The Lost Utopia In Pakistan's Mountains | Road To Shangri-La | Odyssey

[Music] [Music] up in the himalayas on the northern fringes of pakistan you find some of the most intimidating high mountain peaks on earth it's why the great explorer marco polo named this place the roof of the world and below these mighty peaks by valleys untouched by modern civilization this is a world where supernatural forces and ancient mysteries control people's daily lives [Music] one valley in particular has captured the imagination of the world a place so perfect so harmonious that it brought health long life and enlightenment to all who lived there to find it i must climb rugged mountain peaks cross glaciers and snow fields as i search for the truth behind shangri-la [Music] hello i'm david adams and this is the mighty indus river it flows from high in the himalayas down across pakistan and up near its source there's supposed to be a place called shangri-la so my search starts in northern pakistan a country sandwiched between afghanistan india and china from peshawar i head north west into the hindu kush then east to the hunza valley in the heart of the himalayas peshawar is a frontier city and that's what its name means frontier town you can get anything in peshawar and i'm here to do a bit of research [Music] i'm looking for a book called lost horizon a british novel that provides the inspiration for my journey and in peshawar there's a shop that should surely stock books by british authors the london book company lost horizon is an escapist fantasy about a utopia hidden somewhere in the himalayas it was written in the 1930s by james hilton and quickly became a bestseller basically it's the story of four travelers escaping from war-torn afghanistan who get lost in the himalayas they're rescued and taken to a buddhist monastery called shangri-la there they find a modern day utopia a haven of peace and harmony a place where people live to be over 200 years old their adventure starts in a plane high over the himalayas of course there was no shangri-la hilton himself claimed it was a fictional place but with the western world on the brink of world war two people wanted to believe it and so a myth grew up maybe hilton was hiding something maybe shangri-la was inspired by a real valley somewhere down there well the only clue that james hilton gives us as to the whereabouts of shangri-la is to say that the plane flew past k2 and nanga parbat two of the highest mountains in the world after that it simply disappeared manga parbat is a tantalising landmark but for anyone who survived an airplane crash in the 1930s the chances of survival up here would have been slim [Music] they'd have had to trek through deep snow fields and treacherous glaciers they'd have had to breathe in a rarefied atmosphere at altitudes of twenty thousand feet six thousand meters or higher and then there are the crevasses deep holes below the ice ravines covered for centuries by ice and snow every footstep must be planned every footstep could be your last [Music] is the mountain that was james hilton's last connection with reality the place where the plane crash of lost horizon and the real world come together well we didn't quite make it to the viewpoint of nanga parbat the snow is getting a bit too deep and i can tell you it's very cold i'm sounding a bit funny because my mouth is freezing up this is about minus 20. this is without doubt one of the most extreme places on earth but despite these dreadful conditions people have been coming here for centuries looking for shangri-la the first was alexander the great two and a half thousand years ago his armies came in search of the fountain of youth [Music] [Music] his quest started where mine starts in the bombaret valley a remote corner of pakistan on the border of afghanistan [Music] this is the home of a remote mountain tribe called the kalash that seems a very peaceful life here before my guide juno takes me to see the living collage he takes me to see the dead this is what's left of their graveyard bones and coffins scattered by grave robbers and vandals the reason pakistan is an all muslim country and the kalash are the last surviving non-muslim minority it's very old and it's broken for a thousand years their muslim overlords have called them kafirs the non-believers as a result they are an oppressed people this desecrated graveyard just one example of their persecution these were not kalash people who took away the bones no no gods don't take islamic people yeah once 80 000 of them lived in this valley today there are barely two and a half thousand if anything the kalash look more european than pakistani there's an amazing prevalence of blue eyes and blonde hair amongst them and there may be a good reason why they say that even if alexander the great didn't find his shangri-la some of his soldiers did they stayed on and intermarried with the kalash who still carry their genes not only that but they're remarkably hospitable any visitor to this valley must drink the obligatory cup of tea thank you very much so have you heard of the name shangri-la it's called a mystical place called shangri-la the the name i know the shanghai is replaced the people saying one so do you think it's possible to find it so that's very far apart from here yeah we've got a long way to yeah then it's in the gilded side somewhere i think it's the special environment so if i'm to find shangri-la i must seek elsewhere i cannot stay long in this beautiful valley jinnah is heading south to chitral and there's an event on in town that he wants me to see but there's another more compelling reason why i must keep moving as the great snow cloud peaks glow in the alpine light they send out a chilling warning winter is approaching my search for shangri-la will be a race against time as the early snows of the himalayas threaten to cut me off and imprisoned me in this remote corner of the hindu kush every autumn the wild horsemen of northwest pakistan put their strength courage and horsemanship to the test [Music] this is a game as old as central asia itself it's called bushkazee and the object of their attention is a headless legless goat [Music] i'm in the frontier town of chitral up near the pakistan afghan border this ancient afghan game isn't for the faint-hearted once a horseman has the goat the opposition does everything in its power to get it off him which means a melee of grabbing struggling horsemen until someone makes a break [Music] as far as i can see there are few rules anything goes jenna tells me a lot of old scores are settled on the bushkhazi field [Music] pushkarzi started as a practice for warriors to pick their wounded comrades from the field of battle and new heroes are still created with every game [Music] but if i'm to find shangri-la i must keep moving [Music] the first autumn snows are already falling and there's only one road out of the chitral valley time to hit your ride we're just coming up to the lowry pass which is about 2 800 meters high about four or five months of the year it's cut off by meters of snow and that's what makes these valleys so separate from each other and why the cultures are so different because you just can't travel for many months of the year it should be open now even though it's november and the snows have started to fall but you just never know in this country if you can get through or not i've now left the hindu kush and i'm entering the himalayas proper my destination is the swat valley that's if we ever get over this pass because of the snow the road is too narrow for passing and since there's no regulation of traffic up here vehicles going up come face to face with vehicles going down and there they stop and argue eventually they managed to dig away the snow they tell me that this happens every autumn it's crazy but that's the way it is [Applause] [Music] well we made it but it was slow nearly eight hours to travel just 50 miles or 80 kilometers [Music] i'm passing through the swat valley which should by rights have had a claim to being the inspiration for shangri-la because this valley was the birthplace of tantric buddhism not that long ago there were over 1400 buddhist monasteries in this one valley alone [Music] today islam holds sway and the relics of its buddhist past have suffered accordingly this is one of the sadder realities of this part of the world this was once a buddhist civilization and these sculptures are all over the place but sadly because in islam you can't portray a deity they stone them hence all the stones around here it's uh one of the sadder things about this part of the world where once there was a peaceful buddha's face the icons of western consumerism have been pasted [Music] so how did james hilton envisage shangri-la the words of lost horizon come flooding back [Music] shangri-la was touched with mystery listening intently he could hear gongs and trumpets and also the masked whale of voices he found the traditions both buddhist and christian very reassuring the whole atmosphere was more of wisdom than of learning the high lama had skill in telepathy and powers of healing the monks have discovered the key to longevity to semi immortality [Music] 30 or so years after hilton wrote those words another group of people searching for shangri-la flocked to the swat the hippies [Music] [Applause] [Music] this was one of the stopping off points on the hippie trail leading from san francisco to kathmandu in fact the swat's always been something of a haven for foreigners a hundred years ago the british came seeking relief from bustling towns like peshawar it was they who stocked its rivers with trout [Music] my companion moambar khan has benefited from both associations he likes fish and he used to run a boarding house catering exclusively to hippies even if he didn't always approve of them woman like if woman legs is looking legs this is bad in islam when the woman here looking is also bad in islam but if you take your trouser out and you put shard trouser and when you walk now also the people put you stone or sad look this stupid man so if i was wearing short pants will they throw stones yes and they're thinking for you very bad man because like you like animals don't understand go in the street and no clothes [Music] the hippies are long gone free love and islam were never going to mix nor were the guns two valleys east of the swat is the town of bishan no one bats an eyelid here as gunfire racks the streets [Music] guns are a way of life blood feuds are an institution [Music] these inter-family intertribal battles cause thousands of deaths every year the penalties of the ancient system magnified a thousand times by the killing power of modern weapons [Music] machine guns rifles shotguns pistols all made right here despite what the labels say [Music] it says made in italy here not made in italy made in bishop they make ammunition here too it's estimated that sixty percent of all pakistani men own a gun in fact more children will learn to use a gun here then we'll finish school [Music] so a valley that makes so many deadly weapons is hardly a place of harmony and boundless peace like the hippies it's time for me to go but my next stop is hardly shangri-la either i'm about to come face to face with the supernatural at a pakistani exorcism [Music] [Applause] i'm high in the himalayas on the main road linking pakistan to china of karakoram highway each year in pakistan they hold a competition to see who's got the most beautifully painted truck trucking here is a family affair and each family takes pride in making its truck more gaudy and highly decorated than the next but there's a religious side to it too the paintings are spiritual symbols that will hopefully protect their trucks from the dangers of the road and it's in one of these mobile art galleries that i hitch a lift of the karakoram highway the highway takes me deep into the karakoram ranges a part of the himalayas which boasts some of the world's highest peaks as we drive i follow the valley of the indus in james hilton's novel lost horizon shangri-la was supposed to be somewhere near the source of this great river [Music] so in theory if i follow the indus valley i should find shangri-la at the wheel is a patan my traveling companion is also a bataan a member of another warlike tribe that lives up near the afghan border all across pakistan it's the bataans who dominate the trucking industry you are first to visit in this area yes first time i've traveled in srinagar in india and also in afghanistan but not up here not over here so do they think that if their truck is very beautiful they will get more business no this is not business this is for the for pride it's right yes but i've never seen anything like them they're wonderful trucks they're very comfortable up here too it's a good way to ride [Music] the higher we go the closer we get to the roof of the world the lofty karakoram ranges where the world's second highest peak k2 reaches over 28 000 feet that's over eight and a half thousand meters [Music] but if i want to get to my spiritual shangri-la i must abandon the truck where i'm going there are no roads as i draw closer to my destination i'm warned to be careful the locals believe powerful spirits fairies live on the snow line keeping on the right side of these fairy spirits is very important indeed this is a superstitious world this man is believed to be the subject of a curse he's not responding to conventional doctor's treatment he's feverish and his body's wracked with pain it's hoped he can locate the cause of the problem juniper leaves juniper smoke and deep breathing induces a trance [Music] [Music] this seems almost theatrical not real but it's not to be taken lightly [Music] people here have an unshakable faith in the supernatural those who believe themselves to be cursed often die [Music] [Music] foreign all at once the shaman runs outside at first i admit i suspect a trick but the ground is undisturbed [Music] i watch carefully how does he know to dig here obviously the shaman thinks there's something here causing the old man's disease and then he finds it a piece of skull wrapped in a rag an evil spell placed by an enemy a curse [Music] you [Music] but the trance isn't over he continues his communion with the spirit world until totally exhausted he faints i was told that a few days later the old man started to show signs of recovery [Music] as for the shaman his job isn't over yet tomorrow in an extraordinary public seance he becomes a prophet for the whole village maybe through his otherworldly contacts he can help me find my shangri-la [Applause] much of pakistan is islamic in the extreme but up here in the country's far north villages still often commune with the supernatural today the shaman uses his spiritual powers to establish contact with the dreaded mountain spirits he's trying to find out what they have in store for the village for the rest of the year once more the juniper smoke does its work inducing a deep trance in the shaman who's now hallucinating in his ecstasy he translates the fairy prophecy if he looks sad the news is bad if he looks happy the news is good fortunately for the villagers he looks happy [Music] at pagan rituals like this they slaughter a goat and in a macabre twist the shaman grabs it here the blood of a goat's head is said to be fairy milk [Music] i had half a mind to ask the fairies through the shaman if they could help me find shangri-la but i guess this was their reply [Music] the trance lifts the shame and leaves his fairy world and is back in the world of reality and totally exhausted his party may be over but it's only just starting for the villagers as he washes the blood from his face they celebrate the fairy message it'll be a good season and a prosperous year for the farmers of this valley [Music] as for me i have an appointment further up the karakoram highway towards the chinese border my destination gilgit [Music] let's go [Music] gilgat is a town little known outside pakistan however to the locals it's known as the home of a game which has become associated throughout the world with the rich and famous polo oh i know i know i'm just uh i like to get a horse to know me before i get on him he smells me and he knows me that's good but you don't have to be rich to play polo and gilgat you just have to be a good rider and while i've ridden horses all my life i've never played polo [Music] actually the game had its origins in persia but it was gilgat that gave it its name polo means ball in the local language and hitting apollo isn't easy [Music] back in the days of the raj when the british army was here the cavalry officers were captivated by this game that's how polo travel to england and then on to the rest of the world [Applause] but it just doesn't seem to be my game and it didn't get any better these guys are just brilliant riders [Music] well at least i got to hit the ball once well i can't say i've done anything like this most fantastic game just i'm really bad at i tell my companions why i'm here to search for the lost valley of shangri-la they tell me that they of a crashed plane near a town called skardu maybe it's the one that inspired james hilton according to hilton's novel lost horizon shangri-la was supposed to be near the headwaters of the indus river it's also supposed to be somewhere not too far from the mountain nanga parbat that makes scadu a candidate [Music] but this hardly looks like paradise on earth the upper indus valley is one of the most barren places i've ever seen it's also kashmir disputed territory land claimed by both india and a pakistan zone is an unlikely setting for shangri-la but it's here alright it's a 1970s theme resort and it's where i'm staying as we drive closer there's the remains of the crash plane i was told about the buildings have a buddhist air about them but closer inspection reveals that my journey is far from over an out-of-season tourist facility cashing in on the lost horizon myth might be someone's idea of shangri-la but it's hardly mine [Music] mind you the lake does lend an air of peace and after 10 days on the road this tea is wonderfully therapeutic [Music] and as this commercial shangri-la works its relaxing charms i plan the last leg of my journey tomorrow i travel to the hunza valley a place where people live to be well over a hundred years old and where i find my own private shangri-la [Music] hidden deep in north pakistan not far from the world's second highest peak k2 is skardu this remote town is a mecca for climates this is where they hire camping and rock climbing equipment before attempting some of the world's highest mountains and it's not far from here that i hope to find the inspiration for the mythical valley of shangri-la i've traveled more than 500 miles from peshawar on the pakistan afghan border from skardu i head north towards the chinese border where i enter the hunza valley but first a game that's penetrated the remotest corners of the old british empire cricket [Applause] the crew and i are challenged to a match australia versus pakistan and it's not long before they have us on the ropes [Music] back in the days when the british army ruled india and what's now pakistan this was literally the ends of the earth or the earth as the british knew it some 70 years ago [Music] below this fort's walls was the known world cities order civilization beyond was the great unknown the setting for james hilton's lost horizon [Music] well as you can see this ford commands quite a presence over the valley these were actually the the last bastions of the british beyond here it was unknown and when james hilton wrote his book in the 1930s if anybody traveled even this far it was eminently possible that a place like shangri-la could exist because no one knew what lay beyond so if i'm to find the place that provided james hilton's inspiration i must enter this great beyond the hansa valley is on the other side of these ranges the roads are rocky and few people pass this way or certainly the way i'm going [Music] and as i enter the valley i immediately get a sense of the timelessness i'm looking for [Music] so what other clues are there it's beautiful and there's an air of peace to it there's also a great many old people in fact the hunza is legendary for its healthy old population [Music] it's said that up here people regularly live well past 100 years of age if not older but if this is the valley of shangri-la there must be a buddhist monastery and there it is at the head of the valley sits a building with a distinctly buddhist look a building that fits the description of shangri-la better than any i'd seen anywhere in the himalayas seeing it first it was indeed a strange and half-incredible sight a group of pavilions clung to the mountainside with the chance delicacy of flower petals impaled upon a crag an austere emotion carried the eye upward to the gray rock bastion above under the pavilion-like features of this ancient building i enter unsure as to what i'll find is this a place of enlightenment could it be a place that once entered you never want to leave i sense i'm alone and then again i'm not sure as i traveled through the narrow corridors and caught glimpses of vistas that showed how beautiful the valley was i felt that it may well be the place that inspired shangri-la in the book the travelers who finally arrived at shangri-la always had a sense that they were being watched that the monks and other residents never had more than a faint physical presence as i wander the corridors and rooms of this strange deserted building i too get a faint sense of the people who once lived here history relates this fort was built in the 15th century by a family that ruled the hunza when a daughter got married craftsmen came here from tibet to create the beautiful building seen today so perhaps that explains this building that's more forth than monastery but the question remains was this the inspiration for james hilton's fantasy called shangri-la [Music] as i read on the terrace above the valley as if by magic the answer appears ejaz is the custodian of this building he's lived in the hanza all his life if anyone knows of its links to the shangri-la myth surely he does before the arrival of british this was a independent kingdom finally the british were feeling of a possible russian movement through this valley down to india that is why we had a battle with british troops in december 1891. and so what happened after the british came did it did it change no until 1938 probably this was the time when james hilton the writer of so you think he came here i suppose he came here so this might have been what he this design shangri-laras this might have been an inspiration for writing his famous novel yeah the jazz may believe that james hilton could have come here but i'm not so sure though it doesn't matter either way [Music] i set out on this journey knowing shangri-la was the invention of a master storyteller and it does no harm to believe that heaven could exist on earth [Music] james hilton believed each of us needed a place like shangri-la to escape to even if only in our imagination a place of hope a safe haven from the riggers of the world [Music] so for me this has been as much a search for inner happiness as it's been an external journey to find shangri-la my heaven at the ends of the earth [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Odyssey - Ancient History Documentaries

Views: 167,622

Keywords: ancient history, classical history, ancient civilisations, classical antiquity, history documentary, classical documentary, shangri la, lost worlds, lost cities, ancient utopia, mountain paradise, heaven on earth, david adams, pakistans himalayas, pakistan city, asian utopia, lost horizon, Odyssey, odyssey

Id: Xrpo1_GQp04

Length: 50min 18sec (3018 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 16 2021