The darker the age, the more desperate we are for illumination. This is certainly true of the tale of Shangri-La, which differs from other myths in that it's a largely modern story. In 1933, British novelist James Hilton published Lost Horizon, which became an instant hit with the public. It follows the fortunes of a group of Western travellers whose aeroplane crashes in the remote, unexplored part of the Himalayas that we now know as Tibet. The group find themselves in an earthly paradise, where materialism, modern cynicism - and the threat of war - are unknown. Despite its modernity as a popular myth, the notion of an earthly paradise beyond the Himalayas had been known to Western scholars for centuries.

越是黑暗的时代，我们越是渴望光明。香格里拉的故事确实如此，它与其他神话的不同之处在于它主要是一个现代故事。 1933年，英国小说家詹姆斯·希尔顿发表了《消失的地平线》，一炮走红。它讲述了一群西方旅行者的命运，他们的飞机坠毁在我们现在称为西藏的喜马拉雅山偏远、未开发的地区。这群人发现自己身处人间天堂，在那里，唯物主义、现代犬儒主义——以及战争的威胁——都是未知的。尽管它作为一个流行的神话具有现代性，但几个世纪以来，西方学者就知道喜马拉雅山以外的人间天堂的概念。