Shambhala

<p >In&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibetan_Buddhism" title="Tibetan Buddhism" >Tibetan Buddhist</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinduism" title="Hinduism" >Hindu</a>&nbsp;traditions,&nbsp;<b>Shambhala</b>&nbsp;(also spelled&nbsp;<b>Shambala</b>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<b>Shamballa</b>;&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanskrit_language" title="Sanskrit language" class="mw-redirect" >Sanskrit</a>:&nbsp;शंभाल;&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Tibetan" title="Standard Tibetan" >Tibetan</a>: བདེ་འབྱུང་;&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wylie_transliteration" title="Wylie transliteration" >Wylie</a>:&nbsp;<i>bde 'byung</i>, pron. de-jung;&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_language" title="Chinese language" >Chinese</a>:&nbsp;香巴拉;&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinyin" title="Pinyin" >pinyin</a>:&nbsp;<i>xiāngbālā</i>) is a&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monarchy" title="Monarchy" >kingdom</a>&nbsp;hidden somewhere in&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inner_Asia" title="Inner Asia" >Inner Asia</a>. It is mentioned in various ancient texts, including the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalachakra" title="Kalachakra" >Kalachakra Tantra</a><sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shambhala#cite_note-2" >[2]</a></sup>&nbsp;and the ancient texts of the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhang_Zhung" title="Zhang Zhung" class="mw-redirect" >Zhang Zhung</a>&nbsp;culture which predated Tibetan Buddhism in western&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibet" title="Tibet" >Tibet</a>. The&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%B6n" title="Bön" class="mw-redirect" >Bön</a><sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shambhala#cite_note-3" >[3]</a></sup>&nbsp;scriptures speak of a closely related land called&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tagzig_Olmo_Lung_Ring" title="Tagzig Olmo Lung Ring" >Olmolungring</a>.

<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinduism" title="Hinduism" >Hindu</a>&nbsp;texts such as&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishnu_Purana" title="Vishnu Purana" >Vishnu Purana</a>&nbsp;(4.24) mention the village Shambhala as the birthplace of&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalki" title="Kalki" >Kalki</a>, the final incarnation of&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishnu" title="Vishnu" >Vishnu</a>&nbsp;who will usher in a new Golden Age (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satya_Yuga" title="Satya Yuga" >Satya Yuga</a>).<sup id="cite_ref-Hindu_4-0" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shambhala#cite_note-Hindu-4" >[4]</a></sup>

Whatever its historical basis, Shambhala gradually came to be seen as a Buddhist&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pure_Land" title="Pure Land" class="mw-redirect" >Pure Land</a>, a fabulous kingdom whose reality is visionary or spiritual as much as physical or geographic. It was in this form that the Shambhala myth reached the Western Europe and the Americas, where it influenced non-Buddhist as well as Buddhist spiritual seekers — and, to some extent, popular culture in general.</p>