The Way to Shambhala: A Search for the Mythical Kingdom beyond the Himalayas. Edwin Bernbaum. Anchor Books, Garden City, New York, 1980. 316 pages, black and white photographs, glossary, bibliography. $6.95.

In his remarkable study, Edwin Bernbaum charts the unchartable. This work is neither history nor myth but an intriguing mix. It is well researched and imaginative, blending lofty speculation with candid anecdotes. The author, a veteran of years of personal investigation in Nepal, with a particular interest in preserving Tibetan texts, uses the lure of Shambhala’s mystery to draw his reader into philosophical interpretations and mystical imaginings.

The Tibetan tradition of referring to Shambhala as a hidden, northern kingdom that preserves the secret teaching of Buddhism and from which a future king will come forth to destroy evil and usher in a golden age of peace and wisdom is the focus of Bernbaum’s Himalayan search: a search for experience as well as fact.

The investigation opens with a sketch map of Shambhala showing eight petal-shaped regions and the king in his central palace within rings of snow mountains, and proceeds as a quest for mystic truth, “the inner kingdom” which Shambhala symbolizes. By defining Shambhala, Bernbaum clarifies the often baffling complexity of the Buddhist universe with its multiple plateaus of wisdom and experience.

“Historically,” the learned doctrines that are believed to be preserved in Shambhala for the great golden age to come are attained in particular stages so that the seeker can “view each stage as a recapitulation in miniature of the entire path to liberation.” As the philosophical questions concerning its nature become more abstract, the search for the real Shambhala continues: perhaps it is in “the place of ice” (Khetsun Zangpo), on another planet (Chugyal Rinpoche), or obscured by the effects of karma from all but those who possess the “good eye” of awareness. The Tarim Basin of Central Asia is suggested as the region that comes closest in size and shape to Tibetan descriptions of the kingdom.

Bernbaum questions the likelihood that any country with ninety-six principalities could remain unknown in the modern age and agrees with the Dalai Lama that now the kingdom may exist only as a memory. He also states that “the Kalachakra texts may well be using a symbolic representation of an actual place for the purpose of conveying mystical insights.” We are reminded that the fourth dimension is relatively easy to conceptualize but not to visualize. In this respect, the black and white photographs, mostly by the author, are useful aids.

Among the paths along which Bernbaum guides the reader in the search for Shambhala is that of death and rebirth: a “fourth kind of journey” beyond the physical, mental or spiritual. Bernbaum’s quotations from magical guidebooks convey poetic images of extraordinary dimensions. The Knowledge-bearing Messenger by poet-prince Rinpung Ngawang Jigdag of Tibet visualizes a yogi messenger going to meet the prince’s father in Shambhala: “Then you will see, at last, the cities of Shambhala, gleaming among ranges of snow mountains like stars on the waves of the Ocean of Milk.”

Bernbaum makes a final, major point regarding the interpretation of the guidebooks and, of Shambhala itself, by saying that the quest can be made “by living our lives as journeys toward a deeper awareness of ourselves and the world around us.” The ultimate reference is to everyday existence and daily events which are given symbolic dimension through this sensitive and learned study. Bernbaum’s book recalls the traditions of James Hilton and Antoine de Saint Exupéry as well as of Giuseppe Tucci.

Ronald M. Bernier