buddhist Atrocities and Propaganda.Dr.

S. D'Montford. Tibetan Buddhist Atrocities and
Propaganda.Happy Medium Publishing. Sydney.
2004

[14] Hale, Christopher. Himmler's Crusade, John Wiley &

Sons., Inc., 2003
[15] David-Nel, A. Les Nouvelles littraires ;1954, p.1
[16] Bennett, J.G:Gurdjie: Making a New World. Bennett
notes Idries Shah as the source of the suggestion.
[17] Trungpa, Chogyam. Shambhala, The Sacred Path of the
Warrior. Shambhala, 1988

10 Further reading
Allen, Charles. (1999). The Search for Shangri-La:
A Journey into Tibetan History. Little, Brown and
Company. Reprint: Abacus, London. 2000. ISBN
0-349-11142-1.

[18] Doctor Strange: Every Easter Egg & Marvel Secret.

Screen Rant. 5 November 2016. Retrieved 10 November
2016.

Znamenski, Andrei. Red Shambhala: Magic,

Prophecy, and Geopolitics in the Heart of Asia.
Wheaton, IL: Quest Books, 2011. ISBN 978-08356-0891-6

Martin, Dan. (1999). "'Ol-mo-lung-ring, the Original Holy Place.In: Sacred Spaces and Powerful
Places In Tibetan Culture: A Collection of Essays.
(1999) Edited by Toni Huber, pp. 125153. The
Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, Dharamsala, H.P., India. ISBN 81-86470-22-0.

References
Rock OperaSzambalia(Shambhala) (2014).
Ocial premiere in Poland, Warsaw (24.06.2014)
Rock
song
Halls
of
Shambalaby
B._W._Stevenson, covered and popularized by
the rock band Three Dog Night Shambala_(song)
Berzin, Alexander (2003).
Study Buddhism.
Mistaken Foreign Myths about Shambhala.
Martin, Dean. (1999). "'Ol-mo-lung-ring, the Original Holy Place.In: Sacred Spaces and Powerful
Places In Tibetan Culture: A Collection of Essays.
(1999) Edited by Toni Huber, pp. 125153. The
Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, Dharamsala, H.P., India. ISBN 81-86470-22-0.
Meyer, Karl Ernest and Brysac, Shareen Blair
(2006) Tournament of Shadows: The Great Game
And the Race for Empire in Central Asia ISBN 0465-04576-6
Bernbaum, Edwin. (1980). The Way to Shambhala:
A Search for the Mythical Kingdom Beyond the Himalayas. Reprint: (1989) St. Martin's Press, New
York. ISBN 0-87477-518-3.
Jerey, Jason. Mystery of Shambhala in New Dawn,
No. 72 (MayJune 2002).
Trungpa, Chogyam. Shambhala: The Sacred Path
of the Warrior. Shambhala Publications. ISBN 087773-264-7
Le Page, Victoria. (1996). Shambhala: The Fascinating Truth behind the Myth of Shangri-La. Quest
Books, ISBN 0-8356-0750-X
Znamenski, Andrei. (2011). Red Shambhala:
Magic, Prophecy, and Geopolitics in the Heart of
Asia. Quest Books, Wheaton, IL (2011) ISBN 9780-8356-0891-6.

Symmes, Patrick. (2007). The Kingdom of the

Lotusin Outside, 30th Anniversary Special Edition,
pp. 148187. Mariah Media, Inc., Red Oak, Iowa.

11
11.1

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

Text

Shambhala Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shambhala?oldid=759128774 Contributors: Leandrod, Ronz, Technopilgrim, Ec5618,

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File:Alti-Himalayan_Shaman_-1812-1813.jpg Source:
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Shaman_-1812-1813.jpg License: CC BY-SA 4.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: Shambhallah
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Contributors: Own work Original artist: Kosi Gramatiko, photography using Sony Cybershot DSC-S70, digitally mastered Adobe Photoshop CS2, KPT, EQLZ
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11.3

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