In Tibetan Buddhist tradition, Shambhala ( sa, शम्भल ',''Śambhala'', also ''Sambhala'', is the name of a town between the Rathaprā and Ganges rivers, identified by some with Sambhal in Uttar Pradesh. In the

Purana Purana (; sa, , '; literally meaning "ancient, old"Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature (1995 Edition), Article on Puranas, , page 915) is a vast genre of Indian literature about a wide range of topics, particularly about legends an ...

s, it is named as the place where Kalki, the last incarnation of Vishnu, is to appear (Monier-Williams, ''Sanskrit-English Dictionary'', 1899). also spelled ''Shambala'' or ''Shamballa''; ; ) is a spiritual kingdom. Shambhala is mentioned in the ''Kalachakra Tantra''. The

Bon ''Bon'', also spelled Bön () and also known as Yungdrung Bon (, "eternal Bon"), is a Tibetan religious tradition with many similarities to Tibetan Buddhism and also many unique features.Samuel 2012, pp. 220-221. Bon initially developed in t ...

scriptures speak of a closely related land called Tagzig Olmo Lung Ring. The Sanskrit name is taken from the name of a city mentioned in the

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

s. The exact length of Shambhala is 245

yojanas A yojana (Sanskrit: योजन; th, โยชน์; my, ယူဇနာ) is a measure of distance that was used in ancient India, Thailand and Myanmar. A yojana is about 12–15 km. Edicts of Ashoka (3rd century BCE) Ashoka, in his Major R ...

(approximate) as per Vishnu Purana. The mythological relevance of the place originates with a prophecy in ''

Vishnu Purana The Vishnu Purana (IAST:, sa, विष्णुपुराण) is one of the eighteen Puranas#Mahapuranas, Mahapuranas, a genre of ancient and medieval texts of Hinduism. It is an important Pancharatra text in the Vaishnavism literature c ...

'' (4.24) according to which Shambhala will be the birthplace of Kalki, the next incarnation of

Vishnu Vishnu ( ; , ), also known as Narayana and Hari, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the supreme being within Vaishnavism, one of the major traditions within contemporary Hinduism. Vishnu is known as "The Preserver" within t ...

, who will usher in a new age ( Satya Yuga); and the prophesied ruling Kingdom of

Maitreya Maitreya (Sanskrit: ) or Metteyya (Pali: ), also Maitreya Buddha or Metteyya Buddha, is regarded as the future Buddha of this world in Buddhist eschatology. As the 5th and final Buddha of the current kalpa, Maitreya's teachings will be aimed at ...

, the future

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a śramaṇa, wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was ...

Kalachakra tantra

Shambhala is ruled by the future Buddha

. The Shambhala narrative is found in the ''Kalachakra tantra'', a text of the group of the

Anuttarayoga Tantra Classes of Tantra in Tibetan Buddhism refers to the categorization of Tantras (Buddhism), Buddhist tantric scriptures in Tibetan Buddhism, Indo-Tibetan Buddhism. Tibetan Buddhism inherited numerous tantras and forms of Tantra, tantric practice from ...

s. Kalachakra Buddhism was presumably introduced to

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...

still in the 11th century, the epoch of the Tibetan Kalachakra calendar. The oldest known teachers of Kalachakra are

Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen Dölpopa Shérap Gyeltsen () (1292–1361), known simply as Dölpopa, was a Tibetan Buddhist master. Known as "The Buddha from Dölpo," a region in modern Nepal, he was the principal exponent of the shentong teachings, and an influential memb ...

(d. 1361) and

Buton Rinchen Drub Butön Rinchen Drup (), (1290–1364), 11th Abbot of Shalu Monastery, was a 14th-century Sakya master and Tibetan Buddhist leader. Shalu was the first of the major monasteries to be built by noble families of the Tsang dynasty during Tibet's gre ...

(d. 1364). In the narrative, King Manjuśrīkīrti is said to have been born in 159 BC and ruled over a kingdom of 300,510 followers of the

Mlechha Mleccha (from Vedic Sanskrit ', meaning "non-Vedic", "foreigner" or " barbarian") is a Sanskrit term, initially referring to those of an incomprehensible speech, later foreign or barbarous invaders as contra-distinguished from elite groups. The ...

religion, some of whom worshiped the Sun. He is said to have expelled 20,000 people from his domain who clung to Surya Samadhi (solar worship) rather than convert to Kalachakra (Wheel of Time) Buddhism. After realizing these were the wisest and best of his people and how much he was in need of them, he later asked them to return and some did. Those who did not return are said to have set up the city of Shambhala. Manjuśrīkīrti initiated the preaching of the ''Kalachakra'' teachings in order to try to convert those who returned and were still under his rule. In 59 BC he abdicated his throne to his son, Puṇḍārika, and died soon afterward, entering the Sambhogakaya of Buddhahood. Alti-Himalayan Shaman -1812-1813

The Kalachakra tantra prophesies that when the world declines into war and greed, and all is lost, the 25th Kalki king

will emerge from Shambhala, with a huge army to vanquish Dark Forces and usher in a worldwide

Golden Age The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology, particularly the ''Works and Days'' of Hesiod, and is part of the description of temporal decline of the state of peoples through five Ages of Man, Ages, Gold being the first and the one during ...

. This final battle is prophesied for the year 2424 or 2425 (in the 3304th year after the death of Buddha). Thereafter, Buddhism would survive another 1,800 years.

Western reception

Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism were largely unknown in the West prior to the beginning of the 20th century. The name itself, however, was reported as early as the 17th century, by way of

Estêvão Cacella Estêvão Cacella (1585–1630) was a Portuguese people, Portuguese Jesuit missionary. Life Cacella was born in Avis Municipality, Aviz, Portugal, in 1585, joined the Jesuits at the age of nineteen, and sailed for India in 1614 where he worked fo ...

, the Portuguese

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...

who had heard about Shambhala (transcribed as ''Xembala''), and thought it was another name for

Cathay Cathay (; ) is a historical name for China that was used in Europe. During the early modern period, the term ''Cathay'' initially evolved as a term referring to what is now Northern China, completely separate and distinct from China, which ...

or China. Cacella in 1627 headed to

Tashilhunpo Tashi Lhunpo Monastery (), founded in 1447 by the 1st Dalai Lama, is the traditional monastic seat of the Panchen Lama, and an historically and culturally important monastery in Shigatse, the second-largest city in Tibet. The monastery was sa ...

, the seat of the

Panchen Lama The Panchen Lama () is a tulku of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. Panchen Lama is one of the most important figures in the Gelug tradition, with its spiritual authority second only to Dalai Lama. Along with the council of high lamas, he ...

and, discovering his mistake, returned to India. The Hungarian scholar Sándor Kőrösi Csoma, writing in 1833, provided the first geographic account of "a fabulous country in the north...situated between 45' and 50' north latitude".

Theosophy

During the late 19th century,

Theosophical Society The Theosophical Society, founded in 1875, is a worldwide body with the aim to advance the ideas of Theosophy in continuation of previous Theosophists, especially the Greek and Alexandrian Neo-Platonic philosophers dating back to 3rd century CE ...

co-founder

Helena Blavatsky Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, uk, Олена Петрівна Блаватська, Olena Petrivna Blavatska (; – 8 May 1891), often known as Madame Blavatsky, was a Russian mystic and author who co-founded the Theosophical Society in 187 ...

alluded to the Shambhala myth. Blavatsky, who claimed to be in contact with a Great White Lodge of Himalayan Adepts, mentions Shambhala in several places, but without giving it especially great emphasis. Later

esoteric Western esotericism, also known as esotericism, esoterism, and sometimes the Western mystery tradition, is a term scholars use to categorise a wide range of loosely related ideas and movements that developed within Western society. These ideas a ...

writers further emphasized and elaborated on the concept of a hidden land inhabited by a hidden mystic brotherhood whose members labor for the good of humanity.

Alice A. Bailey Alice Ann Bailey (June 16, 1880 – December 15, 1949) was a writer of more than twenty-four books on theosophical subjects, and was one of the first writers to use the term New Age. Bailey was born as Alice La Trobe-Bateman, in Manchest ...

claims Shamballa (her spelling) is an extra-dimensional or spiritual reality on the

astral plane The astral plane, also called the astral realm or the astral world, is a plane of existence postulated by classical, medieval, oriental, and esoteric philosophies and mystery religions.G.R.S.Mead, ''The Doctrine of the Subtle Body in Western Tra ...

, a spiritual centre where the governing

deity A deity or god is a supernatural being who is considered divine or sacred. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines deity as a god or goddess, or anything revered as divine. C. Scott Littleton defines a deity as "a being with powers greate ...

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

Sanat Kumara According to the post-1900 publications of theosophy, Sanat Kumara is an "Advanced Being" at the Cosmic level of initiation who is regarded as the "Lord" or "Regent" of Earth and of humanity. He is thought to be the head of the Spiritual H ...

, dwells as the highest

Avatar Avatar (, ; ), is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means "descent". It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, goddess or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appearanc ...

of the Planetary

Logos ''Logos'' (, ; grc, wikt:λόγος, λόγος, lógos, lit=word, discourse, or reason) is a term used in Western philosophy, psychology and rhetoric and refers to the appeal to reason that relies on logic or reason, inductive and deductive ...

of Earth, and is said to be an expression of the Will of God.

Expeditions and location hypotheses

Nicholas Nicholas is a male given name and a surname. The Eastern Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Anglicanism, Anglican Churches celebrate Saint Nicholas every year on December 6, which is the name day for "Nicholas". In Greece, the n ...

and Helena Roerich led a 1924–1928 expedition aimed at Shambhala. They also believed that

Belukha Mountain Belukha Mountain (russian: Белуха, lit=whitey; Altai: Ӱч-Сӱмер, lit. 'three peaks'; kk, Мұзтау Шыңы, lit=icemount peak), located in the Katun Mountains, is the highest peak of the Altai Mountains in Russia and the highe ...

in the

Altai Mountains The Altai Mountains (), also spelled Altay Mountains, are a mountain range in Central Asia, Central and East Asia, where Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan converge, and where the rivers Irtysh and Ob River, Ob have their headwaters. The m ...

was an entrance to Shambhala, a common belief in that region. Inspired by

Theosophical Theosophy is a religion established in the United States during the late 19th century. It was founded primarily by the Russian Helena Blavatsky and draws its teachings predominantly from Blavatsky's writings. Categorized by scholars of religion a ...

lore and several visiting Mongol lamas,

Gleb Bokii Gleb Ivanovich Bokii ( ukr, Гліб Іванович Бокій; russian: Глеб Иванович Бокий; 21 June 1879 – 15 November 1937) was a Ukrainian Communist political activist, revolutionary, and paranormal investigatorZnamenski ...

, the chief Bolshevik cryptographer and one of the bosses of the

Soviet secret police The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

, along with his writer friend Alexander Barchenko, embarked on a quest for Shambhala, in an attempt to merge Kalachakra-tantra and ideas of Communism in the 1920s. Among other things, in a secret laboratory affiliated with the secret police, Bokii and Barchenko experimented with Buddhist spiritual techniques to try to find a key for engineering perfect communist human beings.Znamenski (2011) 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 efforts of the Soviet Foreign Commissariat that sent its own expedition to Tibet in 1924. French Buddhist

Alexandra David-Néel Alexandra David-Néel (born Louise Eugénie Alexandrine Marie David; 24 October 1868 – 8 September 1969) was a Belgian–French explorer, spiritualist, Buddhist, anarchist, opera singer, and writer. She is most known for her 1924 visit to Lh ...

associated Shambhala with

Balkh ), named for its green-tiled ''Gonbad'' ( prs, گُنبَد, dome), in July 2001 , pushpin_map=Afghanistan#Bactria#West Asia , pushpin_relief=yes , pushpin_label_position=bottom , pushpin_mapsize=300 , pushpin_map_caption=Location in Afghanistan ...

in present-day Afghanistan, also offering the Persian ''Sham-i-Bala'', "elevated candle" as an etymology of its name. In a similar vein, the Gurdjieffian

J. G. Bennett John Godolphin Bennett (8 June 1897 – 13 December 1974) was a British academic and author. He is best known for his books on psychology and spirituality, particularly on the teachings of G. I. Gurdjieff. Bennett met Gurdjieff in Istanbul in ...

published speculation that Shambalha was ''Shams-i-Balkh'', a

Bactria Bactria (; Bactrian: , ), or Bactriana, was an ancient region in Central Asia in Amu Darya's middle stream, stretching north of the Hindu Kush, west of the Pamirs and south of the Gissar range, covering the northern part of Afghanistan, southwe ...

n sun temple. Hitler sent several expeditions to Tibet in the 1930s "to contact the Agartha and Shambala", supposedly part of Nazi esotericism.

In popular culture

Shambhala may have been the inspiration for

Shangri-La Shangri-La is a fictional place in Asia's Kunlun Mountains (昆仑山), Uses the spelling 'Kuen-Lun'. described in the 1933 novel ''Lost Horizon'' by English author James Hilton. Hilton portrays Shangri-La as a mystical, harmonious valley, ge ...

, a paradise on Earth hidden in a Tibetan valley, which features in the 1933 novel ''

Lost Horizon ''Lost Horizon'' is a 1933 novel by English writer James Hilton. The book was turned into a film, also called ''Lost Horizon'', in 1937 by director Frank Capra. It is best remembered as the origin of Shangri-La, a fictional utopian lamaser ...

'' by British author James Hilton. In 1969, Shambhala Publications, a book publishing company, was founded by Samuel BercholzMidal, Fabrice, ed., ''Recalling Chögyam Trungpa'' (Boston, MA: Shambhala, 2005), , p. 475 and Michael Fagan, in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...

. Daniel Moore wrote the song " Shambala" that in 1973 was recorded by both

B. W. Stevenson Louis Charles "B.W." Stevenson (October 5, 1949 – April 28, 1988) was an American country pop singer and musician, working in a genre now called progressive country. "B.W." stood for "Buckwheat". Stevenson was born in Dallas, Texas, United S ...

and Three Dog Night. Shambhala appears as a mini-dungeon in the PC-98 game E.V.O.: The Theory of Evolution. The dungeon is a network of tunnels that act as the entrance to both Atlantis and Mu Much of the plot of Thomas Pynchon's 2006 novel, '' Against the Day'', revolves around Shambhala, with some characters seeking an actual city by that name, a site of unique and exploitable power, and others treating it as a great figure for the transcendent. In 2009, the mythical city was depicted in the video game '' Uncharted 2: Among Thieves''. The game follows treasure hunter Nathan Drake in search of the lost city. '' Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa'' mainly takes place in an alternate version of Earth in 1923, specifically Germany. The parallel world that serves as the main setting in the '' Fullmetal Alchemist'' series is a secondary setting. Said parallel world is believed to be Shamballa by the movie's villains, a group of Nazis led by Dietlinde Eckhart (based on the historical Dietrich Eckart), who desire to open an inter-dimensional portal between the two worlds so as to harness Shamballa's technology to help Hitler take control of Germany. Shambala also features in the 1996 Scrooge McDuck comic "The Treasure of the Ten Avatars" by Keno Don Rosa. In this comic, Scrooge McDuck, Donald Duck, and his nephews discover Shambala and try to find its treasures. In 2012, a trilogy named 'Sambhala' was published by a Bangladeshi writer. The 2019 Indian animated film '' Little Singham Aur Shambhala Jhambhala'' features a villain named Shambhala who wants to become an

Asura Asuras (Sanskrit: असुर) are a class of beings in Indian religions, Indic religions. They are described as power-seeking clans related to the more benevolent Deva (Hinduism), Devas (also known as Suras) in Hinduism. In its Buddhism, Buddhi ...

. In Nintendo's 2019 tactical strategy game '' Fire Emblem: Three Houses'', Shambhala exists as an extremely technologically advanced subterranean city of an ancient people called the Agarthans looking to overthrow and reclaim the surface. The player can visit and fight through Shambhala in chapters 20 and 21 in the Silver Snow and Verdant Wind routes, respectively. In 2021, Canadian Experimental Soundscape artist "MU Simulacra" released a 12 minute track entitled "Shambhala" for his 24 hour acoustic epic ''Art as an Expression of Rta''. The song sonically explores the inward journey of finding Shambhala as a non-spatial destination or dimension. Repetitive tones, melodies and loops that are purposely familiar yet ambiguous are utilized in order to demonstrate the effect of state of mind on interpretive processes. In the 2016 movie ''

Doctor Strange Doctor Stephen Strange is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Steve Ditko, the character first appeared in ''Strange Tales'' #110 (cover-dated July 1963). Doctor Strange serves as Sorce ...

'' by

Marvel Studios Marvel Studios, LLC (originally known as Marvel Films from 1993 to 1996) is an American film and television production company that is a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, a division of the Walt Disney Company. Marvel Studios produces the Mar ...

, 'shamballa' is used as the wifi password at Kamar-Taj, the place where Stephen Strange first learns to do magic.

Citations

General references

* Rock oper
"Szambalia"
("Shambhala") (2014). Official premiere in Poland, Warsaw (24.06.2014) * Rock song "Halls of Shambala" by

, covered and popularized by the rock band Three Dog Night

Shambala (song) "Shambala" is a song written by Daniel Moore and made famous by two near-simultaneous releases in 1973: the better-known but slightly later recording by Three Dog Night, which reached No. 3 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, and a version by B. W. ...

* 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. 125–153. The Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, Dharamsala, H.P., India. . *

Meyer, Karl Ernest Karl E. Meyer (May 22, 1928 – December 22, 2019) was an American-based journalist. The third generation of his family to be engaged in that occupation, Meyer's grandfather, George Meyer, was the editor of the leading German language newspaper i ...

and

Brysac, Shareen Blair Shareen Blair Brysac is an author of non-fiction books and a former dancer, television producer/director/writer. Biography Brysac was born in Denver, Colorado, and graduated from Barnard College, Columbia University. While at Barnard, she attend ...

(2006) ''Tournament of Shadows: The Great Game And the Race for Empire in Central Asia'' * Bernbaum, Edwin. (1980). ''The Way to Shambhala: A Search for the Mythical Kingdom Beyond the Himalayas''. Reprint: (1989) St. Martin's Press, New York. . * Jeffrey, Jason
Mystery of Shambhala
in ''New Dawn'', No. 72 (May–June 2002). * Trungpa, Chogyam. ''Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior''. Shambhala Publications. * Znamenski, Andrei. (2011). ''Red Shambhala: Magic, Prophecy, and Geopolitics in the Heart of Asia''. Quest Books, Wheaton, IL (2011) . * Dr. S. D'Montford. "Tibetan Buddhist Atrocities and Propaganda". Happy Medium Publishing. Sydney. 2004 * Allen, Charles. (1999). ''The Search for

: A Journey into Tibetan History''. Little, Brown and Company. Reprint: Abacus, London. 2000. .
Znamenski, Andrei.

Red Shambhala: Magic, Prophecy, and Geopolitics in the Heart of Asia
'. Wheaton, IL: Quest Books, 2011. * 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. 125–153. The Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, Dharamsala, H.P., India. . * Symmes, Patrick. (2007). "The Kingdom of the Lotus" in ''

Outside Outside or Outsides may refer to: General * Wilderness * Outside (Alaska), any non-Alaska location, as referred to by Alaskans Books and magazines * ''Outside'', a book by Marguerite Duras * ''Outside'' (magazine), an outdoors magazine Film, th ...

'', 30th Anniversary Special Edition, pp. 148–187. Mariah Media, Inc., Red Oak, Iowa. * Meurois, Daniel et Anne Givaudan (1987). ''Le Voyage a Shambhalla. Un pèlerinage vers soi''. Ed. Le Passe-Monde.

External links

* {{Buddhism topics Asia in mythology Locations in Buddhist mythology Mythological kingdoms, empires, and countries Pure lands Sambhal Tibetan Buddhism