Shambhala, the spiritual Buddhist kingdom

Holly Gary, grunge.com, Aug. 2, 2022; Pat Macpherson (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

Helena Roerich translated The Secret Doctrine by Madame Blavatsky (Atlas Obscura).

.

Inside the story behind Shambhala, the spiritual Buddhist kingdom that was never discovered

Madame Blavatsky and Theosophists in Asia

It may be part of human nature to imagine there's a place out there free from strife and full of knowledge. Certainly, more than one culture has this concept.

One such place is the Buddhist Kingdom of Shambhala in Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain mythology.

Shambhala is Sanskrit and means "place of peace" or "place of silence" (IndiaDivine.org). This myth dates back more than a thousand years and varies depending on the source.

However, Buddhists, Hindus, and Jains agree that Shambhala is both a physical and a spiritual place (Atlas Obscura). While there is debate on where the physical Shambhala is located, according to ThoughtCo., it is between the Himalayan mountains and the Gobi Desert.

All the citizens of Shambhala have achieved enlightenment, so it represents a Buddhist ideal. The tantalizing myth of Shambhala has led quite a few people into the Himalayas to try to find it. It has attracted the attention of everyone from hippies and spiritualists to Christian missionaries to the NAZIs and Soviets.

In the 1920s, a Russian couple named Nicholas and Helena Roerich made one such expedition. They had escaped Russia just before the revolution of 1917 and were living in the United States.

Helena Roerich (pictured above) had translated The Secret Doctrine by Madame Helena Blavatsky, a Russian spiritualist (Atlas Obscura).

The book mentioned Shambhala, claiming that finding it was a shortcut to enlightenment. The Roerichs began to seriously believe in Shambhala, and Helena Roerich claimed to have received a message from an otherworldly being telling her to go there. More