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'

Ancient adventurers have often spoken of a mystical land of perfect harmony and eternal bliss nestled in the forbidding remoteness of the Tibetan Plateau - the

Since the 19th century, Westerners have laid siege to the Tsangpo Gorge in Tibet. The colonial British saw it as a strategic prize, 1920's botanist Frank Kingdo

A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press’s Open Access publishing program for monographs. Visit www.lum

In this "chilling picture of the brutality of Chinese repression in Tibet" ("Wall Street Journal"), Hilton relates the 1995 kidnap and disappearance of a seven-