Cool Book- Lost Horizon by James Hilton

Cool Book- Lost Horizon by James Hilton

Has anyone read it or seen the movie? Although it is written as fiction it is actually based in reality and things that either the author or someone he knew had really seen. Whatever the case is, it's definitely based in reality.
www.sfsite.com...

Conway is among four kidnap victims, the others being Mallinson, his young assistant who is anxious to get back to civilization, Barnard, a brash American, and Miss Brinklow, an evangelist. Conway himself rounds out the group as an established diplomat and stoic. When the plane crashes in the Kuen-Lun Mountains, the quartet is rescued and taken to the hidden lamasery of Shangri-La.

Somehow some part of me inside my very being knows that this book is not based in fiction, but that Shangri La is a very real place.

One thing not mentioned in the book however is that the monks of Shangri La are the descendants of Atlantean monks who evacuated Atlantis and retreated to Shangri La in roughly 10,500 BC around the same time that the Pyramids in egypt were built.

I remember watching that when I was a kid, and it was old back in the early sixties. I always liked that movie.
The leader of China was talking to a CNN reporter last week about the Dali Lama and said that Tibet can not be Independent because it is one third of the and mass of China. Of course that is b.s. because its not part of China. Anyway, the point of this movie is that with such a vast unknown area, who knows what could be there?

Out of curiosity, you've made a claim the book is based on a true story.
I don't see that mentioned in the article you linked. It's a better than the curve adventure story, seems liek something I'd enjoy stumbling accross in the thrift store, but why do you claim it as inspired by true events?

EditL Looks like a good book, seems the author's familiar. Ordered book, should be to me by Tues.

[edit on 3-10-2008 by RuneSpider]

THE WORLD IS A CIRCLE

By Burt Bacharach ...

May he rest in peace..........



"the world is a circle without a beginning and nobody knows when it really ends!....

.....EVERYTHING depends on where you are in the circle that never begins......nobody knows where the circle ends.......

We are ion the circle thats spinning around, half of the time we are upside down!

Na na na....na na na na.....

And just because you think your small it doesnt mean that your small at all,
and just the way..........a tiny branch is like a tree to a twig!!
To someone else you are big!
The World is a circle without a beginning and nobody knows where it really ends!.....WHOAAAAA!
Everything depends on where you are in the circle thats spinning around...........half of the time we are upside down!!!!
And just because they say your week that doesn't mean you've a week physique, and even if they're partly right.....
At least they are partially wrong! To someone else you are strong!!!

The world is a circle without a beginning and nobody knows where it really ends............"

I am done typing as I am just crying and trying to type......and typing is loosing this battle..........

when I was a kid....I held a tape recorder to the TV set and recorded this song and then learned to play it on the guitar.....I was just a little kid and thoought this song was pretty important............

....so I played & sang it live for people.......
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I should SO get applause for this I mean SERIOUSLY....I got the words right.



[edit on 3-10-2008 by theRiverGoddess]

has anyone else here considered the story to be a metaphor for a NDE
near-death-experience.....



the idea that the survivors of the plane crash ( were actually in a coma)
but felt they went to an idyllic, & secluded place---far from the approaching WWII atmosphere.
but after a time in that peaceful valley 'Shangrila'... the survivors elect/choose/ to travel back through that tunnel (shamanic journey/ NDE) that linked the natural world from the non-ordinary reality of the 'Shangrila" sanctuary-valley.

And as soon as they made that journey back into the harsh reality of the ordinary, strife filled world, the passage to 'Shangrila' faded into a memory, a memory which became so fuzzy they wondered if the memory wasn't only a private dream (or a NDE which many have come to acknowledge is a real event)

I used to have a hug rohdedendren bush/tree in my yard when i was little.

Anyways, there actually really is an area in Tibet called Shargung La

Lost Horizon was fiction, but here's the real place it was based on
www.atlantis.to...

reply to post by Hollywood11


The article you linked, while impressive, made no mention of a Temple.
To paraphrase: "If there is anyplace that could be Shangri La, this is it."
Ok. So rumors of the place inspired legends, but there's no hidden temple of monks.

I think it's pretty obvious that this area is so similar to the "Shangri La" of the book Lost Horizon. The name it is called by the people who live there is even similar "Shargung-La". Lost Horizon must have been based on reality.

More here-

About The Monks Tibetan Yoga Came From

Their lineage is from a recently destroyed monastery in an area of Tibet considered a "forbidden zone", even to most Buddhists. Other primary monasteries were located in the isolated Pyrenees mountains of Spain, The Jungles of the Yucatan, and the mountains of South America.

Before the destruction of their primary monastery in Tibet, they also began an experiment of "coming forward" to the public, with a smaller monastery in California. There, many North Americans joined the order. Those monks were taught by the last "head monk" of the order, who trained at the Tibetan monastery (he passed on 4/22/2002).

They continue the practices and are passing on the lineage and teachings to others, while working towards building a new primary monastery isolated in the Rocky Mountains.

I was fortunate enough to visit their monastery, and I couldn't help but be constantly reminded of a movie I'd seen called "Lost Horizon" (both an old B&W version, and a modern Technicolor version starring Peter Finch, and a host of great actors). Why was it so similar?

I believe the author of the book "Lost Horizon", either also visited, heard stories from those who had, or perhaps even had visions in his dreams. Even his name for the place, Shangri-la, was similar to the name for their monastery "Shargung-la". But most striking, just as in the movies/book, their was no "dogma" as many religions have, and their spiritual beliefs/philosophies were so simple - compassion, caring, unselfishness, kindness, harmlessness and loving one another.

As tools of spiritual growth, they used yoga, meditation, and humble, loving personal interaction/constructive criticism (like you'd use a mirror showing you what you really look like, and what needs to be changed).

I also believe one of the most important tools, is seeing other people (and life events) as "mirrors", to help us see ourselves. I thus welcome, and even ask for, constructive criticism as a tool for change, in an ongoing process of self-improvement.

The below "balcony" photo is typical of the amazing Buddhist monasteries that were once found in the thousands in Tibet. Most have been destroyed. There are no photos of Shargung la remaining after it was bombed/shelled. It was actually quite different. And explorers (from National Geographic) only came upon the isolated area of Tibet in which it was located, after its destruction. And even though it no longer stood, they too were amazed by just the fact that a sub-tropical environment, not visible by satellites even, existed amongst the high, fridgid, barren Himalayas.

reply to post by Hollywood11


en.wikipedia.org...

The phrase "Shangri-La" most probably comes from the Tibetan ཞང་,"Shang - a district of Tsang, north of Tashilhunpo[1]" + རི, "Mountain" = "Shang Mountain" + ལ, Mountain Pass, which suggests that the area is accessed to, or is named by, "Shang Mountain Pass". However, it may be that Hilton had heard of Shambhala - the Tibetan equivalent of Shangri-La, but could not remember its name.

So, in other words, Hilton created Shangri la.

Now, as for the article you've linked, it's entirely possible that Hilton heard of them. But beyond that, it's still a work of fiction, a good book, but that's it.
It's even possible he based on other places and myths in the area, for that matter, can't be sure.

It's a fiction book based on reality and real places.