Virtual Tibet: Searching for Shangri-La from the Himalayas to
Hollywood
Review
by : Li
Rapkin
Written
by : Orville Schell
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Anyone
with a sense of irony should appreciate the fact that the
best recent nonfiction book about Tibet for a non-academic
audience is about a Tibet that never existed.
Westerners
have been fascinated by the idea of “mysterious Tibet” since
the Middle Ages. Everyone from Marco Polo to Frank Capra has
presented an idealized version of an idyllic, tranquil paradise,
hidden away for centuries and closed to foreigners. Consequently,
all kinds of foreigners have, through the centuries, been
doing whatever it takes to sneak into to Tibet and see the
sites. In the 1990s, Tibetan Buddhism was the latest trend
in Hollywood, and Tibetan Independence was the cause du
jour. Schell’s book is more about traveling to the set
of Seven Years in Tibet, in search of an interview
with Brad Pitt, than Tibet. Schell discusses his trip to Austria
to meet Heinrich Harrer (who wrote the book Seven Years
in Tibet) and relates his bizarre interview with Steven
Segal, a man who has obviously been believing his own PR for
way too long.
In a nutshell,
this is not a warm and fuzzy New Age book about how wonderful
Tibet is. This is really a history of a medieval myth changed
into the twentieth century Hollywood fantasy that brought
us Seven Years in Tibet and Kundun from Argentina
and Morocco, respectively, and has turned the Dalai Lama into
a superstar. The book discusses the development of Tibet mythology
from reports by the first Renaissance missionaries, through
the Anglo-Russian “Great Game” and Frank Capra’s Lost Horizon,
to China’s propaganda war against Disney over Kundun.
During
the 1990s, when everyone else was studying Tibetan Buddhism
at the local dharma center with genuine Buddhist monks, I
was in graduate school, studying the history and culture of
Mongolia, Tibet, and Central Asia with genuine professors.
Consequently, I probably had a completely different experience
reading this book than most people. However, you don’t need
an academic background to enjoy Virtual Tibet, because
it’s really about Western pop culture. I highly recommended
it, especially for New Age types who need a good dose of disillusionment.
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