The magazine of the art-form of the photo-essay “A free, really high quality photo-essay magazine.  Fabulous!” Stephen Fry. British actor, writer and film & documentary maker Aug 2013 BACK ISSUE Shangri-La - the name of the utopian lamasery described by novelist James Hilton in his book, Lost Horizon, summons visions of a magical city floating high above the earth, hidden away amidst towering mountains, where the secret of eternal peace, youth and happiness might be found. Ever since Hilton's book appeared in 1933, the hunt has been on to discover the real Shangri-La.  While many places have claimed the honor and the name, there is no doubt the mysterious kingdom of Tibet and its outlying regions in western China were Hilton's inspiration for Shangri-La. In Shangri-La [along the tea road to Lhasa] (Edizioni White Star, Fall 2012), National Geographic photographer Michael Yamashita has captured the essence of this elusive paradise as well as the reality of the land in which it was imagined.  Lavishly illustrated with photographs and a personal narrative by Yamashita, the book explores Tibet by following the legendary Chamagudao, the ancient Tea-Horse Road, which winds through dizzying mountain passes, across famed rivers like the Mekong and the Yangtze and past monasteries and meadows in a circuitous route from Sichuan and Yunnan Provinces in western China on its way to the Tibetan capital city of Lhasa. Tracing this circuitous route was a challenge that began as a feature for the National Geographic and grew into a 272-page full-color photographic narrative. It takes readers along the network of highways, roads and paths that make up the Chamagudao, which was a conduit for trade between the mighty Chinese empire and the remote villages and ethnic groups of Tibet - through almost impassable mountain trails and harsh landscapes to the inner sanctums of Tibetan Buddhism - living among monks and nomads to discover the real Tibet.  With the Tibet Autonomous Region under increasingly tight travel restrictions as well as a turbulent political climate, it is becoming harder and harder for individual travelers to explore this Roof of the World.  It is an intimate look few tourists will ever see into a rapidly changing Tibet - at once ancient and modern, sacred and commonplace, rarefied and gritty. This book, with 184 photographs and a text written in a personal style that captures Yamashita's innate curiosity and perspective as a seasoned traveler and photographic story-teller, is a chance to see this world before the legends and mysteries of the Tea Horse Road disappear into the Tibetan mist. by Michael Yamashita A steaming cauldron of yak butter tea will serve 800 monks at Shechen Monastery. The early snowstorm veils a herd of yaks grazing along the Yalong River. Colorful stupas (chorden, in Tibet) in Bame, Sichuan province stand to attention, as if in awe of the fortuitous double rainbows arching above during a sudden sun shower. Segyagu, the faithful doing Kora and turning prayer wheels at this meditation center with it's huge mani stone monument nearby Lhagong monastery. The hillside above the Segyagu Meditation Center is obscured by thousands of flags, which send prayers to the winds to disperse blessings throughout the land. Traditional black yak-hair tents have sheltered nomad families for centuries from the harsh and unpredictable weather of the Tibetan Plateau. Locals, who have been invited to Garthar Monastery during a festival, engage in the various stages of the highly ritualized practice of prostration called Chak Tsal, which means "to sweep clean". On the virtually treeless Tibetan Plateau, yak dung is burned as fuel for heating and cooking. The job of dung collection falls to women and children. Devout pilgrims proceed at a snail's pace performing the Chak Tsal, the Tibetan name for ritual prostration. Their journey from Qinghai will take six months, along the northern branch of the Tea Horse Road to the sacred city of Lhasa. Silhouetted against an early morning sunrise, a nomad encampment is situated along Route 109, near the sacred Namtso Lake. Heavy snow today makes collecting yartsa gompo impossible. Everyone sleeps in except for the women who milk the yaks and make the tea as well as shovel snow.