Francesca Padget | University of Hertfordshire
Francesca Padget | 赫特福德大学
Shangri-La is a term that people know but cannot confidently define: “something to do with Buddhism”, “a place”, “a hotel chain”. The reality is that the name was invented by James Hilton, author of Lost Horizon (1933), in which four people crash-land in the Himalayas and find themselves in the mysterious valley called Shangri-La, where they encounter a peaceful and ageless community. As they explore this hidden paradise, they grapple with the concept of immortality and the choices they must make about staying or returning to the outside world. The book, despite being quite popular in its time and later adapted into film, is relatively unknown by most people today. Shangri-La, however, lives on in both name and concept. This article examines the inspiration, origins, and legacy of Hilton’s utopia, revealing how Shangri-La blurs fiction and reality to inform modern perceptions of Tibet.
香格里拉 "是一个人们熟知却又无法准确定义的名词："与佛教有关"、"一个地方"、"一家连锁酒店"。在《失落的地平线》（Lost Horizon，1933 年）一书中，作者詹姆斯-希尔顿（James Hilton）写道："四个人在喜马拉雅山坠机，发现自己来到了一个叫做香格里拉的神秘山谷，在那里他们遇到了一个宁静而不老的社区。在探索这个不为人知的世外桃源的过程中，他们努力探索长生不老的概念，以及他们必须做出的选择：留在这里还是回到外面的世界。尽管这本书在当时颇受欢迎，后来还被改编成电影，但今天大多数人对它却相对陌生。然而，香格里拉的名字和概念却一直流传至今。本文探讨了希尔顿笔下乌托邦的灵感、起源和遗产，揭示了香格里拉如何模糊虚构与现实，为现代人对西藏的看法提供参考。
Historical Perceptions of Tibet
对西藏的历史认知
The earliest surviving written encounter between the West and Tibet comes from the Jesuit priest, António de Andrade. Andrade travelled to Tibet in 1624 to ascertain whether the western Tibetan kingdom of Guge was Christian, as rumoured. Andrade’s accounts introduced the belief that Tibetans, as a whole, are “quite a peaceable people”, while simultaneously noting that they “love combat, which they practise all the time.” Indeed, the Guge Kingdom (circa. 912–1680) warred with numerous Central Asian states. Regardless, Andrade’s contradictory account presented his limited perspective as representative of the entirety of the Tibetan people.
西方与西藏之间现存最早的文字记载来自耶稣会教士安东尼奥-德-安德拉德（António de Andrade）。安德拉德于 1624 年前往西藏，以确定西藏西部的古格王国是否如传言所说是基督教国家。在安德拉德的描述中，他认为西藏人作为一个整体是 "相当和平的民族"，同时他还指出，西藏人 "热爱战斗，并且一直在战斗"。事实上，古格王国（约 912-1680 年）曾与许多中亚国家交战。无论如何，安德拉德自相矛盾的描述将他有限的视角展现为西藏人民的全部。
To mention Tibet today recalls the country’s contentious relationship with China. Through this lens, Tibet becomes defined by Chinese policy and propaganda, as the Tibetan Autonomous Region. Culturally, however, Tibet extends far beyond its imposed borders, reaching into various Chinese provinces. Likewise, imagining Tibetans and Tibetan culture as homogenous simplifies Tibetan identity; asking “Where are you from?” is an important question for Tibetans as the response reveals regional identity. This is relevant to both pre-modern and modern perceptions of Tibet, as travel writers and explorers (such as Andrade) tended to write of Tibet and its people in homogenous terms. Similarly, Tibetan culture today is often reduced to Buddhism.
今天提起西藏，人们就会想起这个国家与中国之间充满争议的关系。通过这一视角，中国的政策和宣传将西藏定义为西藏自治区。然而，在文化上，西藏远远超出了强加的边界，延伸到中国的各个省份。同样，将西藏人和西藏文化想象成同质化的做法简化了西藏人的身份认同；问 "你来自哪里？"对西藏人来说是一个重要的问题，因为回答者的回答揭示了地区身份认同。这与前现代和现代人对西藏的看法都有关系，因为旅行作家和探险家（如安德拉德）倾向于用同质化的语言来描述西藏及其人民。同样，今天的西藏文化往往被简化为佛教。
Jacques Beaulieu 绘制的文化西藏地图（2015 年） CC BY-NC 2.0 DEED
James Hilton was an English novelist and screenwriter, best known for his Lost Horizon (1933), Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1934), and the screenplay of Mrs. Miniver (1942), which earned him an Academy Award. Hilton said that he studied Tibet by “reading tales and legends of the great missionary travellers who explored all Central Asia centuries ago”. Indeed, he nods to that research within Lost Horizon, when the main character notices books written by real-world missionaries in the Shangri-La library. It is likely that Hilton was inspired by botanist Joseph Rock’s National Geographic articles on various Tibetan regions. At least twenty-two geographical similarities between a single article and Lost Horizon have been spotted. However, Hilton never publicly said that he was inspired by Rock. Yet, Jane Wyatt, an actress from the film adaptation of Lost Horizon, allegedly said that Hilton confirmed the connection. It is possible that Hilton kept quiet for fear of a plagiarism case, saying in a 1936 interview: “English authors had now to be careful even about the places they described, as some one had successfully sued a novelist after recognising the description of a cottage the plaintiff owned.”
詹姆斯-希尔顿（James Hilton）是英国小说家和编剧，以《失落的地平线》（Lost Horizon，1933 年）、《再见，奇普斯先生》（Goodbye, Mr. Chips，1934 年）和《米尼弗夫人》（Mrs. Miniver，1942 年）的剧本而闻名，该片为他赢得了奥斯卡奖。希尔顿说，他是通过 "阅读几个世纪前探索整个中亚的伟大传教士旅行者的故事和传说 "来研究西藏的。事实上，在《失落的地平线》中，当主人公在香格里拉图书馆注意到现实世界中传教士所写的书籍时，他就提到了这一研究。希尔顿的灵感很可能来自植物学家约瑟夫-洛克（Joseph Rock）在《国家地理》杂志上发表的有关西藏各地的文章。至少有 22 篇文章在地理位置上与《失落的地平线》相似。然而，希尔顿从未公开说过他的灵感来自洛克。然而，据说《失落的地平线》改编电影的女演员简-怀亚特（Jane Wyatt）说，希尔顿证实了这种联系。希尔顿之所以保持沉默，可能是担心剽窃案的发生，他在 1936 年的一次采访中说："英国作家现在连描述地点都要小心谨慎，因为有人认出了原告拥有的一座小屋的描述，成功地起诉了一位小说家"。
植物学家约瑟夫-洛克在康卡林的照片（1928 年） - CC BY-SA 2.0DEED
Hilton’s outlook when writing Lost Horizon was that of despondence and disillusionment with the West, countered by the idealised paradise of Shangri-La. It was a place without war, and in the Western imagination, suited to Tibet. Located just above colonised India, Tibet was a vast, unmapped space. Those who visited contributed to its conception as a sacred landscape. Tibet stood in direct opposition to forcibly “opened'' China; its continued freedom framed it as a landscape imbued with mysterious wisdom and resources in a sea of subjugated colonies. Hence, the Tibet which had been left unscarred by colonialism and the wars and brutality that entailed, was imagined as a peaceable place, beyond the plague of endless violence.
希尔顿在写作《失落的地平线》时，对西方充满了绝望和幻灭感，而理想中的天堂香格里拉则与之相对应。那是一个没有战争的地方，在西方人的想象中，那里适合西藏。西藏位于殖民地印度的正上方，是一个广袤、未被开发的空间。那些到过西藏的人将其视为神圣的风景。西藏与被迫 "开放 "的中国直接对立；西藏的持续自由使其成为被征服的殖民地中充满神秘智慧和资源的风景。因此，西藏没有受到殖民主义及其带来的战争和残暴的摧残，被想象成一个和平的地方，一个远离无休止的暴力瘟疫的地方。
By the 20th century, experiencing the externally constructed spirituality of Tibet became paramount to visitors. Alexandra David-Néel's book My Journey to Lhasa (1927) made her the authority for Westerners seeking an idealistic and mystic Eastern utopia. Hilton mentions the Tibetan Buddhist practice of raising body temperature through meditation, which at the time, had only been recorded in David-Néel's book. General Francis Younghusband's 1904 expedition linked Tibet with the “myth of epiphany”: the General experienced a spiritual revelation while in Lhasa. Younghusband’s “epiphany” developed the idea that Tibet possessed a sacred dimension which undoubtedly informed Hilton.
到了 20 世纪，体验西藏外部构建的精神世界对游客来说变得至关重要。亚历山德拉-戴维-奈尔（Alexandra David-Néel）的著作《我的拉萨之旅》（1927 年）使她成为西方人寻求理想主义和神秘主义东方乌托邦的权威。希尔顿在书中提到了藏传佛教通过冥想提高体温的做法，这种做法当时只在戴维-奈尔的书中有所记载。弗朗西斯-杨古斯本德将军在 1904 年的探险中将西藏与 "顿悟神话 "联系在了一起：将军在拉萨经历了一次精神启示。杨古斯本德的 "顿悟 "发展了西藏拥有神圣维度的观点，这无疑为希尔顿提供了灵感。
A discussion of Shangri-La is incomplete without mentioning Shambhala, a legendary kingdom of peace and prosperity. Knowledge of Shambhala had reached the West by 1627 thanks to the Portuguese missionary, Estêvão Cacella, and the father of Tibetology, Sándor Csoma de Kőrös (active during the early 1800s). Likewise, the Theosophical Society (founded 1875) introduced Shambhala to the wider public. The Theosophist Nicholas Roerich became enamoured with Shambhala and wrote of his expeditions to find it, titling one book simply Shambhala (1930). Roerich painted extensively during his expeditions, depicting the Himalayan landscape in various shades of blue. In Lost Horizon, the valley in which Shangri-La sits is called Karakal, which Hilton translates as “Blue Moon”. These sources offer insight into how the West imagined Tibet, specifically a distorted version of a sacred landscape, totally distinct from Tibetan understanding. While Hilton never acknowledged these writers, they would have been the primary source of information about Tibet in the 1920-30s, offering him inspiration for scenery, names and most importantly, an earthly haven.
在讨论香格里拉时，不能不提到传说中的和平与繁荣的王国--香巴拉。1627 年，由于葡萄牙传教士 Estêvão Cacella 和西藏学之父 Sándor Csoma de Kőrös（活跃于 19 世纪早期）的努力，香巴拉的知识传到了西方。同样，神智学会（1875 年成立）也向更广泛的公众介绍了香巴拉。神智论者尼古拉斯-罗瑞奇（Nicholas Roerich）迷恋上了香巴拉，他写下了寻找香巴拉的探险经历，并将其中一本书命名为《香巴拉》（1930 年）。罗瑞奇在探险期间绘制了大量画作，用深浅不一的蓝色描绘喜马拉雅山的风景。在《失落的地平线》中，香格里拉所在的山谷被称为卡拉卡尔，希尔顿将其翻译为 "蓝月亮"。这些资料让我们了解到西方是如何想象西藏的，特别是对神圣景观的歪曲，完全不同于西藏人的理解。虽然希尔顿从未承认过这些作家，但他们应该是 20 世纪 20-30 年代西藏信息的主要来源，为他提供了风景、名称以及最重要的世外桃源的灵感。
"尼古拉斯-罗瑞奇（Nicholas Roerich）的作品《大师的命令》（1947 年） - 公共领域
Modern Impact and Exploitation
现代影响和利用
While Lost Horizon is virtually unknown today, its setting remains popularised, and discourse on Shangri-La continues. Contemporary discussions of Tibet are difficult to separate from the context of China’s “peaceful liberation” (1950), and the Tibetan Government in exile. This issue is further complicated by Shangri-La becoming synonymous with Yunnan due to Chinese Communist Party (CCP) propaganda. In a government-approved travel book about Yunnan, the editor claims that “Yunnan is known to the world as the seductive Shangri-La”, confirming intentional conflation, and referencing the existence of a town called Shangri-La in northern Yunnan.
虽然《失落的地平线》在今天几乎无人知晓，但其背景仍然广为流传，关于香格里拉的讨论仍在继续。当代关于西藏的讨论很难与中国的 "和平解放"（1950 年）和西藏流亡政府分开。由于中国共产党（CCP）的宣传，香格里拉成为云南的代名词，这使问题变得更加复杂。在一本政府批准的关于云南的旅游书中，编辑声称 "云南以诱人的香格里拉闻名于世"，这证实了有意的混淆，并提到了云南北部有一个叫香格里拉的小镇。
In 2001, the county of Zhongdian in Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province received approval to rename itself “Shangri-La”. The intention behind this was undoubtedly to generate tourism and stimulate the local economy, but it was also a calculated opportunity to actively mould depictions of Tibetans according to CCP designs, all without jeopardising control in the Tibetan Autonomous Zone. Previously, Zhongdian’s main economy was logging, but when it was banned in 1998, the county needed a new source of income, and tourism delivered. Diqing used the prefecture’s status as the only Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan to increase interest in the area and secure funds for improving the region, and official recognition as Shangri-La cemented their success.
2001 年，云南省迪庆藏族自治州中甸县获准更名为 "香格里拉"。这背后的意图无疑是为了发展旅游业，刺激当地经济，但同时也是一个精心策划的机会，在不危及西藏自治区控制权的前提下，按照中共的设计积极塑造藏族形象。以前，中甸县的主要经济来源是伐木业，但 1998 年伐木业被禁止后，中甸县需要新的收入来源，而旅游业正好满足了这一需求。迪庆州利用该县作为云南唯一藏族自治州的地位，提高了人们对该地区的兴趣，并为改善该地区的状况争取到了资金，而官方对香格里拉的认可则巩固了他们的成功。
Diqing government officials began collecting “evidence” that Zhongdian was the “real” Shangri-La in late 1996, hosting conferences and inviting academics to produce said evidence. And evidence they indeed “found”. It was concluded that Khawa Karpo Mountain (a place of Tibetan pilgrimage) was Hilton’s Mount Karakal and that the surrounding area matched the description of the Valley of the Blue Moon. Incredibly, it was also determined that the Chinese transliteration of Shangri-La – Xianggelila – is in fact from old Tibetan (sems-gi nyin zla - lit. “heart (root word) sun moon” which would locally have been pronounced zemgi nyinda) meaning “sun and moon in the heart”. This is astounding when you consider that Shangri-La was made up by a man who could speak neither Chinese nor Tibetan. Regardless, this retrofitted meaning has stuck and you can find it on official Chinese government websites and tourism websites. As a result of the name change, tourism skyrocketed, and Shangri-La became real, though no less fictional.
迪庆州政府官员从 1996 年下半年开始收集中甸是 "真正的 "香格里拉的 "证据"，并召开会议，邀请学者提供这些证据。他们确实 "找到 "了证据。他们得出结论，卡瓦卡波山（西藏朝圣之地）就是希尔顿的卡拉卡尔山，周围地区与蓝月谷的描述相符。令人难以置信的是，还确定香格里拉的汉语音译--香格里拉--实际上来自古老的藏语（sems-gi nyin zla - lit."心（词根）日月"，在当地读作 zemgi nyinda），意为 "心中的日月"。如果考虑到香格里拉是由一个既不会说汉语也不会说藏语的人创造出来的，这就令人震惊了。尽管如此，这个改头换面的意思还是被保留了下来，你可以在中国政府官方网站和旅游网站上找到它。改名后，香格里拉的旅游人数激增，香格里拉也变得真实起来，但不失为一个虚构的地方。
云南香格里拉甘丹松赞林寺照片（2020 年） - CC BY-SA 2.0DEED
In order to successfully rebrand as Shangri-La, the city had to reflect its namesake. Ganden Sumtseling Monastery in Shangri-La was given over ¥7 million which was used to gild the roof and build a new car park. Shop, hotel, and restaurant signs had to be re-written in Tibetan as well as Chinese (often incorrectly or simply transliterated, revealing that this was directed at an external audience). A new main street was built with all the buildings in the “Tibetan” style, as well as the remodelling of Tancheng Square with neo-Tibetan buildings, designed by architects from Shanghai who noted in the plans that their designs would serve to promote Tibetan Buddhism. These buildings, which looked nothing like anything built in Tibetan areas, were intended to be museums, libraries, and shops, but many of them stood empty for years after completion, reflecting the superficiality of the project. A giant stupa (structure for meditation, ambulation, and housing relics) was built at the entrance to the city, which, in 2017, was doubled in size to make it the world’s largest. Finally, as the piece de resistance, officials commissioned the world’s largest Tibetan Buddhist prayer wheel on top of a nearby hill, which Chinese tourist websites claim has become an “authentic item because local Buddhists now climb the hill to spin it to submit their prayers.” All these efforts construct a facade of Tibetan culture that condenses it to commercially viable Buddhism.
为了成功改名为香格里拉，这座城市必须反映出它的名字。香格里拉甘丹寺获得了超过 700 万日元的资金，用于给屋顶镀金和修建新的停车场。商店、酒店和餐馆的招牌必须用藏文和汉文重新书写（通常是错误的或简单的音译，这表明招牌是针对外部受众的）。一条新的主干道建成了，所有建筑都采用了 "藏式 "风格，潭城广场也改建成了新藏式建筑，这些建筑由来自上海的建筑师设计，他们在设计图中指出，他们的设计将有助于弘扬藏传佛教。这些建筑与藏区的任何建筑都毫无相似之处，原计划用作博物馆、图书馆和商店，但其中许多建筑在完工后空置多年，反映出项目的肤浅性。在城市入口处修建了一座巨型佛塔（用于冥想、行走和存放文物的建筑），2017 年，佛塔的规模扩大了一倍，成为世界上最大的佛塔。最后，官员们在附近的山顶上建造了世界上最大的藏传佛教转经轮，中国旅游网站称，"因为当地佛教徒现在爬上山顶转动转经轮进行祈祷"，所以转经轮已成为 "地道的物品"。所有这些努力都为藏族文化构建了一个门面，将其浓缩为商业上可行的佛教。
Tibetans are one of China’s fifty-six ethnic groups, with minority ethnic groups often portrayed as “backward” in contrast with (majority) Han “modernity”. Tibetans especially are depicted as simple and primitive, although this is presented as a positive. The people of Shangri-La are sold as an exemplar of where people live in harmony with nature and are reconstructed as inhabitants of an imagined past that promotes ethnic tourism. Some Tibetans living in Shangri-La have capitalised on the opportunities offered by tourism, opening shops and restaurants that cater to the desires and expectations of tourists. It was also a chance to redevelop certain aspects of Tibetan culture that had been fading and to explore regional differences. There has been an increase in the number of high-quality Tibetan artisan shops that compete with mass-produced trinket sellers. Farmhouse “experiences” that reinforced notions of Tibetan primitiveness through song and dance have lost their popularity. The tradition of making black pottery has been revitalised in the nearby village of Tandui due to tourist interest. The requirement for shop signs in Tibetan has spawned a community-based group that corrects the mistakes and promotes the use and learning of Tibetan written script, helping to renew pride in local cultural heritage.
藏族是中国五十六个民族之一，少数民族通常被描述为 "落后"，与（大多数）汉族的 "现代性 "形成鲜明对比。藏族尤其被描绘成淳朴和原始的民族，尽管这被视为一种积极的现象。香格里拉人被当作人与自然和谐相处的典范，并被重构为想象中过去的居民，从而促进了民族旅游。一些生活在香格里拉的藏族人利用旅游业提供的机会，开设商店和餐馆，迎合游客的欲望和期望。这也是一个重新发展藏族文化中逐渐消逝的某些方面和探索地区差异的机会。高质量的西藏手工艺品商店数量增加，与大批量生产的饰品销售商形成竞争。通过歌舞强化藏族原始观念的农家 "体验 "已不再受欢迎。由于游客的兴趣，制作黑陶的传统在附近的唐堆村得到了复兴。对藏文商店招牌的要求催生了一个以社区为基础的团体，他们纠正错误，推广藏文书面文字的使用和学习，帮助人们重拾对当地文化遗产的自豪感。
藏族妇女在中甸节上跳舞的照片（1995 年） - CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED
Moreover, during the annual Dêqên Shangri-La Arts Festival that promotes tourism in the region, members of various minority groups partake and perform dances from their hometowns. Not only does this fulfil tourist expectations, but it also strengthens minority identity through restoration of cultural heritage, and encourages recognition of differences, even within the same minority group, as individuals from across cultural Tibet take part and showcase their traditions. Of course, it is only through certain avenues that Tibetan identity is expressed. In official tourism literature there is no mention of independent local histories, institutions or differences in organisation and patterns of communication, nor are the other minority groups who live in the area advertised. Tibetan Buddhism is reduced to ceremonial and symbolic aspects, a tool through which to promote tourism. Shangri-La now produces a carefully cultivated image of Tibetan culture, where tradition and authenticity are renewed, but also combined with an economically and ideologically driven policy.
此外，在一年一度的 "德钦香格里拉艺术节"（Dêqên Shangri-La Arts Festival）期间，为促进该地区的旅游业，各少数民族成员都会参与并表演家乡的舞蹈。这不仅满足了游客的期望，还通过恢复文化遗产增强了少数民族的身份认同，并鼓励承认差异，即使是在同一少数民族内部，来自西藏不同文化背景的个人也会参与并展示他们的传统。当然，只有通过某些途径才能表达西藏的身份认同。在官方旅游文献中，没有提及当地独立的历史、机构或组织和交流模式的差异，也没有宣传生活在该地区的其他少数民族。藏传佛教被简化为仪式和象征性的内容，成为促进旅游业发展的工具。现在，香格里拉精心塑造了藏族文化的形象，传统和原汁原味得到了延续，但同时也与经济和意识形态驱动的政策相结合。
One such example is the naming of Shangri-La, as discussed above, which denies local history while simultaneously claiming to honour it. Hilton likely devised “Shangri-La” by drawing on similar-sounding words found on maps of Tibet, such as Shingri-La, Chang-La, Changri, and Shirang-La. While “la” means “mountain pass” in Tibetan, “shang” has no meaning. The academics involved in the renaming process claimed that the origin of Zhongdian meant loyalty (“zhong”) to a Naxi (minority group) feudal lord (“dian”) who ruled over the Tibetan people of the area during the Ming Dynasty. Those academics argued that it thereby implied the suppression of the Tibetan people, so the name should be changed to Shangri-La out of respect. The Chinese characters for Zhongdian translate to “middle district”, and it is possible this was the Chinese transliteration of the Naxi name for the town, Zuqdiail, which could mean “place of many yaks” or “place where a friend lives.” Either way, subjugation is absent. In reality, the old Tibetan name for the town was Gyalthang, composed of the words “gyal”, meaning “royal”, and “thang” meaning “plain”, possibly referring to an ancient battle involving the Tibetan king Songtsan Gampo. This demonstrates the extent to which Shangri-La has been fabricated as historical truth is obscured and reinvented to feed Shangri-Laification.
香格里拉的命名就是一个这样的例子，如上文所述，它在否认当地历史的同时又声称是对当地历史的尊重。希尔顿很可能借鉴了西藏地图上发音相似的词语，如香格里拉、昌拉、昌日和白朗拉，从而设计出了 "香格里拉"。在藏语中，"拉 "是 "山口 "的意思，而 "香 "则没有任何含义。参与更名过程的学者声称，中甸的起源意味着对明朝时期统治该地区藏族人民的纳西族（少数民族）封建主（"典"）的忠诚（"忠"）。这些学者认为，这意味着对藏族人民的压迫，因此出于尊重，应将名称改为 "香格里拉"。中甸的汉字译为 "中区"，这可能是纳西族对该镇的名称 Zuqdiail 的汉语音译，意思可能是 "多牦牛的地方 "或 "朋友居住的地方"。无论哪种说法，都没有征服的意思。实际上，该镇的藏语古名是 "嘉尔塘"，由 "gyal "和 "thang "组成，"gyal "意为 "皇家"，"thang "意为 "平原"，可能指的是藏王松赞干布参与的一场古代战役。这表明香格里拉被捏造的程度，因为历史真相被掩盖和重塑，以满足香格里拉化的需要。
Diqing is not the only area to lay claim to Shangri-La; regions of Nepal, Bhutan, Pakistan, and other Chinese counties have claimed Hilton used them as the inspiration for Shangri-La. After the colonisation of India and parts of China, Europe's imperial ambitions were transferred to Tibet, for it offered a much more impregnable front. A fundamental conception of Shangri-La is its “virginal state'', untouched by outside, corrupting influence (as Tibet once was). However, once Tibet was annexed in the 1950s it lost the qualities of Shangri-La, and the mantle of Shangri-La passed to other Himalayan realms. As each realm was “violated'' by travellers, the allure faded and the fantasy decamped. This is reflected in the never-ending search by tourists for new, off-the-beaten-track locations to visit, chiming with Hilton's depiction of the West as superficial and materialistic. Similarly, the reworking of pilgrimage as a tourist activity and maintenance of “traditional” ideals within Yunnan’s Shangri-La equates the minority cultures of the region exclusively with Buddhism. The modern framing of tourist journeys as a pilgrimage echoes the previous century’s travel writers seeking the “myth of epiphany” in Tibet. The clamour for this untouched landscape, both imagined by the West and capitalised on by the East, renders Shangri-La disputed territory, which complicates efforts to untangle Hilton's fictional utopia and reality.
迪庆并不是唯一声称拥有香格里拉的地区，尼泊尔、不丹、巴基斯坦和中国其他国家都声称希尔顿将它们作为香格里拉的灵感来源。在印度和中国部分地区沦为殖民地之后，欧洲的帝国野心转移到了西藏，因为这里提供了一个更加坚不可摧的前线。香格里拉的一个基本概念是它的 "处女地"，没有受到外界的侵蚀（西藏曾经就是这样）。然而，20 世纪 50 年代西藏被吞并后，它便失去了香格里拉的特质，香格里拉的衣钵便传到了喜马拉雅山脉的其他地区。随着每个地区都被旅行者 "侵犯"，香格里拉的诱惑力逐渐消失，幻想也随之消逝。这反映在游客无休止地寻找新的、不寻常的旅游景点，这与希尔顿对西方肤浅和物质主义的描述不谋而合。同样，云南香格里拉将朝圣作为一种旅游活动，并保持 "传统 "的理想，将该地区的少数民族文化完全等同于佛教。现代人将旅游行程定格为朝圣，与上个世纪旅行作家在西藏寻找 "顿悟的神话 "如出一辙。西方人想象的、东方人利用的对这一未经开发的景观的渴求，使得香格里拉成为有争议的领土，这使得希尔顿虚构的乌托邦与现实之间的关系变得复杂起来。
Since Lost Horizon's debut, Shangri-La has come to mean much more than a fictional utopia; it has, at times, come to represent Tibet itself. In the West, explorer after explorer has searched in vain for Shangri-La, while in the East, multiple countries stake a claim to Hilton's idyll, exploiting this geographical and folkloric cache for tourism. In publishing his imagined sacred landscape, Hilton forever influenced both Eastern and Western perceptions of Tibet, creating a new definition by which to view the earthly paradise of the East, a process centuries in the making. While the perception of Tibet today is no longer that of a Buddhist Arcadia, it is still considered something to be treasured, on the precipice of being lost, and Hilton’s Shangri-La has helped to inform that vision. Ultimately, Shangri-La can be understood as a Western dream of an Eastern myth - it captures a yearning for simpler times, everlasting peace, sanctuary, and abundance protected from a violent and volatile world. But this paradise must remain elusive, for seeking it misunderstands and spurns Hilton’s fantasy. Like the most apt utopia, it is literally “nowhere”.
自《失落的地平线》问世以来，香格里拉已不仅仅意味着一个虚构的乌托邦，有时甚至代表了西藏本身。在西方，一个又一个探险家徒劳地寻找着香格里拉，而在东方，多个国家对希尔顿笔下的田园提出了要求，利用这一地理和民俗宝藏发展旅游业。希尔顿发表了他想象中的神圣景观，永远地影响了东方和西方对西藏的看法，为东方的人间天堂创造了新的定义，这一过程已经持续了几个世纪。虽然今天人们对西藏的看法不再是佛教的阿卡迪亚，但它仍然被认为是值得珍视的，濒临失落的边缘，而希尔顿的《香格里拉》则为这一看法提供了参考。归根结底，香格里拉可以被理解为西方人对东方神话的梦想--它捕捉到了人们对更简单的时光、永恒的和平、避难所以及远离暴力和动荡世界的富足的向往。但是，这个世外桃源仍然难以捉摸，因为寻找它是对希尔顿幻想的误解和唾弃。就像最贴切的乌托邦一样，它确实 "无处可去"。
Further Reading:
进一步阅读：
Bishop, Peter. The Myth of Shangri-La: Tibet, Travel Writing and the Western Creation of Sacred Landscape (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989)
Bishop, Peter.香格里拉的神话：西藏、游记和西方创造的神圣景观》（伯克利：加州大学出版社，1989 年）Kolås, Åshild. Tourism and Tibetan Culture in Transition: A Place Called Shangrila (Oxford: Routledge, 2008)
Kolås, Åshild.旅游业与转型中的西藏文化》：一个叫香格里拉的地方》（牛津：Routledge，2008 年）McCarthy, Susan. Communist Multiculturalism: Ethnic Revival in Southwest China (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2009)
McCarthy, Susan.共产主义多元文化：中国西南地区的民族复兴》（西雅图：华盛顿大学出版社，2009 年）McMillin, Laurie Hovell. English in Tibet, Tibet in English: Self-Presentation in Tibet and the Diaspora (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2001)
《麦克米伦，劳里-霍维尔。西藏的英语，英语中的西藏：西藏和散居国外者的自我表述》（纽约：帕尔格雷夫-麦克米伦出版社，2001 年）。McRae, Michael. The Siege of Shangri-La: The Quest for Tibet’s Sacred Hidden Paradise (New York: Broadway Books, 2002)
《麦克雷，迈克尔香格里拉之围：探寻西藏神圣的世外桃源》（纽约：百老汇图书公司，2002 年）
Francesca Padget recently finished their thesis on the impact of tourism in the perception and development of the Bai minority group identity in Yunnan as part of the MA Folklore Studies at the University of Hertfordshire. Having studied Chinese, Korean and Tibetan at BA level, the realm of East Asian folklore soon beckoned.
弗朗西斯卡-帕吉特（Francesca Padget）最近完成了她在赫特福德大学（University of Hertfordshire）民俗学硕士课程的毕业论文，题目是 "旅游业对云南白族少数民族身份认知和发展的影响"。弗朗西斯卡-帕吉特曾在文学学士学位阶段学习过汉语、朝鲜语和藏语，东亚民俗学领域很快向她招手。
