Beyond Shangri-La chronicles relations between the Tibetans and the United States since 1908, when a Dalai Lama first met with U.S. representatives. What was initially a distant alliance became more intimate and entangled in the late 1950s, when the Tibetan people launched an armed resistance movement against the Chinese occupiers. The Tibetans fought to oust the Chinese and to maintain the presence of the current Dalai Lama and his direction of their country. In 1958, John Kenneth Knaus volunteered to serve in a major CIA program to support the Tibetans. For the next seven years, as an operations officer working from India, from Colorado, and from Washington, D.C., he cooperated with the Tibetan rebels as they utilized American assistance to contest Chinese domination and to attain international recognition as an independent entity. Since the late 1950s, the rugged resolve of the Dalai Lama and his people and the growing respect for their efforts to free their homeland from Chinese occupation have made Tibet's political and cultural status a pressing issue in international affairs. So has the realization by nations, including the United States, that their geopolitical interests would best be served by the defeat of the Chinese and the achievement of Tibetan self-determination. Beyond Shangri-La provides unique insight into the efforts of the U.S. government and committed U.S. citizens to support a free Tibet.

Appealing to the adventure traveler or armchair reader who simply wishes to browse and dream, this guide promises to lead them into the glorious reality and breathtaking landscapes of the Himalayas.

A chronicle of a kayak team's quest to make the first descent through the dangerous Tsangpo Gorge describes how the four expert members of the team took on an adventure that ended in tragedy.

A few hundred years in the future, humans live in a space station far from Earth governed by a cultured multinational corporation. On the surface, everyone seems to be satisfied with this "perfect society" and they are set on pushing their own limitations to become equal to gods. They are near to setting up a program aimed at creating life from scratch on Shangri-La, one of the most hospitable regions of Titan, where they intend to rewrite "Genesis" in their own way. But as tends to happen, mankind's hubris gets in the way... Spanning a period of a thousand years, this science fiction epic begins after mankind has abandoned earth to live in space stations run by corporate governments. After an introductory sequence amidst the ruins of Earth, it leaps from our desolated planet into this firmly established future, where life is good and all needs are met. But that longevity isn't enough, and science is ready to use its genetic knowledge to breed the next generation of humans for colonization. Far from being just another science fiction adventure, author Mathieu Bablet uses this scenario to observe and comment on many core qualities that mankind can't seem to outgrow: consumerism, jealousy, distrust, entitlement, ambition, curiosity, and - ultimately - violence. Through a cinematic visual style and dramatic pacing, this book proves to be much weightier and thought-provoking than even its 220-page length would suggest.

Somewhere, beyond Tibet, lies a paradise of universal wisdom and ineffable peace known as Shambhala. Called by some Shangri-la, this mythical kingdom of jewel lakes, wish-fulfilling trees, and speaking stones has fired the imagination of both actual explorers and travelers to the inner realms. This fascinating look behind the myth shows Shambhala to be a "real" place, always accessible to the pure of heart.

At 57, Gary Ingber walks away from the software company he founded to pursue a childhood dream of climbing the Himalayas and searching for a mythical Shangri-La.

“A lost world, man-eating tribesmen, lush andimpenetrable jungles, stranded American fliers (one of them a dame withgreat gams, for heaven's sake), a startling rescue mission. . . . This is atrue story made in heaven for a writer as talented as Mitchell Zuckoff. Whew—what an utterly compelling and deeplysatisfying read!" —Simon Winchester, author of Atlantic Award-winning former Boston Globe reporter Mitchell Zuckoffunleashes the exhilarating, untold story of an extraordinary World War IIrescue mission, where a plane crash in the South Pacific plunged a trio of U.S.military personnel into a land that time forgot. Fans of Hampton Sides’ Ghost Soldiers, Marcus Luttrell’s Lone Survivor, and David Grann’s The Lost Cityof Z will be captivated by Zuckoff’s masterfullyrecounted, all-true story of danger, daring, determination, and discovery injungle-clad New Guinea during the final days of WWII.

The idea of a hidden refuge, a paradise far from the stresses of modern life, has universal appeal. In 1932 the writer James Hilton coined the word 'Shangri-La' to describe such a place, when he gave that name to a hidden valley in the Himalayas in his novel LOST HORIZON. In THE SEARCH FOR SHANGRI-LA acclaimed traveller and writer Charles Allen explores the myth behind the story. He tracks down the sources that Hilton drew upon in writing his popular romance, and then sets out to discover what lies behind the legend that inspired him. In the course of a lively and amusing account of his four journeys into Tibet, Allen also gives us a controversial new reading of the country's early history, shattering our notions of Tibet as a Buddhist paradise and restoring the mysterious pre-Buddhist religion of Bon to its rightful place in Tibetan culture. He also locates the lost kingdom of Shang-shung and, in doing so, the original Shangri-La itself: in an astounding gorge beyond the Himalayas, full of extraordinary ruins.