Few people at least once in their life have not heard of Shambhala - a mysterious place located somewhere in Asia. In the minds of modern man, this is something akin to Atlantis and Lemuria: concepts from the field of fantasy and mystification. But the confidence that Shambhala does not exist in the world is absolutely the same as the statements about its reality. Many researchers studied this issue and contributed to understanding the nature of the origin of the concept of Shambhala. So what is mysterious Shambhala: myth or reality?
WHAT IS SHAMBALA
In the book of A. I. Klizovsky's "Fundamentals of Understanding a New Era" is the phrase: "Shambhala is the most sacred word in Asia, which embodies all the best human expectations and aspirations. This is the era, the doctrine, and the area. " And in fact, this is true. Shambhala as a country is mentioned in both Hindu and Buddhist scriptures. In both religions, this country at a certain time will become the birthplace of a new messiah, the one who will establish "heaven on Earth". In the folk legends of Tibet and the Himalayas, divine order already reigns on the territory of Shambhala. Buddhists, Hindus and shamans believe that the world of Shambhala exists simultaneously on the physical and spiritual levels.
The first mention of Shambhala appears in the Kalachakra Tantra. According to legend, this text belongs to the 10th century, and its author is the king of Shambhala Suchandra, who visited ancient India, where the Kalachakra teachings were transmitted to him from Buddha Shakyamuni. After in the IX century. Muslims invaded Central Asia, the state of Shambhala, by the will of the deities, became invisible to most people, and only the spiritually enlightened can find the way there.
After listening to tantra, the king returned to Shambhala, wrote an extensive exposition of it, and proclaimed the Kalachakra teachings as the state religion. Kingdom of Shambhala
became the keeper of the Kalachakra commentaries and the guarantor of the preservation of this Buddhist teaching. From Shambhala, after a long period of maintaining this tradition in this kingdom, the Kalachakra Tantra in 966-967. returned to India and in 1026-1027. penetrated into Tibet. Therefore, the Kalachakra teaching is inextricably linked with Shambhala. Scientists - orientalists regard Shambhala as an ancient Himalayan kingdom that really existed in the past.
There are different versions of the location of this paradise.
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According to the interpretation of the Tibetologist Bronislav Kuznetsov (1931-1985) and the orientalist Lev Gumilyov (1912-1992), an ancient Tibetan map of the Iranian-Tibetan cartographic tradition, including Shambhala, published in the Tibetan-Shanshung dictionary, depicts a real country. The author of the original map reflected on it the era of the domination of Syria, led by the Macedonian conquerors. Syria in Persian is called Sham, and the word "bolo" means "top", "surface". Consequently, Shambhala is translated as "the rule of Syria", which was true in the period III-II centuries BC. eh
WHERE IS SHAMBALA
The Encyclopedia of Mystical Terms states that Shambhala is located north of the Sita River, surrounded by eight snowy mountains resembling lotus petals.
The spiritual leader of Tibet, the XIV Dalai Lama, gives the following definition: "Shambhala is a place located somewhere on this planet, but always in a mountainous area."
Helena Blavatsky, a religious philosopher of the theosophical direction, believed that Shambhala was located somewhere in the Gobi Desert.
Tibetan texts say that Shambhala is a spiritual country and is located in the northwest of the sacred Mount Kailash. Mount Kailash (Kailash) is considered the center of the World, the Universe and the most energetically strong place on Earth. The top of Mount Kailash still remains unconquered, no one has been able to climb to the top. In the sacred scriptures of Bon, the religion of the Tibetans, it is said that no one will ever rise to its top to learn the secret.
Altai shamans say that in the Yarlu valley - "the valley of the edelweiss" there is the northern entrance to Shambhala, the southern one is located in the Himalayas, in the valley of the Brahmaputra river.
Most Buddhists speak of Shambhala in symbolic terms, considering it a reflection of a spiritually enlightened consciousness, and not a real geographical object.
In any case, according to legend, the path to the fairyland is open only to those who are pure in soul and ready to get to heavenly place. According to the Tibetans, Shambhala is the refuge of the gods and the enlightened ones - a kind of supermen endowed with special knowledge. It was the role of Shambhala as a pure land that conquered the hearts of the inhabitants of Central Asia to the greatest extent. In the minds of both the most experienced yogis and simple shepherds, Shambhala remains the most excellent place where people with a pure heart and positive karma can be born again in happiness and enlightenment. It is believed that Shambhala is the center of the world in its center is a source or a kind of crystal or substance that invests life in everything on earth.
The legend of the earthly Paradise disguised in the Himalayas in 1627 was brought to the West by two Jesuit missionaries, Joac Cabrol and Estevar Casella, who tried to spread the teachings of Christ in Bhutan.
WHO LOOKED FOR SHAMBALA
Many attempts were made to find Shambhala.. Since the 15th-16th centuries, numerous travelers and expeditions tried to find it.
A special role in the dissemination of modern ideas about Shambhala belongs to
N. Roerich, who wrote in his numerous publications that: “Shambhala is the most sacred word in Asia. The most unique phenomenon on our planet”. Roerich and his wife Elena were so imbued with the idea of finding the wonderful city of Shambhala that they decided to conduct an expedition to the Altai Mountains, the Himalayas and Tibet. It lasted five years (1924-1928) during which 25,000 kilometers were covered. The Roerichs' expedition to find Shambhala, in addition to research tasks, was supposed to spy on British and French activities in this area. The Roerichs were supported by one of the leaders of the NKVD of the USSR Gleb Bokiy. Nikolai and Elena were wary of the Bolsheviks and left Russia shortly before the revolution, moving to the United States. However, they needed help. However, the expedition flew under the American flag.
In search of Shambhala, 35 mountain passes were passed, the Gobi desert was crossed. Participants overcame extreme weather conditions, resistance from local rebels, armed bandits and poisonous grass that killed all horses. The closer they got to the hidden city, the more confusing the travel notes became. In his diary, Nicholas Roerich begins to build schedules of travel to another, parallel world. The expedition is increasingly registering strange phenomena, fires and lights over the camp. Nicholas Roerich stated that he personally heard countless stories about Shambhala from the inhabitants of Tibet. The essay “Shining Shambhala” contains the basic information about Shambhala known to N. Roerich. He also had a Kalachakra Tantra manuscript, which is believed to have appeared in Shambhala. The Soviet government, through Nicholas Roerich, hoped to enlist the support and power of Shambhala.
The chairman of the Cheka Felix Dzerzhinsky and the Soviet intelligence officer, the Chekist Yakov Blumkin were also looking for the higher knowledge of Shambhala, which they wanted to use to improve socialism. It must be admitted that Dzerzhinsky was skeptical about the idea of searching. For all his revolutionary romanticism, he was a realist and skeptic. Only the argument that by organizing an expedition to the Himalayas, it was possible to explore ways to further expand the revolution, was able to convince Dzerzhinsky of its necessity. Blumkin already had the experience of traveling to the East. Any documents, and, most importantly, Blumkin's report on the expedition, if preserved, are still classified. However, there is a number of indirect evidences that the expedition was successful. And first of all, this is Roerich's testimony. For example,in his book "Altai - Himalayas" the artist describes in some detail his meeting with the "Mongolian Lama", in which he only eventually recognized the emissary of Moscow.
The lama, under whose guise Blumkin entered Asia, proved to be not only a good and intelligent interlocutor, familiar with Moscow friends of Nicholas Roerich, but also a rather experienced traveler, which was especially valuable for Roerich's expedition. He carried out engineering studies of the area, specified the length of individual sections of the route, recorded the characteristics of bridges and fords across mountain rivers. But Roerich's notes end at the day of the beginning of the ascent to the mountain monasteries of Tibet.
Fascists were also looking for Shambala. WHAT FOR?
The fact that the Soviet expedition was effective is evidenced by the fact that it was after it that the German Nazis began searching for the mystical Shambhala.
For fifteen years, on the personal order of the Fuhrer, the SS expedition was looking for the legendary Shambhala in Tibet. The materials of these expeditions have not yet been declassified. The governments of Germany, Great Britain and the United States have announced that they are supposed to open the secret files only in 2044.
At the end of 1930, even before the Nazis came to power, an expedition of five people went to the Himalayas, including the young Indian Raja and Wilhelm Bayer. The expedition returned to Germany only at the end of 1934. Shambhala was never found, but Bayer brought back a very ancient Sanskrit manuscript. The manuscript contained information about the history of the Earth. It said that 20-30 thousand years before the birth of Christ, aliens from another star system arrived on our planet. According to a number of researchers, the information contained in the manuscript was used by the Third Reich to create discs, far ahead of the design thought of the twentieth century. After the defeat of Germany, their blueprints and models were destroyed. But there are several photographs of strange cockpit discs. If not for the swastika on board the device,hovering a meter from the ground next to a group of fascist officers, he could easily pass for a UFO.
Another expedition was sent to the Himalayas in 1931. Its goal was the Nepalese monasteries, sheltered in the inaccessible mountain valleys. Contact with Shambhala, however, did not take place, but many ancient manuscripts, stuffed animals unknown in Europe and collections of plants were brought to Germany. The main artifact was the 17th century manuscript "The Road of Shambhala". It contained a list of sacred places that must be passed to get to the legendary country. Reports on the results of the expeditions were sent directly to Reichfuehrer Himmler and instructions on the next tasks were received from him.
Particularly interesting results were obtained during the 1938 expedition. Not only were most of the monasteries mentioned in the "Road of Shambhala" passed through, but unique films about secret Buddhist rituals were also shot.
On November 28, 1942, shortly after the German army was surrounded in the Stalingrad area, and after the defeat of the Wehrmacht divisions in Africa, Himmler visited Hitler. Himmler proposed to urgently send to Tibet a detachment of experienced climbers - SS officers who were supposed to find Shambhala. The project handed over to the Fuehrer also contained a map obtained as a result of previous expeditions, which indicated the approximate location of Shambhala. Himmler convinced Hitler that with the help of the mysterious, omnipotent inhabitants of Shambhala, history could be turned back and victory.
In January 1943, in an atmosphere of strict secrecy, five people left Berlin for Tibet, led by a professional mountaineer from Austria, Heinrich Harrer. This was the last attempt to find Shambhala: in May the entire company was arrested in British India and imprisoned. Heinrich Harrer made four escapes in a year. The latter was crowned with success. Harrer wandered around Tibet in search of Shambhala for five whole years and only accidentally learned from an Indian merchant he met in the mountains that Germany had surrendered and the war was over.
In 1948, Harrer arrived in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa. After a three-year stay at the court of the Dalai Lama, he returned to Austria in 1951 with a huge archive. But the scientists failed to get acquainted with it: the archive was immediately confiscated by the British. Later, the climber released a book of memoirs "Seven Years in Tibet", which became famous only many years later, when it was filmed with Hollywood star Brad Pitt. By the time some of Himmler's reports fell into the hands of the newspapermen, Harrer had already died, without officially admitting that he had been sent to Tibet by the government of Nazi Germany. As for his archive, the British authorities refuse to declassify it.
WHAT'S IN THE TOTAL
In folk tales and in the books of many travelers, you can find references to the fact that, accidentally approaching the reserved boundaries of the sacred land, people and animals experienced a strange tremor, as if receiving the blows of these invisible rays. In these areas, both caravan animals and people involuntarily stopped, and no force could force them to continue their journey beyond the outlined sacred boundaries. Sources also say that local guides refuse to guide travelers in some directions. They would rather let themselves be killed than lead anyone further. This is due to the fact that the guides are under the psychological influence of the forces protecting the entrance to the magical city. But if the brave traveler still dares to follow the "reserved" path, he will still be stopped by landslides and rockfalls,because the uninvited must not reach the abode.
So Shambhala today remains a mystery, which all aspiring to power are eager to solve. For the sake of fairness, it should be noted that when returning to the consideration of the primary sources, it turns out that most of the modern definitions of Shambhala are simply not contained in them. In modern retellings, a noticeable transformation of the Shambhala myth has taken place. The place that gave Hindus and Buddhists their religious teachings, at some point in time, became a cherished source of powerful mysterious knowledge. But as the 14th Dalai Lama said: "If so many Kalachakra texts come from Shambhala, how can a country be only a fantasy?"
