In this lively, revised edition of the original 1930 publication, Nicholas Roerich gives a glimpse of his artistic, spiritual and all-encompassing vision of the human journey toward fulfilment.

The essays in this collection relate his travels to the ‘East’ in the 1920s. They also detail the accretion of myths, folktales and legends surrounding the notion of Shambhala, that many-faceted mythical and spiritual realisation of paradise on Earth.

Nicholas Roerich was a prolific artist, writer and philosopher, born in the late nineteenth century. In his youth he studied the arts and after he married Helena Shaposhnikov, a dedicated Theosophist, his activities were geared to mankind’s spiritual evolution.

Together they founded the Agni Yoga Society which brought together religious philosophies from all ages. Always supremely focused on the interplay of art and spirituality, in the years after the Great War of 1914 – 1918, the Roerich family embarked on their many journeys to the East, both Eastern Europe and to India, Nepal, Tibet, and regions of China. These journeys inspired the works in the current volume.

This edition includes articles, talks, poems, songs, although sadly, none of the highly evocative paintings. In the travel notes there are parables relating to the folklore and legends of the regions which clearly show the uncanny similarities in quite disparate cultures.

In the rather surprising Shambhala the Resplendent, Roerich bemoans the parlous state of the Tibetan Buddhism of his time, and the corruption endemic in the religious hierarchy. The reader will note the irony of the situation in relation to the Tibetan situation of today.

New Dawn readers will be particularly intrigued by the references to the subterranean dwellers in folklore and legend. These groups, known to Buddhists as Agharti, supposedly guard the mysterious ‘treasure’ of Shambhala that was withdrawn from the world when outer circumstances became too dire.

This same circumstance occurs in many cultures and is found in myths and parables. Whether the ‘treasure’ is of a material or spiritual nature is never disclosed. The most intriguing aspect is the possibility of numerous subterranean tunnels and caves honeycombing the Earth, where etheric races carry on the business of helping the rest of humanity to evolve. One is reminded of The Land of the Smoky God.

Roerich also reports cave art and inscriptions in Asia that bear striking resemblance to similar artefacts in Western Europe and the Caucasus. In the Trans-Himalayas there are also groups of menhirs that are deployed in similar ways to those in Britain and Carnac in North Western France. He postulates deep links to Celtic, Goth and Scythian cultures that cannot be explained.

One story that stunned me was the seeming invisibility of a group with which Roerich was travelling that protected them from disclosure to those that would have done them harm. It had echoes of the St. Patrick story of lighting the bonfire within sight of Tara yet was able to have his group pass unmolested within clear sight of the king’s soldiers without being seen. So the same wisdom and the same story in different guises echoes across the world and across time.

This series of part-travel, part polemic and part teaching stories is stunning in its scope. It will both teach and delight. It hinges on the need for humanity to evolve spiritually. The writing is dense at times, as is always the case with spiritual teaching. Some parts are fantastic, some amazing, some unbelievable.

Readers will relate to this volume from their individual experiences and evolution. If readers care to look online for the Roerich series of paintings on Tibet, they will find rewards that support the articles in this collection. There is a very active Nicholas Roerich Museum which arranged for the re-issue of this extremely interesting text.

I recommend this Nicholas Roerich collection as essential for any metaphysical library. The scope is breathtaking, it is deep, but at the same time wide ranging. It is a true exemplar of the ‘Perennial Philosophy’ that is essential to all higher learning.

The concept of Shambhala resides in the rarified air of the highest sort of metaphysics. You may see it as a legend. You may consider it a myth. Many know it to be real, but existing in etheric realms that we can only access in the deepest meditation or dreaming. It has different names in different cultures. We may meet there one day…

– Reviewed by Jennifer Hoskins in New Dawn No. 92