Everyone has a name for it: Tir na nOg, Nirvana, Heart's Desire or, in Charles Allen's case, Shangri-La. And what better place to set out on the quest for it than from Gatwick's north terminal? On the Royal Nepalese Airlines plane, he and the other five men in his team meet a group of Buddhist monks all sporting prayer wheels, beads and saffron robes. It is an auspicious start to a series of journeys which ended in 1998 with Shangri-La still only a tantalising hint somewhere at the end of a valley in western Tibet. And quite properly too. Some dreams are best left unshattered. Had Allen had his way, he would have brought a TV crew there. For even thinking of this, I trust he will be a dung beetle in his next incarnation.
The idea of Shrangri-La is based on a Tibetan legend which holds that there is a paradise known as Shambhala hidden within a snow-capped mountain range whose eight peaks resemble the petals of the lotus. The palace gleams with lapis-lazuli, emeralds and sapphires. Kings rule for 100 years and the words "war" and "enmity" are unknown.
The reality is different. This kingdom was, in fact, the powerhouse of Bon, the religion that preceded Buddhism in the region. However, contemporaneous with the Spanish Inquisition when, in Tibet and India, Buddhism was under great threat from Islam and Hinduism, followers of Bon were persecuted unmercifully by those wishing to preserve the Buddhist tradition. Bon texts were hurled into rivers, and Bon followers herded into houses which were then ignited. (The present Dalai Lama is taking steps to redress these past injustices.) The Bon religion was held to be a bad religion, which turned black the tongues of its followers, hence the Tibetan practice of sticking out the tongue in greeting - originally to demonstrate one was not a deviant.
Allen has a wealth of research that he draws on and anyone interested in Buddhism, Tibetan or otherwise, will relish this book for the rituals, legends, deities and devils presented here. The heroic acts of some of the gods make the Red Branch Knights look like first-times skiers on a nursery slope.
Ironically, armed with his books, his contacts and his determination to reach his goal, Allen failed to notice that he was actually travelling through Shangri-La: bleached moonscapes, mountain ranges resembling giant temples, alpine meadows at 16,000 ft. He sees unusually sexy statues of Buddha carved out of sandalwood and is at the foot of the Nine Stacked Swastikas Mountain for the annual pilgrimage when, on the night of the full moon in the fourth month of the Tibetan calendar, an air of silent expectation lies across the valley as everyone waits for sunrise. Then, around 3,000 Tibetan pilgrims begin walking round a central point marked by an enormous prayer pole, which is to be ceremoniously erected. This holy mountain was once the main place of pilgrimage for Bon followers and those few remaining (about 1 per cent of pilgrims) are easily identifiable: they walk in an anti-clockwise direction.
The swastika (Bon if it's anti-clockwise) is the symbol of circular movement and the mountain itself - four-sided and surrounded by a lake - is the circle squared. The two religions have since merged in many ways, but Allen has picked on one revealing difference. At the heart of the Buddhist Kalachakra tantra (the Wheel Time) is a god. At the centre of the Bon one is a goddess. This famous tantra tells us that as the people of Shangri-La become more enlightened, so their home becomes less visible.
So don't bother searching for it. Just be here. Now.
Mary Russell is a travel writer and freelance journalist