Shangri-La

[Paul the Human]

I actually knew the answer to this one without the Google. I feel smartish now.

[Shell B]

Haha, alright, I'll tell. Sorry it took me so long. Unexpectedly busy day.

Anyway, Shangri-La is a purely fictional monastery or "lamasery" in the Himalayas. It's inhabitants enjoyed supernaturally long lives, so long as they stayed in the area where the monastery sat. It was from a book written by James Hilton in the 1930s called Lost Horizon. I read it when I was about middle-school age. Interestingly, I later realized that tons of people have no idea that it isn't a "real" myth or legend. People have even searched for Shangri-La, obviously to no avail.

I may have decided to conduct this little poll in the wrong place. I should have known many of you would have guessed the answer. We had seven answer correctly. Seven had never heard of it and only one believed it to be a legend of eastern culture.

Here are a few interesting links on the subject:

This first link is just a blog, but it shows that people are indeed silly enough to search for places in fiction novels.

http://cosmicvisions.blogspot.com/2009/1...ri-la.html

This one ends on a more realistic note.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc...480493.htm

If you were to ask around a bit, you are bound to find a number of people who have heard the term Shangri-La and think it is Tibet's equivalent of the Fountain of Youth or an earthly utopia. I always found this astounding. The book is not even one hundred years old. Anyway, I thought some of you mind find that a bit intriguing as well. It says a lot, if you ask me.

[theVOID]

I only know the meaning from the book Lost Horizon, which i loved because of the parallels to LOST.

I don't know if it came from elsewhere, suffice to say it's not improbably based off another concept, though a fiction writer could easily conceive of such a concept independently.

[Shell B]

Of course. It's an amalgam of fountain of youth, holy lamasery and other true myths, but the place itself and its concept as a whole are purely fictional. To actually search for such a place, according to directions in Lost Horizon is crazy. I think it shows that people put too much stock in books sometimes.

There are a number of myths about monasteries on mountaintops in China and Tibet. Many of them are very old and their locations are known.

[theVOID]

Lol tell me about it, quite similar to Christians looking for a giant boat up a mountain somewhere.

[Entropist]

This first link is just a blog, but it shows that people are indeed silly enough to search for places in fiction novels.

I seem to recall that some people have actually gone looking for the money in the film Fargo.

---

Oh, no-- it appears that is an urban legend...

Still, its funny that at the beginning of the film it says it is "Based on a True Story" when it really wasn't.

[Minimalist]

People have even searched for Shangri-La, obviously to no avail.

Noah's Fucking Ark has the same problem. Likewise the so-called "Holy Grail."

[Shell B]

Noah's Fucking Ark has the same problem. Likewise the so-called "Holy Grail."

Actually, it was an article I wrote on Noah's Ark that got me thinking about it again. I wrote an article in the past about the stupidity of believing in Shangri-La.

I very much believe that is exactly what happened with the bible. Except for the fact that the bible was written in a manipulative manner, imo.

[Minimalist]

Any moment now some fundie asshole will show up insisting that the "ark" is real.

[Shell B]

Any moment now some fundie asshole will show up insisting that the "ark" is real.

I sure hope so.