Abstract
In 2001, the county of Zhongdian in Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan province, was renamed Shangrila, after the monastery described in James Hilton’s 1933 novel, Lost Horizon, and in allusion to the mythical Tibetan kingdom of Shambhala. Thereafter, work began on constructing the region as an easily accessible showcase for Tibetan culture. Based on fieldwork conducted in the Shangrila Thangka Academy, this article deals with the production and commodification of Tibetan Thangka scrolls. The multiple narratives presented in this article, in parallel and sometimes contradictory ways, center around authenticity—ranging from the preservation of Tibetan culture to the propagation of Tibetan Buddhism—and function as a cultural critique of Chinese society in the reform era.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 878-907 |
| Number of pages | 30 |
| Journal | Modern China |
| Volume | 48 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jul 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© The Author(s) 2022.
Funding
The author disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was supported by The Center for the Study of Conversion and Inter-Religious Encounters at Ben Gurion University of the Negev and by the Eastern Research and Development Center at Ariel University.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Eastern Research and Development Center at Ariel University |
Keywords
- Shangrila
- Thangka scroll painting
- Tibetan Buddhism
- Yunnan