Scarce Western Regions Edition ▎Shambhala Map (Middle)
Shambhala is frequently reduced to the notion of a paradise—an inner pure land, imagined and illusory, which we conjure in our minds as a refuge from the harsh realities of the world around us. — Cited from *The Way to Shambhala* by Edwin Bernbaum (1945– ) 1906 | Source of Mysterious Materials As noted in "Shambhala Map · Part One" , German fascination with oases was intensified by Russian expeditions to the Turpan region beginning in the 1880s.
Additionally, Grünwedel was influenced by the varied interpretations of Shambhala circulating in Russia, which spread to Europe through the intellectual currents of that period.
Grünwedel's records show that he not only came into contact with the "charlatans" wandering about Europe, but also communicated extensively in Russia with those who already knew the authentic meaning of "Shambhala," Delzhi being one of them. At the same time, both the Theosophical tradition pioneered by the Russian aristocrat Helena Blavatsky (1831-1891) and the Buryat monk Delzhi (Ngawang Losang Dorje; 1854-1938), who held a political identity, exploited that seemingly vague yet still evolving concept based on their own superficial understanding of "Shambhala," and "no one delved into the original form of Shambhala.
The ceremony at the Zha Cang Monastery (གྲྭ་ཚང་དགོན་; St. Petersburg, built 1900) was held to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty. In *The Way to Shambhala*, Grünwedel states that Delzhi, on that occasion, put forward the claim that "Russia is Shambhala, and His Majesty the Tsar is the White Tara" (1913). Consequently, Delzhi's actions amounted to political propaganda.
In 1906, during the third expedition of the German "Turpan Expedition Team", Grünwedel once again held conversations with Delzhi and other monks and laypeople from northern Asia. Earlier, when he first traveled to Russia in 1902, he had already amassed extensive material—including Tibetan texts and oasis maps—through Russian scholars and the aforementioned groups.
At that time, Grünwedel traced and copied the textual and illustrated materials from the collection of the deceased monk Sherab Sengge (ཤེས་རབ་སེང་གེ་); these items constituted the bulk of the "Map of Shambhala". His true identity remains unknown to scholars today—some believe Sherab Sengge was a monk from northern Asia, while others suggest he came from Tibet and later settled there.
When Grünwedel first laid eyes on these materials—large-scale painted thangkas, tracings taken from original Tibetan paintings, plus supplementary details—he gained the impression that they supported his own theory: Shambhala's prototype might be located in Central Asia. This position, it should be noted, is at once puzzling and in keeping with certain earlier textual accounts.
Although there is a widespread belief that Manlung Guru (མན་ལུང་གུ་རུ་; 1239– ) himself never reached Shambhala, his route book (མན་ལུང་གུ་རུའི་ལམ་ཡིག་) nevertheless contains a description of its precise location. In that work, the abbot of Manlung Monastery and holder of the Kalacakra lineage states that after journeying northward from Nepal to Khotan (ལི་ཡུལ་), one arrives at the Tarim River, and the Tianshan Mountains lying to its north constitute the southern border of the kingdom of Shambhala.
11th Century | The Kingdom in a Time of Crisis In the 11th century or earlier, Buddhists confronted "The Threat from Islam", a situation that was also true across Central Asia, including the Western Regions. Later, the First Sangye Nyenpa (སངས་རྒྱས་མཉན་པ་༠༡; 1457–1519) suggested to a friend that they journey to Shambhala, only to be mocked: "Even Manlung Guru and Orgyenpa (ཨོ་རྒྱན་པ་; 1229–1309) could not reach it." Nonetheless, this Shambhala narrative reveals an artificially constructed connection between the immense Western Regions and that pure land.
By the end of the 11th century, the Kuchans (གུ་ཟན་) had seceded from the Uighur Kingdom of Qocho, pledged allegiance to the Kashgar Khan, and embraced Islam. Prior to that, starting in the mid-10th century, the Buddhist kingdom of Khotan was engaged in conflicts with the Karakhanid Khanate, prompting some of its practitioners to seek refuge in comparatively stable regions like Dunhuang.
During this period and later, a large number of scholars from across South Asia happened to enter Tibet, and the historical context described above is more or less referenced in contemporary writings. For this reason, many scholars today see that specific background as the real-world origin of the Kalacakra teachings. As John R.
Shambhala, instead of being an actual place, is more accurately viewed as the ultimate embodiment of a specific historical backdrop: the succession of Kalacakra teachings protected by Shambhala's Dharma Kings and Dharma Seed Kings, along with the attendant conception of time and allegorical practices. As Newman wrote in his book, "In the Kalacakra teachings, myth and history are intertwined and fused.
Within a philosophical framework, those who constantly search for prototypes yearn to uncover the real history that once took place in the world. Their actions become understandable under the premise that one can, without contradiction, faithfully believe these teachings originated in the Buddha's own time while also, based on a study of the references, establishing an upper limit of their emergence in the late 10th century. Thus, "Shambhala" becomes an assemblage of the imagination.
With the exception of those who entirely reject the 'Map of Shambhala,' earlier researchers have typically been inclined to assign these materials an earlier origin—say, the mid-to-late 8th century, when the Four Garrisons lay fully under Tibetan control (and where Tibetans remained long after the empire's fall), or even a date preceding that. Yet, when judged solely by the Kalacakra elements that recur throughout the 'Map of Shambhala,' such a line of reasoning appears indefensible.
The "Map of Shambhala" is probably no older than the 13th or 14th century, assuming the 11th century serves as the dividing point (see Sam Van Schaik's article). In this enigmatic set of texts about the Western Regions, Tibetan-language users wove together their readings of earlier history with the landscapes they saw around them, thereby imagining their own Shambhala—a flourishing oasis kingdom of the Dharma—by blending truth and invention.
Before turning to the subject of the final article—a detailed analysis of the visual and textual materials in the "Map of Shambhala"—another theoretical point must be clarified: the relationship between Kalacakra teachings and Manichaeism, which was also a central argument of Grünwedel in his later years. In the Western Regions, Manichaeism once exercised overwhelming discursive power, and the Uighur Khanate, followed by the Qocho Uighurs, adopted it as their state religion.
The scholarly community has a deep interest in the connection between Manichaeism and Tibet, yet the available materials—including Trisong Detsen's *Brief Compilation of Pramana* (ཚད་མ་ལས་མདོ་བཏུས་པ་)—are replete with criticism of Manichaeism (མར་མ་ནི་), accusing it of "integrating completely disparate doctrines into one." Meanwhile, when the foreign influences on the Kalacakra teachings are examined, no trace of Manichaean doctrines is detected; rather, the influences stem mainly from Hinduism and Jainism.
