Searching for Shangri-la
The Millennium Expeditions
“寻找香格里拉”
新世纪探险特展
“寻找香格里拉”新世纪探险特展
作者：龙安志
主办：北京外国语大学yl12311线路检测(中国)有限公司
时间：2017年10月26日-2017年11月30日
地点：北京外国语大学图书馆一程展览厅
[Curator’s Statement]
场馆介绍
In Searching for Shangri-la artist and explorer Laurence Brahm adopts the medium of multi-media installation in beckoning to ask: What is Shangri-la, and where could it possibly be located?
The exhibition carries the visitor on a journey of questioning that goes from the realm of the physical to the conscious and then subconscious, through a series of interactive displays presented as installation art.
在“寻找香格里拉”艺术展中，与既是一名极富冒险精神的探险者，又是一位灵感与创意不断的艺术家的龙安志同行，在旅途中寻觅着答案：香格里拉是什么？它又会在哪里？
通过多重感官的互动，两个看似简单却又无法被解答的问题不仅仅再是字面之谜，问的也不再只是一座梦境之城，而是那悠悠不断的马驹铃响，絮絮轻萦在通往香格里拉的径道上——那从身体到意识再到灵魂的灵性激发之路上。
The source materials for the artistic work derive from drawings, video and photo documentation captured during three Searching for Shangri-la expeditions that were conducted during the first decade of the 21st Century, searching for the lost kingdom of Shangri-la. While the National Geographic explorations succeeded in revealing the origin of the Shangri-la myth, the exhibition as installation art carries the audience as participants along this incredible journey, in the end unlocking mysteries of Shangri-la in their own subconscious.
本次特展的内容取自于在2000-2010年10年间前后共三次“寻找香格里拉”探险的数百件画作、摄影和视频素材。一一重现三次以寻找传说中那富郁灵性的遗失之国——香格里拉为最终目标的探险之旅，让您和我们的探险队一起远征中国西部疆域。在终于成功的揭开了这香格里拉传说的神秘面纱时，我们却也发现这三次探险之旅孜孜不怠地寻找的远远不止是一个遗落的国度，而其实是我们自己，和人的意念中本身蕴负着的强大能量。
[Artist’s Statement]
龙安志说
“The notion of Shangri-la arouses our human yearning to explore the unknown, those electro-magnetic fields that lurk within shadows of our subconscious, through platitudes of geometric prisms refracting light that illuminates galaxies which are themselves travelling faster than the speed of time in concentric rotational entanglements.
“香格里拉这个概念激起了我们人类本性中对未知的好奇与渴求，仿若作用惊异强烈的电磁场，暗生于我们的下层意识中，在磁电易性的过程中迸激灼焰出星芒点点，明灭在我们凝浊黯寂的下层意识里。不过是一瞬的能量交错汇集、溢于临界，却撕裂了我们下层意识里如暗夜般的寂默，竟似创世般焰生出一世如同遥远宇宙般广渺而又星辰灼烨的泱泱之界。”
In finding a pathway across the treacherous mountain passes to the mythical realm of Shangri-la, one must seek access and traverse parallel universes through the digital codes embedded in secret mantra. The alchemy of transformation lies imbedded in our intention, and finds combustion at the sub-particle level of sub-consciousness. It is the magic of intention that decodes entry into boundless expanses of time and space that do not interact within the rules of properties that we have already defined with our own mind. Limitations upon our thinking are conditioned upon a simple sensory construct of the material world that we have been led to believe in, through illusionary images projected by others.
为了找到一条到达那神秘的香格里拉之境的可行之路，我们必须解开我们所念咒文中隐藏着的秘语般的线索，从而入境穿梭于平行时空之间。而秘语其实并不复杂，它说穿梭这种平行时空所需要的能级转换的能量其实就在我们的意念力里。一意善念只需在合适的时候，被下层意识中磁电易性时激发而生的一点星火引灼，便可燎原般将整个负能量的境遇转化为由正向能量所引导的时境。这是一场魔法般的能量转换，发生于一个无边无际的时空构架中。这样一个不遵循我们传统既定的物质性质规律的时空构架只能由强烈的意念力将其入口打开一隙。而我们的思维大多数时候都被禁锢在一个简单的由感官体验构成的“既定的真实”里，殊不知这所谓的“既定”只是我们固执己见的迷信，是我们从众的惯性思维。
Shangri-la is about defying illusion, living dreams, obtaining a surreal yet overarching understanding of a universe that does not conform to any conventional views of time and space. It is a platitude of interactive co-emergence in juxtaposition of Yin and Yang, the dance of Shiva, the fire of Kali, the silence of Buddhist meditation, the swirl of Sufi dervishes, and the Shaman interconnectivity with everything that ever and will exist.
香格里拉是梦境成就的现实，而又超越现实的最终彻悟之界。它一反我们对时空的认知中的既定框架，代表了一种新的时空定义，也冲破了禁锢人们思想的迷障。香格里拉是阴与阳的协奏，是冰与火的合体；它是湿神婆的曼舞，也是毁灭之神卡利的炎火；是佛者冥思之际的静默，亦是伊斯兰托钵僧旋转起舞的身影；而最重要的是，香格里拉之境其实是联结天地万物、过去未来的通灵纽带。
Remember, from the perspective of our universe’s own consciousness, there are no rational perceptions of any boundaries whatsoever, whether in compassion or destruction. Therefore neither exists, nor does not exist. There is no dispersion, because there was no manifestation. There is no right, and there is no wrong. There is order in chaos, and chaos in order. Form is emptiness, and emptiness is form. The ‘is’ is not, and the not is ‘is’.
请谨记于心，宇宙其自有的意识会告诉你，不论是普渡众生还是毁天灭地的宙域中，可以定性的边界都是不存在的。所以两个宙域也是亦有亦无。宇宙没有流散的形态，因为它本无具象；世间无错亦无对，乱中有序，序中有乱。色即是空，空即是色，是即是非，非即是是。
Shangri-la is the realm of bliss that we all seek to attain within the fragmented splinter of time that we call a lifetime.
But what is bliss?
And what is a lifetime?
Now, ask another question:
Can you find Shangri-la?
流沙簌簌于指缝间，时光流逝无痕。我们的一生难道就要如此消磨么？在这样微微的惶恐与不安里，我们心中不变的是一份慰藉与希求——香格里拉，那个我们用尽一生之力梦寐以求的极乐之境。
可是，怎么样才是极乐呢？
多长又是一生？
那么，不如我们问另一个问题罢：
你能找到香格里拉吗？
Entrance to Exhibition:
展室入口
Searching for Shangri-la
The Millennium Expeditions
“寻找香格里拉”
新世纪探险特展
As the 21st Century dawned, in the year 2000, a debate arose in western China among different regions each claiming to be the historical location of Shangri-la. Cities like Dali, Lijiang, and Zhongdian, vied with Lhasa, Yushu and Xiahe for the designation, all claiming to be the original Shangri-la. Ironically, there was no higher motivation in competing for the title, other than luring tourist dollars.
自21世纪始，一场持久的争议便开始在中国西部渐渐开始，愈演愈烈。许多古城诸如大理，丽江，中甸和拉萨等，都参与到这场争论之中，似乎各方都各持确凿的证据证明自己的城市曾是香格里拉——那传说中谜一般的灵性国度。而不难料到的是，这场以确定香格里拉古迹方位为目的的、看似颇具学术性的争论不过是各地方政府为提高本城经济发展政绩的利益博弈，只因为当地政府如果夺得“香格里拉”之名便能招揽大批观光游客，进而增加政府投资项目和税收收入。
Nevertheless, the question had finally been put on the table:
不论各方带着什么样的动机，争相讨论的这一个问题终于开始让人们深思：
Where is the real Shangri-la?
真正的香格里拉到底是在哪里？
Throughout the first decade of the 21st Century, Searching for Shangri-la Expeditions Project launched three major expeditions to find out the geographical location of Shangri-la. The Project was determined to discover the origins rooted behind the myth.
于是，在二十一世纪的首十年间，“寻找香格里拉”探险队展开了三次大型探险，决心揭开香格里拉之国谜一般的面纱，探寻这传说中的香格里拉的真正位置。
[Exhibition Room 1: ]
特展室之一
Searching for Shangri-la
The Millennium Expeditions
“寻找香格里拉”
新世纪探险特展
Expedition I: Where is Shangri-la?
探险之旅 I：香格里拉在哪里？
The first Searching for Shangri-la expedition launched from Lhasa in 2002 went north to Qinghai, before tracking south through Yunnan Province. Throughout this expedition, the Searching for Shangri-la team pursued one single inquiry: where is Shangri-la? After searching everywhere and conducting countless field interviews, the expedition team determined that Shangri-la could not be found.
第一次“寻找香格里拉”探险旅程开始于2002年，从拉萨北上青海，后又南下长途跋涉至中国云南省。此次的探险队全程都寻求解答这一个问题：“香格里拉在哪里？”在沿途进行了无数大大小小的采访，而香格里拉仍无处寻踪后，我们的探险队无可奈何，便决定暂时休整。
[Exhibition Room 2:]
特展室之二
Searching for Shangri-la
The Millennium Expeditions
“寻找香格里拉”
新世纪探险特展
Expedition II: Trekking the Tea Caravan Trail
探险之旅 II：踏上茶马古道
Shangri-la was first described in James Hilton’s novel Lost Horizon, published in 1933. Shangri-la captured the Western imagination in the 1930s during the Great Depression when all faith in capital markets and financial materialism was lost. So people turned to loftier ideals of spiritualism, as exemplified by Shangri-la. Due to its popularity, Lost Horizon became one of the first Hollywood movies.
香格里拉最先在詹姆斯•希尔顿（James Hilton）1933年出版的《消失的地平线》一书中被提及。在20世纪30年代席卷资本主义世界的经济大萧条中，香格里拉的概念在这样信心全失的资本市场和物质主义充斥的大环境下让人耳目一新，吸引了西方读者的注意力，让他们视香格里拉为至高境界的精神信仰。《消失的地平线》也因为如此受欢迎而被改编成为首批上映于好莱坞的电影。
Regrouping in 2003, the Searching for Shangri-la expedition team conducted detailed research and analysis of Lost Horizon. They found: historically, James Hilton never visited Asia. He certainly never visited the Himalayas, nor even Tibet for that matter. Hilton apparently based all of his writing on reports from Joseph Rock, National Geographic’s first Bureau Chief in China, based in Yunnan Province.
于2003年重组的“寻找香格里拉”探险队在对《消失的地平线》细读并透彻研究后发现：历史上的詹姆斯•希尔顿从未涉足过亚洲，更别说到过西藏或喜马拉雅地区了。希尔顿所描写的一切都是从约瑟夫•洛克的记录撰写中摘取的素材。约瑟夫•洛克是《国家地理》派驻来到中国云南的首位区域总负责人。
In 2003, the Searching for Shangri-la expedition team followed the footsteps of Joseph Rock along the Tea Caravan Trail that for centuries had served as the main route for transporting Pu’er tea from Yunnan overland to Lhasa, and on to India. On the return journey back from India, pony caravans carried Buddhist sutra. Historically the Tea Caravan Trail was a vital route for Buddhist philosophy entering China.
在2003年，“寻找香格里拉”探险队跟随约瑟夫•洛克的脚步踏上了茶马古道——那个许多世纪以来均以运输贩卖普洱茶而闻名的古老栈道，从云南一直延伸到拉萨，而后到印度。马队通常也会从印度带一些佛经返回。于是茶马古道也成为了历史上佛教哲学进入中国的重要通路。
During the expedition, it was discovered that “Shangri-la” is actually a misspelling of the word “Shambhala,” an ideal realm in Tibetan Buddhism.
其间，在探险旅途中，我们发现 “香格里拉”其实是藏传佛教中的理想之地——“香巴拉”的误写。
A new question arose:
How to find Shambhala?
于是，一个新的问题来了：
那怎么又才能找到香巴拉呢？
Searching for Shangri-la
The Millennium Expeditions
“寻找香格里拉”
新世纪探险特展
There are many ethnic nationalities living along the Tea Caravan Trail route – such as Yi, Bai, Naxi, Mosu, and Tibetan. Each has its own sacred protector mountain. They worship and pay homage to the mountain.
沿着茶马古道生活的有许多民族，如彝族，白族，纳西族，摩梭族和藏族等。
每个民族的人们都有各自的崇奉的神山。所有族人都会虔诚地向各自的神山朝圣祈福。
May I ask why people pray to a snow-capped mountain?
你可知为何他们会向着一座白雪皑皑的山峰祈祷吗？
The river systems of each village come from the mountain. Snows as they melt with the change of seasons, nurture the fields that provide water - the very source of life itself - to the people. So by praying to the protector mountain and by protecting the delicate ecology of that mountain and its natural environment, the mountain protects the people.
这些村庄里所有的河流都是来自于这座雪山。当四季变化，峰雪在天暖时便会融成雪水顺着山野流向下游，润泽田野并成为人们的饮用水源。所以当人们向着雪山祈祷，保护雪山环境并维护它微妙的生态平衡，雪山也规律的积雪化雪，向人们供应充足的净水，以此佑泽着它的子民。
Ecological civilization is not something we invented. It is something they already knew. We are just learning from them.
生态文明不是我们凭空想象出来的一个概念，而是早就如此融入在人们生活中的古老智慧。现在的我们只是在向他们学习罢了。
[Exhibition Room 3:]
特展室之三
Searching for Shangri-la
The Millennium Expeditions
“寻找香格里拉”
新世纪探险特展
Expedition III: Following the Shambhala Sutra
探险之旅 III：由着“香巴拉经文”的指引
By 2004 the search for Shambhala had been launched. The Searching for Shangri-la team had discovered a rare ancient text hidden at Tashilumpu Monastery in Shigatze, central Tibet. Could it offer clues? Written in the 1700s by the Sixth Panchen Lama, the sutra serves as a travel guidebook offering physical locations that could possibly guide one to the mysterious realm of Shambhala.
至2004年底，寻找香巴拉的旅程已开始。这一次，“寻找香格里拉”探险队在西藏中部日喀则的扎什伦布寺发现了一副匿藏着的珍稀古卷。这可能会引出更多的线索吗？于是这副约于18世纪由第六世班禅喇嘛执笔撰写的经文古卷，而今成为了提供我们接下来旅途中的探访的地点的导游手册，并很可能引领我们找到那神秘的香巴拉之国。
The Searching for Shangri-la expedition soon discovered that the coordinates described in the sutra could not be found on GPS.
我们的“寻找香格里拉”探险队很快便发现古卷中描述的坐标是无法在GPS导航系统中被找到的。
Following the Sutra’s designations, the expedition crossed Ngari Prefecture, the most isolated and inaccessible part of western Tibet, arriving upon the ancient abandoned city of Guge, rising out of the desert like a ghost city. Could this be Shambhala?
跟随着经文中描述的地点和方向，探险队行穿越了最偏远而且蛮荒坎坷的西藏西部的阿里地区，最后到达了如同鬼城般屹立在一片黄沙中的古格王国遗址。 这里可能会是我们苦苦寻觅的香巴拉之国吗？
After thorough archeological investigation the expedition team determined that Guge is not Shambhala.
在一番彻底的考古研究后，“寻找香格里拉”探险队最终遗憾的确认这片古格遗境也不是香巴拉。
So then where does one go to find Shambhala?
Moreover, what is it?
那么我们能在哪里找到香巴拉呢？
香巴拉又是什么？
[Exhibition Room 4:]
特展室之四
Searching for Shangri-la
The Millennium Expeditions
“寻找香格里拉”
新世纪探险特展
The Legend of Shambhala…
香巴拉的传说…
The Shambhala Sutra text reveals a prophecy: 2500 years after the Nirvana of the historical Buddha Lord Shakyamuni, the world will be in the Age of Kali, or self-destruction. Mankind driven by an ideology of greed and shortsighted profit will destroy his own environment through blind economic growth, and exploitative principles that enrich an elite and impoverish the rest. The Shambhala Sutra predicts that in the Age of Kali karmic revenge manifests itself through natural catastrophe, new diseases that cannot be cured, cycles of wars, conflict and terror, all specifically described in the sutra.
香巴拉经文隐含着一个预言：在传说中的释迦牟尼佛涅槃重生的2500年以后，世界会进入卡利的时代，或者说是自我毁灭的时代。被贪婪和利益蒙蔽了双眼的人类在通过盲目的经济增长和不平衡的剥削政策扩大了贫富差距，并破坏了我们赖以生存的生态环境后，《香巴拉经文》预言所述说的卡利的时代将会推动命轮的转动，不幸终将会降于人类。世间到时将会产生各种自然灾害，充斥着无法治愈的疾病和无休止的战争、矛盾冲突、恐怖阴影。
The Kings of Shambhala look down, observing this mess. In the Kingdom of Shambhala, everything is harmonious, people respect nature and there are no prejudices. Those who have give to those who don’t. Principles of equality, environmental protection and peace are the philosophy of all twenty-five kings who reign in succession for periods of one hundred years each.
香巴拉的国王俯视大地，看着这一片狼藉。而在香巴拉的国度里，人们过着和谐的生活，互相帮助，尊重、崇尚自然，没有偏见存在。香巴拉历史上二十五任国王的每一位都以平等、爱护环境、和平为治世准则，贯穿他们各自一百年的统治时期。
Finally, dismayed by the situation on earth, the last King of Shambhala dispatches the warriors of Shambhala to rid our universe of the demonic forces of greed, anger and ignorance, that are defined by Buddhism as “the three poisons.” Fossil fuels are outlawed and the trading of derivatives regulated. The King of Shambhala then heralds a new era of peace, harmony, ecological civilization, and mutual respect within the community of mankind.
最后，香巴拉最后一任国王派任香巴拉战士去驱除佛教“三毒“——“贪”、“嗔”、“痴”带来的在大地上作恶的暗邪之力。于是，化石燃料被禁用，金融衍生品的交易也被规范起来了。香巴拉的国王就这样开启了一个新时代，一个各族各国人们互相尊重、和平、和谐的生态文明时代。
According to the legend explained in the sutra, our future is Shambhala, sometimes misspelled as “Shangri-la.”
在经文详述的传说中，我们的未来就是香巴拉，有时候也被误写为“香格里拉”。
But how do we get there?
Try the power of intention.
可我们该如何去到香格里拉呢？
试以意念之力，方能致远于香格里拉之境。
[Exhibition Conclusion:]
[Artist’s closing statement.]
展览结语
龙安志的闭幕词
“Shambhala or Shangri-la, cannot be found.
It cannot be searched for.
In fact, you should not even bother to search for it.
Shambhala can only be created.
Created through the power of intention.
By projecting positive intention to change the circumstances around us.
It can be done any time, any moment, anywhere.
So Shambhala as a space and time configuration can be as tiny as a piece of dust, or as vast and expansive as the totality of a universe that has no limitations. The only limitation is our own mind.
The search for Shambhala or Shangri-la starts with positive intention. Yes, your intention. Not mine, not his, not hers, and not even Buddha’s. It begins with each individual’s intention. In the end it will be our collective intention as individuals that will make a difference.
So would you like to Search for Shangri-la?
Sure.
Then start by creating it
香格里拉，或者说香巴拉，是不可能被找到的。
因为它是不可能通过寻找而找到的。
所以，你根本不应该去寻找。
香巴拉是只能被创造的灵境。
凭以意念之力。
强大的正向意念力可以改变我们的周遭的境况。
任何时间，任何地点，香巴拉之境都可以这样被创造修筑。
所以香巴拉其实是一个无定形的时间和空间构造，既可以细微似尘泥，亦可堪比星辰大海的无界无际，唯我们的想象力之边界为界。
对香格里拉的寻求始于你的正向意念力。没错，是你的意念力，不是我的，不是他的，也不是她的，甚至不是佛祖的意念力。这个探寻之旅始于每个人个人的意念力。最终，是我们所有的个人意念力汇聚在一起才会产生强大的、能改变我们时境的能量。
听完我的故事，你也会去像我一样寻找香格里拉么？
不妨去试试罢。
试着开始去创造它吧。
On different segments of the three Searching for Shangrila expeditions, we were joined by China's leading artists, writers, musicians and dancers, who each felt dedication and commitment to speaking out on protection of the environment, water resources, and cultural heritage. The Searching for Shangrila Expedition wishes to thank each and every one of you for joining us.
许多中国于其行业顶尖的艺术家、作家，音乐家和舞蹈家都在三段寻找香格里拉探险过程的不同时间段中加入了我们，和我们并肩走过了一段旅程。他们每位都致力于并且热心号召大众也关注助力于环境保护，水资源保护和文化遗产保护事业。
本次寻找香格里拉探险特展愿在此向你们每一位表达诚挚的谢意。
People have often asked whether it is true that Himalayan monks can bend metal spoons with just the concentration of their mind. Is it a magic trick or do the properties of spoon change at 4,000 meters above sea level Neither. These monks understand the nature of matter. Actually, the spoon does not exist.
人们常常会问，听说喜马拉雅地区的修行者可以用专注的意念之力弯曲铁勺，这是真的吗？这是什么魔术戏法呢还是说铁勺的性质在海拔4000米以上会改变呢？——其实都不是。这些修行者通彻了然了物质的本质：事实上，铁勺是并不存在的。
