Here are virtually all the references to Shambhala or Shamballa – which literally means “place of peace” – in the writings of H. P. Blavatsky.

Quite a few of these do not include that specific name or word but the context shows in some cases that Shambhala is nonetheless definitely what is being referred to, while in other cases it seems fairly safe to suppose that it is what is being referred to.

“. . . the sacred Island (now the “fabled” Shamballah, in the Gobi Desert) . . .” (“The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 2, p. 319)

“In the same manner and on the plan of the Zodiac in the upper Ocean or the heavens, a certain realm on Earth, an inland sea, was consecrated and called “the Abyss of Learning”; twelve centres on it in the shape of twelve small islands representing the Zodiacal signs – two of which remained for ages the “mystery signs” and were the abodes of twelve Hierophants and masters of wisdom. This “sea of knowledge” or learning remained for ages there, where now stretches the Shamo or Gobi desert. It existed until the last great glacial period, when a local cataclysm, which swept the waters south and west and so formed the present great desolate desert, left only a certain oasis, with a lake and one island in the midst of it, as a relic of the Zodiacal Ring on Earth.” (“The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 2, p. 502-503)

“What is claimed is simply the fact that the Wisdom imparted by the “Divine Ones” – born through the Kriyashakti powers of the Third Race before its Fall and Separation into sexes – to the adepts of the early Fourth Race, has remained in all its pristine purity in a certain Brotherhood. The said School or Fraternity being closely connected with a certain island of an inland sea, believed in by both Hindus and Buddhists, but called “mythical” by geographers and Orientalists, the less one talks of it, the wiser he will be.” (“The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 2, p. 636-637)

“The “Island,” according to belief, exists to the present hour; now, as an oasis surrounded by the dreadful wildernesses of the great Desert, the Gobi.” (“The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 2, p. 220)

It is important to be aware that despite such statements as the above, there are a few places where HPB locates Shambhala as being somewhere “in the Himalayas” (which is not the case for the Gobi Desert, which is partly in Mongolia and partly in China) or speaks of its locality with deliberate vagueness. It may be that the real central location of Shambhala is not even directly stated by HPB.

“The Secret Doctrine” also appears to imply that “Shambhala” may occasionally be relocated, based on various factors in humanity’s development or degeneration. Some see the words of the esoteric Commentary quoted in Vol. 2, p. 319, as suggesting this. But she makes clear in various places that it is spiritual in nature, yet existing here on this physical plane, although none can ever find it or go there, except the very few who have earned the right and passed through the requisite initiations. The physical or geographic land it occupies may be found on a map and even visited by travellers but if the Masters are able to render a house invisible or undiscoverable even to those who may be on the same street as it (see the section “The Bungalow by the Sea” in The Masters and Madame Blavatsky) They can surely do the same, in one way or another, for the buildings, residents, and other features of Shambhala.

““Arghya in Sanskrit is the libation cup [i.e. the cup or chalice from which offering, tribute, sacrifice, etc. is poured out] . . . Arghyanath is a title of the Maha-Chohan, meaning “the Lord of Libations;” and Arghya Varsha – “the land of libations” – is the mystery name of that region which extends from Kailas mountain [i.e. Mount Kailash in Tibet] nearly to the Schamo Desert [i.e. the Gobi Desert, partly in Mongolia and partly in China] – from within which the Kalki Avatar is expected. The Airyâna-Varsedya [i.e. Airyanem Vaejah, often written “Airyana-Vaego” in Theosophical literature, a land usually equated by HPB to Shambhala] of the Zoroastrians, as a locality, is identical with it. It is now said to have been situated between the sea of Aral, Baltistan, and little Tibet; but in olden times its area was far larger, as it was the birth-place of physical humanity, . . . “Argos” is Arghya Varsha, the land of libation of the old Hierophants, whence the deliverer of Humanity will appear, a name which became ages later that of its neighbour, India – the Arya-varta of old.” (“The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 2, p. 416, 419)

Based on the brief description above, Arghya Varsha would extend a distance of around 1,500 miles and include parts of three countries, namely Tibet, China, and Mongolia, although technically Tibet now unfortunately “belongs” to China.

“What do they know of that mystical personage known to some adepts as the “venerable MAH,” or of the mysterious Eastern Brothers who obey him, whose name is abbreviated in the first syllable of the three which compose the Masonic substitute [Note: This appears to be a reference to the Masonic sacred word “Jahbulon,” the first syllable of that three-syllabled Word or Name being “Jah” or “Ja.” In “The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 2, p. 202 we read of “Aleim, or priests – the hierophants initiated into the good and evil of this world; for there was a college of priests called the Aleim, while the head of their caste, or the chief of the hierophants was known as Java-Aleim.” “Java Aleim” is “Maha Chohan in another tongue” says p. 220 of the same volume.] – The MAH, who lives at this very day in a spot unknown to all but initiates, and the approaches to which are through trackless wildernesses, untrodden by Jesuit or missionary foot, for it is beset by dangers fit to appall the most courageous explorers?” (“Isis Unveiled” Vol. 2, p. 388)

“. . . that Sacred Island – ‘from whence the last Saviour will come’ . . .” (A Commentary quoted in “The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 2, p. 350)

“ . . . her [Mother Earth’s] heart – which beats under the foot of the sacred Shambalah . . .” (A Commentary quoted in “The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 2, p. 400)

“Although these matters were barely hinted at in “Isis Unveiled,” it will be well to remind the reader of what was said in Vol. I., pp. 587 to 593, concerning a certain Sacred Island in Central Asia, and to refer him for further details to the chapter in Book II. on “The Sons of God and the Sacred Island.”” (“The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 1, p. 209)

“. . . the “Sons of God,” of the island, and who were initiated in the divine doctrine of pure revelation, . . .” (“Isis Unveiled” Vol. 1, p. 593)

“S’ambhala (Sk.). A very mysterious locality on account of its future associations. A town or village mentioned in the Puranas, whence, it is prophesied, the Kalki Avatar will appear. The “Kalki” is Vishnu, the Messiah on the White Horse of the Brahmins; Maitreya Buddha of the Buddhists, Sosiosh of the Parsis, and Jesus of the Christians (See Revelations). All these “messengers” are to appear “before the destruction of the world”, says the one; before the end of Kali Yuga say the others. It is in S’ambhala that the future Messiah will be born. Some Orientalists make modern Muradabad in Rohilkhand (N.W.P.) identical with S’ambhala, while Occultism places it in the Himalayas. It is pronounced Shambhala.” (“The Theosophical Glossary” p. 287)

“Every seventh year, these teachers are believed to assemble in SCHAM-BHA-LA, the “happy land.” According to the general belief it is situated in the north-west of Tibet. Some place it within the unexplored central regions, inaccessible even to the fearless nomadic tribes; others hem it in between the range of the Gangdisri Mountains [i.e. the Gangdisi or Kailash range] and the northern edge of the Gobi Desert, South and North, and the more populated regions of Khoondooz and Kashmir, of the Gya-Pheling (British-India), and China, West and East, which affords to the curious mind a pretty large latitude to locate it in. Others still place it between Namur Nur and the Kuen-Lun Mountains – but one and all firmly believe in Scham-bha-la, and speak of it as a fertile, fairy-like land, once an island, now an oasis of incomparable beauty, the place of meeting of the inheritors of the esoteric wisdom of the god-like inhabitants of the legendary island.” (“Editorial Appendix,” “H. P. Blavatsky Theosophical Articles” Vol. 3, p. 333)

In one of the earlier quotes, we saw HPB stating that “Arghya Varsha – “the land of libations” – is the mystery name of that region which extends from Kailas mountain [i.e. Mount Kailash in Tibet] nearly to the Schamo Desert [i.e. the Gobi Desert, partly in Mongolia and partly in China] . . .” which matches exactly the description “between the range of the Gangdisri Mountains [i.e. the Gangdisi or Kailash range] and the northern edge of the Gobi Desert” in the above paragraph. In the above, “SCHAM-BHA-LA” originally appeared as “SCHAM-CHA-LO” when HPB published it in “The Theosophist” and it remains like this in the “H. P. Blavatsky Theosophical Articles” volumes published today; HPB corrected it, however, when the article was republished in “Five Years of Theosophy.”

“Many are the names of that School and land, the name of the latter being now regarded by the Orientalists as the mythic name of a fabulous country. It is from this mysterious land, nevertheless, that the Hindu expects his Kalki Avatara, the Buddhist his Maitreya, the Parsi his Sosiosh, and the Jew his Messiah, and so would the Christian expect thence his Christ – if he only knew of it. There, and there alone, reigns Paranishpanna (Gunggrub), the absolutely perfect comprehension of Being and Non-Being, the changeless true Existence in Spirit, even while the latter is seemingly still in the body, every inhabitant thereof being a Non-Ego because he has become the Perfect Ego. Their voidness is “self-existent and perfect” – if there were profane eyes to sense and perceive it – because it has become absolute; the unreal being transformed into conditionless Reality, and the realities of this, our world, having vanished in their own nature into thin (non-existing) air.

“The “Absolute Truth” (Dondam-pay-den-pa; Sanskrit: Paramarthasatya), having conquered “relative truth” (Kunza-bchi-den-pa; Sanskrit: Samvritisatya), the inhabitants of the mysterious region are thus supposed to have reached the state called in mystic phraseology Svasamvedana (“self-analyzing reflection”) and Paramartha, or that absolute consciousness of the personal merged into the impersonal Ego, which is above all, hence above illusion in every sense.

“Its “Perfect” Buddhas and Bodhisattvas may be on every nimble Buddhist tongue as celestial – therefore unreachable Beings, while these names may suggest and say nothing to the dull perceptions of the European profane. What matters it to Those who, being in this world, yet live outside and far beyond our illusive earth! Above Them there is but one class of Nirvanis, namely, the Chos-ku (Dharmakaya), or the Nirvanis “without remains” – the pure Arupa, the formless Breaths. Thence [i.e. from Shambhala] emerge occasionally the Bodhisattvas in their Prul-pai-ku (or Nirmanakaya) body and, assuming an ordinary appearance, they teach men. There are conscious, as well as unconscious, incarnations.” (“A Few More Misconceptions Corrected” posthumously published)

“The simple secret is this: There are cycles within greater cycles, which are all contained in the one Kalpa of 4,320,000 years. It is at the end of this cycle that the Kalki-Avatāra is expected – the Avatāra whose name and characteristics are secret, who will come forth from Shamballa, the “City of Gods,” which is in the West for some nations, in the East for others, in the North or South for yet others. And this is the reason why, from the Indian Rishi to Virgil, and from Zoroaster down to the latest Sibyl, all have, since the beginning of the Fifth Race, prophesied, sung, and promised the cyclic return of the Virgin – Virgo, the constellation – and the birth of a divine child who should bring back to our earth the Golden Age. (“Cycles and Avataras” posthumously published)

“Why do we find Zoroaster in the Bundehesh offering a sacrifice in “Iran Vej” – distorted name for Airyanam Vaego – and where or what was this country? Though some Orientalists call it “no real country,” and others identify it with the basin of the Aras, the latter has nothing to do with Airyanam Vaego. The last Zarathust may have chosen, and he has so chosen, the banks of the Aras for the cradle of his newly reborn religion; only that cradle received a child reborn and suckled elsewhere, namely, in Airyanam Vaego (the true “seed of the Aryas,” who were then all that was noble and true) which place is identical with the Shamballah of the Hindus and the Arhats, a place now regarded also as mythical.” (“Zoroastrianism in the Light of Occult Philosophy”)

“The “Western paradise,” [mentioned in some Buddhist scriptures, also called the “Pure Land of Amitabha Buddha”] or Western heaven, is no fiction located in transcendental space. It is a bona-fide locality in the mountains, or, to be more correct, one encircled in a desert within mountains. Hence it is assigned for the residence of those students of Esoteric Wisdom – disciples of Buddha – who have attained the rank of Lohans and Anagamins (Adepts). It is called “Western” simply from geographical considerations; and “the great iron mountain girdle” that surrounds the Avitchi, and the seven Lokas that encircle the “Western paradise” are a very exact representation of well-known localities and things to the Eastern student of Occultism.” (“The Doctrine of the Eye & The Doctrine of the Heart” posthumously published)

“Chagpa-Thog-med is the Tibetan name of Aryasanga, the founder of the Yogacharya or Naljorchodpa School. This Sage and Initiate is said [i.e. in Mahayana Buddhist tradition] to have been taught “Wisdom” by Maitreya Buddha Himself, the Buddha of the Sixth Race [i.e. the Root Race or “world-epoch” which will follow our present one], at Tushita (a celestial region presided over by Him), and as having received from Him the five books of Champai-chos-nga [i.e. the “Five Books of Maitreya” as they are better known, one of the best known of which is the Uttara Tantra also called Ratnagotravibhaga; another one, the Mahayana Sutralamkara, is quoted from within the Book of the Golden Precepts, as seen on p. 70 of “The Voice of the Silence,” meanwhile HPB tells Sinnett on p. 195 of her letters to him that she has translated from the Secret Book of Dzyan and the Secret Book of Maitreya Buddha when writing “The Secret Doctrine”]. The Secret Doctrine teaches, however, that he came from Dejung, or Shambhala, called the “source of happiness” (“wisdom-acquired”) and declared by some Orientalists to be a “fabulous” place.” (“The Doctrine of the Eye & The Doctrine of the Heart” posthumously published)

“The close of Shankaracharya’s life brings us face to face with a fresh mystery. Shankaracharya retires to a cave in the Himalayas, permitting none of his disciples to follow him, and disappears therein forever from the sight of the profane. Is he dead? Tradition and popular belief answer in the negative, and some of the local Gurus, if they do not emphatically corroborate, do not deny the rumour. The truth with its mysterious details as given in the Secret Doctrine is known but to them; it can be given out fully only to the direct followers of the great Dravidian Guru, and it is for them alone to reveal of it as much as they think fit. Still it is maintained that this Adept of Adepts lives to this day in his spiritual entity as a mysterious, unseen, yet overpowering presence among the Brotherhood of Shamballa, beyond, far beyond, the snowy-capped Himalayas.” (“The Mystery of Buddha” posthumously published)

“‘Who is in the possession of the true hidden knowledge?’ ‘The great teachers of the Snowy Mountain,’ is the response in The Book of Law. The Snowy Mountain is [i.e. as stated by the Catholic monk Francesco della Penna when giving an account in his book of certain statements in the “Books of Kiu-Te,” i.e. the Tantra scriptures of Tibetan Buddhism, which had been related to him by Gelugpa Lamas in Tibet in the early 18th century] the ‘mountain a hundred and sixty thousand leagues high.’ Let us see what this means. The last three ciphers [i.e. zeroes] being simply left out, we have a hundred and sixty leagues; a Tibetan league is nearly five miles; this gives us seven hundred and eighty miles from a certain holy spot, by a distinct road to the west. This becomes as clear as can be, even in Della Penna’s further description, to one who has but a glimpse of the truth. ‘According to their law,’ says that monk, ‘in the west of this world, is an eternal world, a paradise, and in it a saint called Ho-pahme, which means “Saint of Splendour and Infinite Light.” [Note: “Infinite Light” is the literal meaning of “Amitabha,” mentioned in the preceding quote, and “Ho-pahme” is Della Penna’s way of rendering “Opakme,” which is the Tibetan name for Amitabha].” (The “Venerable Chohan-Lama” quoted by HPB in “Tibetan Teachings”)

In her posthumously published “The Secret Books of “Lam-Rin” and Dzyan” HPB comments on the above, saying: “As to the “mountain 160,000 leagues high,” the Commentary which gives the key to such statements explains . . . “to the west of the ‘Snowy Mountain’ 160 leagues [the cyphers being a blind] from a certain spot and by a direct road, is the Bhante Yul [the country or ‘Seat of the Brothers’], the residence of Maha-Chohan. . . .” etc. This is the real meaning. The “Hopahma” of Della Penna is – the Maha-Chohan, the Chief.”

“The great event – the triumph of our “Sons of the Fire Mist” the inhabitants of “Shambullah” [i.e. Shambhala or Shamballa] (when yet an island in the Central Asian Sea) over the selfish but not entirely wicked magicians of Poseidonis [i.e. the very last small remnant of Atlantis] occurred just 11,466 [years] ago.” (Master K.H., “The Mahatma Letters” p. 155)

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In “The Secret Doctrine,” the term “White Island” – or Sveta Dwipa or Sveta Dvipa in Sanskrit – sometimes refers to Ruta, the last large island of Atlantis, which is said to have sunk around 850,000 years ago (see for example Vol. 2, p. 147, 322) but although Atlantis had its White Island, this was only “the fair child of the White Island (the primitive Sveta-dwipa)” (Vol. 2, p. 319) which HPB then calls “Sveta-dwipa, the blessed” and appears to directly equate with Shambhala. In Indian religious mythology, Sveta Dwipa is also associated with Mount Meru, and this is so in Theosophy also, such as in Vol. 2, p. 6 of “The Secret Doctrine”:

“That which in the Vendidad, for instance, is referred to as Airyanem Vaêgo (see Bund. 79, 12) wherein was born the original Zoroaster, is called in the Purânic literature “Sveta-Dwipa,” “Mount Meru,” the abode of Vishnu, etc., etc.; and in the Secret Doctrine is simply named the land of the “Gods” under their chiefs the “Spirits of this Planet.””

The situation is made still less clear by Mount Meru and the White Island often being associated with the North Pole or rather some mysterious and imperishable land at or near the Arctic or North Pole, where the First Root Race is said to have come into being. In Vol. 2, p. 327, HPB speaks of “the “lotus leaves” of Sveta-dwipa, the countries now called Greenland [i.e. which is part of Denmark], Eastern and Western Siberia [i.e. Siberia is the vast Asian part of Russia], etc., etc.” Siberia – part of which is in the Arctic Circle – bears a link with all that has been quoted above in that it borders Mongolia and China, plus a few other Central Asian countries.

Sometimes HPB directly conflates Shambhala and the “Imperishable Sacred Land” of the Arctic, such as when saying “All the Avatars of Vishnu are said to come originally from the White Island. According to Tibetan tradition the White Island is the only locality which escapes the general fate of other dwipas and can be destroyed by neither fire nor water, for – it is the “eternal land.”” (Vol. 2, p. 408) At other times, such as Vol. 2, p. 400-401, a clear and definite distinction is made between that Eternal Central Land or Imperishable Sacred Land and Shambhala, the latter of which “was not yet born” until long after the Imperishable Sacred Land had come into being. The indestructible sacred Land at or near the North Pole is called the “head” of our planet, while Shambhala is equated with its “heart.” And yet, continuing this bodily analogy given in the esoteric Commentaries quoted by HPB – and which most likely is far more than a mere analogy but relates to the chakras or energy centres of the Earth – the head is never in the centre but the heart is. So wouldn’t the name “Eternal Central Land” really refer to the heart of Mother Earth, i.e. to Shambhala? We do not claim to know the answers, nor would we expect them to be given.

Traditionally, Hinduism and Buddhism equate the Mount Meru of Indian sacred mythology and symbolism with the greatly revered Mount Kailash in Tibet. Kailash is not in the Himalayas (although many people, and occasionally HPB herself, speak of it that way) but is “beyond the Himalayas,” i.e. north of them. In the article Mount Kailash and The Teachers of Buddha we show how, in a few places, HPB does indeed seem to more or less equate Shambhala and Mount Meru with Mount Kailash, if one carefully pieces together her statements and examines her wording. The publicly known Kalachakra teachings of Tibetan Buddhism – which are not the same as the truly esoteric Kalachakra but surely contain numerous traces of it – state, with deliberate vagueness, that Shambhala is either on, within, or near Mount Kailash. HPB’s footnote on p. 401 of the second volume of “The Secret Doctrine” is also deliberately vague and reticent and here seems to be insinuating that Meru is a mountain in the Arctic Circle, which would make it several thousand miles away from Kailash or Tibet. It may be that there are deliberate “blinds” or esoteric concealments in these statements, or that some expressions are used symbolically rather than literally, but here is what she says:

“The navel [of the Earth] is described as situated to the setting sun or to the west of the Himavat [i.e. Himalayas] in which lie the roots of Meru, which mountain is north of the Himalaya. Meru is not “the fabulous mountain in the navel or centre of the earth,” but its roots and foundations are in that navel, though it is in the far north itself. This connects it with the “central” land “that never perishes”; the land in which “the day of the mortal lasts six months and his night another six months.””

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It can hardly be denied that the above compilation is not a uniform set of statements. Is Shambhala somewhere in the Gobi Desert? How can it be when “Occultism places it in the Himalayas”? But how can it be somewhere in the Himalayas if the Brotherhood of Shambhala is “beyond, far beyond, the snowy-capped Himalayas”?

If we are expecting H. P. Blavatsky to spell out for us exactly where Shambhala is located, we are bound to be sorely disappointed, for no-one possessing such knowledge would ever do so.

But some of her letters, as well as letters in “The Mahatma Letters,” seem to indicate that – during HPB’s era at least – somewhere in the general region of Ladakh, in the Trans-Himalayan region of far northern India bordering Tibet, was probably considered the chief centre of the Great Brotherhood of the Masters of Wisdom . . . hence why the geographical term “Trans-Himalayan Brotherhood” or “Trans-Himalayan Esoteric School” was used in connection with those Masters directly connected with it in that area of the world. Nowhere in those letters is there any mention of a still higher centre of the Brotherhood being based in the Gobi Desert or in Mongolia or China. Instead, Adepts ready to undergo their highest initiations are spoken of as having to travel to the Trans-Himalayan region.

However, this surely does not tell us everything and nor should we expect it to. It is always important to maintain a proper sense of the sacred in regard to such a subject as Shambhala, which could justifiably be called the most sacred subject of all. As we have read, the Heart of the Earth beats under the foot of the sacred Shambhala.

HPB has also called it “that mysterious locality which no one is able to locate, and which is the despair of both Geographers and Christian Theologians – the region in which the Brahman places his Kailasa, the Mount Sumeru, and the Parvati Pamir, transformed by the Greeks into Paropamisus. Round this locality, which still exists, the traditions of the Garden of Eden were built. From these regions the Greeks obtained their Parnassus; and thence proceeded most of the biblical personages, some of them in their day men, some demi-gods and heroes, some – though very few – myths, the astronomical double of the former.” (“Hermetic and Kabalistic Doctrines”)

Although it is made very clear repeatedly that Shambhala is an actual location here in this physical world, all these various names for it have applications and correspondences on many levels, both in regard to a particular cosmic realm or metaphysical plane and the esoteric anatomy of the human being. As the Kalachakra Tantra of Tibetan Buddhism maintains, Shambhala is both outside and within oneself. Hence, while never denying Shambhala as actually existing on this Earth, one ought to be careful not to overly materialise it in one’s conceptions, nor to limit or restrict it by narrow definitions. A few decades ago, Raghavan Iyer advised:

“Even though there may be something precious and noble at the root of one’s conception of Shamballa, El Dorado or the Golden Age, psychic excitement is generated the moment one materializes it. This excess produces a plethora of escapist tendencies which result in pathetic and irresponsible human beings who cannot do the most elementary things like sitting, reading or writing. Victims of their own fantasy, they want to escape but find there is nowhere to go.” (“Shiva and Self-Regeneration”)

“One must learn to understand arcane symbols at many levels. One must, for example, become receptive to the idea that the Sveta Dwipa of the Puranas is one with the Shamballa of Buddhist tradition, and that both are identical with the abode of the Builders, the luminous Sons of Manvantaric Dawn. All such mystical names pertain to a plane of consciousness accessible to human beings within. Mount Meru and the mystical descent of the Ganges can be correlated with critical points within the spiritual spinal cord and the invisible brain. Yogic meditation transports one to inner centres, wherein dwell the gods of light. . . . Man links heaven and earth so fully that no mode of incarnation can entirely erase the alchemical signature of one’s origin. The lessons of mythic chronology and mystical geography must be applied by each individual to his or her own incarnation.” (“Theurgy and Transmutation”)

Some of the themes touched upon in “Blavatsky on Shambhala” can be explored further in other articles on this site which are closely related to this one, such as:

THE GREAT SACRIFICE: THE MAHA-GURU, THE SILENT WATCHER, THE INITIATOR

KALACHAKRA AND THEOSOPHY

MOUNT KAILASH AND THE TEACHERS OF BUDDHA

THE AVATAR

THE OCCULT IMPORTANCE OF CENTRAL ASIA

You can find the complete listing of articles on the Articles page or use the search function (the magnifying glass symbol) at the top of the page. You may also find it interesting to read Nicholas Roerich’s travelogue on the places, peoples, spiritual and mystical traditions, and esoteric significance of Central Asia, titled “Heart of Asia,” especially the latter half of the book, titled “Shambhala,” which gives some fascinating insights into the importance that Shambhala and the prophecies and expectations regarding it held in both everyday and religious life for Central Asian peoples in the first half of the 20th century.

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