To the Western imagination Tibet evokes exoticism mysticism and wonder: a fabled land
removed from the grinding onslaught of modernity spiritually endowed with all that the West
has lost. Originally published in 1998 Prisoners of Shangri-La provided the first cultural
history of the strange encounter between Tibetan Buddhism and the West. Donald Lopez reveals
here fanciful misconceptions of Tibetan life and religion. He examines among much else the
politics of the term Lamaism a pejorative synonym for Tibetan Buddhism the various
theosophical psychedelic and New Age purposes served by the so-called Tibetan Book of the
Dead and the unexpected history of the most famous of all Tibetan mantras om mani padme hum.
More than pop-culture anomalies these versions of Tibet are often embedded in scholarly
sources constituting an odd union of the popular and the academic of fancy and fact. Upon its
original publication Prisoners of Shangri-La sent shockwaves through the field of Tibetan
studies--hailed as a timely provocative and courageous critique. Twenty years hence the
situation in Tibet has only grown more troubled and complex--with the unrest of 2008 the
demolition of the dwellings of thousands of monks and nuns at Larung Gar in 2016 and the
scores of self-immolations committed by Tibetans to protest the Dalai Lama's exile. In his new
preface to this anniversary edition Lopez returns to the metaphors of prison and paradise to
illuminate the state of Tibetan Buddhism--both in exile and in Tibet--as monks and nuns still
seek to find a way home. Prisoners of Shangri-La remains a timely and vital inquiry into
Western fantasies of Tibet.
