Shangri-La and History in 1930s England
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/bsrv.v24i1.108Keywords:
James Hilton, British popular cultureAbstract
This paper addresses the question of the existence and transmission of Buddhism in British culture in the 1930s. It argues that Buddhism found channels of transmission through popular culture, such as James Hilton’s 1933 novel Lost Horizon. Lost Horizon can be understood historically in relation to current Western ideas about Buddhism, and in response to the sense of historical crisis of Western modernity. This paper also shows that elements of a more genuine Buddhism are extracted from orientalist materials and deployed by Hilton in ways that make the novel a carrier of quasi-Buddhist ideas.References
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Bishop, Peter. 1993. Dreams of Power: Tibetan Buddhism and the Western Imagination. London: Athlone Press.
Clarke, J. J. 1997. Oriental Enlightenment: The Encounter between Asian and Western Thought. London: Routledge.
David-Neel, Alexandra and the Lama Yongden. 1933. The Superhuman Life of Gesar of Ling, The Legendary Tibetan Hero, As Sung by the Bards of His Country, trans. V. Sydney. London: Rider.
Haggard, H. Rider. [1887] 1951. Three Adventure Novels of H. Rider Haggard: She, King Solomon’s Mines, Alan Quatermain. New York: Dover Publications.
Halbwachs, Maurice. 1980. The Collective Memory, trans. Francis J. Ditter Jr. and Vida Yazdi Ditter. New York: Harper & Row.
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Lopez, Donald S. Jr. 1998. Prisoners of Shangri-La: Tibetan Buddhism and the West. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
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Makdisi, Saree. 1998. Romantic Imperialism: Universal Empire and the Culture of Modernity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Noel, J. B. L. 1927. Through Tibet to Everest. London: Edward Arnold.
Ortner, Sherry B. 1997. ‘Thick Resistance: Death and the Cultural Construction of Agency in Himalayan Mountaineering’. Representations 59: 135–62.
Said, Edward W. 1978. Orientalism. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Said, Edward W. 1994. Culture and Imperialism. London: Vintage.
Storey, John. 2003. Inventing Popular Culture: From Folklore to Globalization. Oxford: Blackwell.
Washington, Peter. 1993. Madame Blavatsky’s Baboon: Theosophy and the Emergence of the Western Guru. London: Secker & Warburg.
Bishop, Peter. 1989. The Myth of Shangri-La: Tibet, Travel Writing and the Western Creation of Sacred Landscape. London: Athlone Press.
Bishop, Peter. 1993. Dreams of Power: Tibetan Buddhism and the Western Imagination. London: Athlone Press.
Clarke, J. J. 1997. Oriental Enlightenment: The Encounter between Asian and Western Thought. London: Routledge.
David-Neel, Alexandra and the Lama Yongden. 1933. The Superhuman Life of Gesar of Ling, The Legendary Tibetan Hero, As Sung by the Bards of His Country, trans. V. Sydney. London: Rider.
Haggard, H. Rider. [1887] 1951. Three Adventure Novels of H. Rider Haggard: She, King Solomon’s Mines, Alan Quatermain. New York: Dover Publications.
Halbwachs, Maurice. 1980. The Collective Memory, trans. Francis J. Ditter Jr. and Vida Yazdi Ditter. New York: Harper & Row.
Hansen, Peter H. 1996. ‘The Dancing Lamas of Everest: Cinema, Orientalism, and Anglo-Tibetan Relations in the 1920s’. American Historical Review 101(3): 712–47.
Hilton, James. [1933] 2005. Lost Horizon. Chichester: Summersdale.
Huc, M. 1852. Recollections of a Journey Through Tartary, Thibet, and China During the Years 1844, 1845, and 1846, A Condensed Translation by Mrs. Percy Sinnett. London: Longman, Brown, and Longmans.
Humphreys, Christmas. 1968. Sixty Years of Buddhism in Britain 1907–1967: A History and a Survey. London: The Buddhist Society.
Lopez, Donald S. Jr. 1998. Prisoners of Shangri-La: Tibetan Buddhism and the West. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
MacKenzie, John M. 1995. Orientalism: History, Theory and the Arts. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Makdisi, Saree. 1998. Romantic Imperialism: Universal Empire and the Culture of Modernity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Noel, J. B. L. 1927. Through Tibet to Everest. London: Edward Arnold.
Ortner, Sherry B. 1997. ‘Thick Resistance: Death and the Cultural Construction of Agency in Himalayan Mountaineering’. Representations 59: 135–62.
Said, Edward W. 1978. Orientalism. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Said, Edward W. 1994. Culture and Imperialism. London: Vintage.
Storey, John. 2003. Inventing Popular Culture: From Folklore to Globalization. Oxford: Blackwell.
Washington, Peter. 1993. Madame Blavatsky’s Baboon: Theosophy and the Emergence of the Western Guru. London: Secker & Warburg.
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Published
2007-05-01
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Articles
How to Cite
Normand, L. (2007). Shangri-La and History in 1930s England. Buddhist Studies Review, 24(1), 108-120. https://doi.org/10.1558/bsrv.v24i1.108
