Dear Alex,

> We are intrigued about this name/meme re-injection from East to West
> and back to East. There may be modern references which predate the
> book. However, is anyone aware of an earlier origin on the name? Is it
> purely fictional or derived from another term (perhaps Shambhala?).

I suspect that Shangri-la is fake Tibetan, the notion being based on or
inspired by the Tibetanized version of the myth of Shambhala. The "-la" in
Shangri-la is probably the Tibetan word for a mountain valley, but not in
the case of the "la" at the end of Shambhala.

I previously mentioned that the true location of Shambhala should be sought
in western Orissa, but the place I intended to designate is Sambhalpur
according to modern spelling. In medieval religious documents the place is
also called Sambhola or Sambalaka, located along the upper Orissan reaches
of the River Mahanadi. It is even mentioned by Ptolomy in his Geography as
Sumelpur and Sambolaka. Carefuly sifting through the evidence, one can also
hypothesize that the famed tantric land of Uddiyana / Oddiyana was the
general name for the whole of that area, with Shambhala forming the
westernmost portion. Any placing of Shambhala in Central Asia or elsewhere
is a product of the later mythologized version of Shambhala.

Best wishes,
Stephen Hodge