Pilgrimage to Shambhala

Author: Sun Xiaoru
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-01-01
Features: A girl with lofty ambitions stands outside the U.S. Consulate, waiting to obtain a visa to the United States. At that time, her greatest wish was to study directing at the Film School of the University of Southern California in the U.S. However, she did not get the visa. When she returned to her hotel, the Chengdu Transportation Hotel, she met Steven Dantzen, an American adventure photographer. He told her that he had already hired an adventure guide to travel to Tibet, taking photos along the way. The girl was instantly excited because Tibet was also a place she had long dreamed of visiting. When opportunity knocks, there’s no need to knock twice. A teenage girl has the right to dream of all kinds of things. She hoped to join the trip. Steven readily agreed, and the adventure guide, a capable young man from Chengdu, also agreed and said he would not charge her for his services. And so, the three of them set off on the journey to Lhasa. They traveled by long-distance buses and hitchhiked, from Chengdu to Luding, from Luding to Kangding, from Kangding to Luhuo, Ganzi, Shiqu, then to Xiexu, Qinghai Lake, Dulan, and in Qinghai, before crossing the Tanggula Pass and entering Tibet, and finally arriving in Lhasa. Along the way, there were songs and laughter, thrilling adventures, life-and-death tests, and the love and understanding that flowed between men and women, as well as shared hardships and life-and-death bonds. Of course, the subtleties between a woman and two men occasionally emerged, like the intermittent geysers on the plateau. But the brightness and vastness of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau diluted these. They set off with songs, admiring the breathtaking scenery along the way, and witnessed firsthand the unique wisdom and beauty of the Tibetan people. Three years later, the girl, now a graduate student in the Directing Department of the Beijing Film Academy, wrote this experience into the book Pilgrimage to Shambhala, which is now published by Sichuan Literature and Art Press. It is also part of the "Literary Gallery Series" edited by Luo Yunxi and Jin Ping. The book is accompanied by one hundred and one exquisite color and black-and-white photographs. A twenty-episode television drama with the same title is also in the works.