10th October 2008 - Bradt Travel Guides

Shangri-La - ‘The best place you’ve never been to!’ is how Michael Buckley describes the subject of his eponymous guidebook, a realm he further defines by what is not there, ‘No sickness, no disease.  No guns.  No police.  No problems with money…’ - hold on, don’t all rush at once!  75 years after the publication of James Hilton’s novel Lost Horizon, where the lofty utopia of Shangri-La was first manifest, Bradt’s guide to nowhere might seem a somewhat esoteric endeavour for a pioneering travel publisher.  However, Buckley’s guidebook exploration of those regions laying a more than tenuous claim to be the ‘real’ Shangri-La, his grasp of eastern philosophy and skilled travel prose, go a long way to turning myth into reality.

From as far west as the Karakoram’s Hunza Valley in Pakistan, through Tibet, Nepal and Burma, to China’s Yunnan province, the hunt for Shangri-La is on.  Pristine mountainscapes bristling with snow-capped peaks, heroic sagas of epic proportion, an increased density of lamas, of the less hairy variety, and ready access to unlimited supplies of yak butter are all aspects of a recurring theme.  However, despite an exhaustive search, detailing characteristically brazen attempts by the Chinese Communist Party to cash-in on Shangri-La’s free market appeal, like swirling mountain mist that hides and then reveals false summits, the Himalayan Dream remains just that.  Shangri-La will appeal to those already touched by the romance of high places, hidden valleys and lost kingdoms, at the same time catalysing the desire for exploration in others yet to discover the mysticism of mountains.  Buckley’s guide doesn’t promise to mark Shangri-La by a cross on the map but it does quicken the search…

Michael Buckley has trekked and travelled widely in the Himalaya and Karakoram and has authored several books on the region, including Bradt’s Tibet travel guide and Heartlands: Travels in a Tibetan World.  In his dreams Buckley lives in a clifftop castle with views of Himalayan snowcaps and an inexhaustible supply of Peach Blossom Tea and yak ice-cream…

For review copies contact Travel Media – 01830 540 440 or info@travel-media.co.uk
Title:            Shangri-La                          Author:             Michael Buckley
Publisher:    Bradt Travel Guides            Publication:     October 2008
Price:           £14.99                                  ISBN:               978 1 84162 204 0

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