Finding Shambhala

Journey into the world of a profound legend through this unprecedented first-hand account to explore a reality that for millenniums has remained concealed under layers of myth and secrecy. Rarely has the world been so enduringly fascinated by an ancient legend as it has with the historically ubiquitous stories of Shambhala, the fabled hidden sanctuary of highly enlightened sages and mystic masters. Scholars relate that the scriptures of the 4000 year-old Zhang Zhung culture may be the earliest extant references to this mysterious realm, yet it is described in many ancient traditions; the pre-Buddhist B'on treaties, the Kalki lore, the Puranas, the texts of the Kalachakra Laghutantra (c. 500 BC), the even earlier Kalachakra Mulatantra (c. 900 BC), and in the ancient wisdom traditions of civilizations throughout the Himalayan regions of Asia and beyond. The Zhang Zhung and Tibetan scriptures refer to the mysterious world as Shambhala I lam-yig, B'on treaties as Olmolungring, Hindu histories as Aryavarth, and Chinese traditions as Hsi Tien. In an esoteric treatise composed in the 1500s by Ensapa Lobsang Döndrup, the Third Panchen Lama describes his remarkable visit to a land of wise masters hidden deep in the Himalayas . A rare manuscript written in 1592 by Antonio Monserrate, a Spanish missionary to the court of the Mughal emperor Akbar, speaks of his experiences in a remote valley in the high mountains where great sages reside. A remarkably similar account is found as recently as the late 1700s, written by the esteemed Sixth Panchen Lama, Lobsang Palden Yeshe. Years ago, on an extended trek into a closed and largely unexplored inner region of the vast Himalayan wilderness, in an isolated valley surrounded by towering ice peaks, explorer M.G. Hawking chanced on a…