I read James Hilton's 1933 novel and loved it... Travelers are "kidnapped" by plane to a remote and snow-covered mountain range in the Himalayas. They are led by guides through a cave to look down on a valley of idyllic perfection, --- the Valley Of The Blue Moon. It is the site of a monastery whose head llama is very old. But, later the travelers discover that he is hundreds of years old and that the place allows those who reside there to become almost immortal. Below in the videos are a few thoughts about Shangri-La... I hope you enjoy watching them...
Possible sources for Hilton
In a New York Times interview in 1936, Hilton states that he used "Tibetan material" from the British Museum, particularly the travelogue of two French priests, Evariste Regis Huc and Joseph Gabet, to provide the Tibetan cultural and Buddhist spiritual inspiration for Shangri-La. Huc and Gabet travelled a round trip between Beijing and Lhasa in 1844–1846 on a route more than 250 kilometres (160 mi) north of Yunnan. Their famous travelogue, first published in French in 1850, went through many editions in many languages. A popular "condensed translation" was published in the United Kingdom in 1928.
Current claimants
Hilton visited the Hunza Valley, presently located in the Pakistani-administered territory of Gilgit−Baltistan, close to the China–Pakistan border, a few years before Lost Horizon was published; hence it is a popularly believed inspiration for Hilton's physical description of Shangri-La. Being an isolated green valley surrounded by mountains, enclosed on the western end of the Himalayas, it closely matches the description in the novel.
Today various places, such as parts of southern Kham in northwestern Yunnan province, including the tourist destinations of Lijiang and Zhongdian, claim the title. In 2001, Zhongdian County in northwestern Yunnan officially renamed itself Shangri-La County, Xiānggélǐlā in Chinese (香格里拉).
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