The Mountaineering Museum and KEEN Footwear presents:

Secrets of Shangrila with Brot Coburn: 7:00PM (Museum Reception @ 5:30)

All Speakers Series events are $3 for AAC/CMC Members & Students, $5 for non-members, free to Friends of The Museum and AAC Library and open to the public. Tickets will become available online, and will be sold at the door. 

Since the fifth century, when a Chinese poet wrote of a hidden utopia for faithful Buddhists, people have fantasized about those magical places where people live long lives in health and harmony—and adventurers have sought to find them.

In 2007 Brot Coburn, Harvard grad and author and editor of seven books (2 national best sellers), is the premiere authority on the culture and environment of the Himalaya. Two of his books became national best sellers and he has lived and worked in the Himilaya for two of the past 3 decades. Coburn joined forces with fellow climber Peter Athans to explore a series of caves in the remote Himalayan kingdom of Mustang, an area that had previously been off-limits to outsiders.

In a subterranean chamber, 14,000 feet up, they found a gigantic 55-panel mural from the 13th century depicting important Buddhist sages and 11th century Tibetan manuscripts, suggesting a gathering place for a large religious community—perhaps the sort of meditative, self-sufficient community that inspired the myth of Shangri-la.

Coburn and Athans returned in 2008 with a multidisciplinary team to properly document, study, and begin to preserve the treasures. Join us as Coburn shares images, stories and video from this remarkable Tibetan site that is shedding light on the spread of Buddhism through the Himalaya.

Sponsored by: KEEN Footwear, and The Golden Hotel