Shangri-La, a mystical utopian-like region which first appeared in Lost Horizon
Shangri-La initially appeared in James Hilton's 1933 book Lost Horizon. The fictitious location was found by Hilton in Tibet's Kunlun Mountains. It was featured in a 1937 motion picture starring Ronald Colman. In both the movie and the book, Shangri-La is a lamasery that is completely hidden from the outside world and protected from the extreme cold by steep mountains that surround the valley in which it is located. However, the lamasery is furnished with modern conveniences like plumbing equipment made in Akron, Ohio. The four English air crash survivors who are led there by postulants soon discover that the valley slows down aging. It also had a piano and a harpsichord. Some of the lamasery's residents have lived there for more than 200 years.
The book gained enormous popularity in the 1930s and, when it was published as Pocket Book #1 in 1939, became the first mass-marketed paperback book. Although the story concept had been utilized in other books, including Rudyard Kipling's The Man Who Would Be King, which had been published many years before, there was obviously no hidden utopia in the Himalayas. Through the novel, the movie, and the numerous remakes, Shangri La came to be associated with an enigmatic location where people may live happily and stress-free. In 1942, Franklin Roosevelt gave the name Shangri La to his brand-new retreat in the Catoctin Mountains. Camp David is the name used today.
Since then, several times and in a variety of entertainment mediums have adopted the idea of an undiscovered utopia hidden from civilization. Unfortunately, there isn't one, or at least none has ever been discovered. The name is used in several locations, presumably with good intentions. There is a Shangri La in Tibet, which was given the name in 2001 to encourage travel. Ancient Tibetan manuscripts were Hilton's source for the work and they also contain the name. The lamasery in the secret valley hasn't been located despite multiple excursions and claims made by cities that they are the mythical Shangri La.
- Location: fictitious location
