History Main / TheShangriLa

* Music/InsaneClownPosse use Shangri-La as an allegory for Heaven; it features heavily in several of their lyrics, was the subtitle for their album ''[[Music/{{The Wraith Shangri-La}} Thy Wraith]]'', and they even put out a Quest for Shangri-La board game.

* Music/InsaneClownPosse use Shangri-La as an allegory for Heaven; it features heavily in several of their lyrics, was the subtitle for their album Thy Wraith, and they even put out a Quest for Shangri-La board game.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius'' had Shangrillama, a cut-paste Shangri-La, only with Llamas.
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Animalympics}}'', a canine ski-jump champion gets lost while mountain-climbing and either finds or hallucinates finding "Dogra-La", an all-doggy version of this trope.
* The Air Temples of ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' served as these for the Air Nomads. But, after the Air Nomads were wiped out, they fell into disrepair.
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Cyberchase}}'' there's a cybersite called Shangri-La run by one Master Pi. Though it actually is generally peaceful and harmonious, the guards are obligated to carry out the orders of the current leader... even if that leader is [[BigBad "The Hacker"]]. And sometimes you have to play Nim with dragons for your freedom or something.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "Godfellas" features an ashram that doubles as a parabolic radio telescope.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibleHulk1996'' had Bruce Banner visit one of these to try to subdue his UnstoppableRage SuperpoweredEvilSide persona, but then of course, by the end of the episode [[StatusQuoIsGod has to release it again]].
* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Jem}}'' episode, "Journey to Shamgri-La", both the Holograms and the Misfits search the eponymous Shamgri-La to discover a new music.
* ''Shamballa'' appears in ''WesternAnimation/JonnyQuestTheRealAdventures'' episode "The Bangalore Falcon". It's a mystical land in the Indian mountains which appears every 500 years, and houses the titular blue falcon (no, not [[WesternAnimation/DynomuttDogWonder him]]), among other exotic flora and fauna, as well as the River of Eternal Life.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/LegendOfTheThreeCaballeros'' episode "Shangri-La-Di-Da", Shangri-La is presented as a magical spa, run by Yetis.
* ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'' gradually reveals that the origin of the eponymous hero's TransformationTrinket was an AncientOrderOfProtectors sequestered away in such a place in the mountains. They were wiped out by the [[MikeNelsonDestroyerOfWorlds impulsive actions of a younger member]], but they all get restored by the heroine's WorldHealingWave ability after she defeats the monster that destroyed them.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/TaleSpin'' episode "Last Horizons", Baloo seeks out and discovers the mythic "Panda-La" to become famous. Then the "enlightened, peaceful" populace subverts the trope by following him back home and invading. The Chinese stereotyping in this episode was strong enough that some Chinese-Americans complained rather loudly, and the episode was [[MissingEpisode pulled from reruns]].

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/TazMania'', the Platypus brothers discover the lost city of Platy-La in their attic. (It's a ''really big'' attic.) One of them initially mistakes it for Shangri-La, even though the architecture is Greek, and it's not in the mountains, and it's ''in Australia''.

Shangri-La ([[SpellMyNameWithAnS sometimes spelled without the dash]]) comes from the 1933 novel ''Literature/LostHorizon'' by James Hilton. It is likely a variation on "Shambala" (aka [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Sambhalah, Shamballa, or Xiangbala]]), the [[Myth/TibetanMythology Asian mythical kingdom]]. Depictions are almost always based on Tibet, with the monkish religion a [[TheThemeParkVersion highly watered-down]] variant of Lamaist Buddhism.

%%* Shambhala in ''Literature/EmperorMolluskVsTheSinisterBrain'' by A. Lee Martinez.

%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1596569958012187700
%% Please do not replace or remove without starting a new thread.

[[quoteright:350:[[Film/DoctorStrange2016 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sl_1.png]]]]

** In ''ComicBook/FiftyTwo'', Rene Montoya tries to save Victor Sage from his fatal uncurable cancer by taking him to Nanda Parbat, but it is an unmappable location that most seekers never find, and Vic dies just before she is rescued by the monks. She becomes ComicBook/TheQuestion to honor his legacy and that he dedicated the last year of his life to helping her find her feet after her own life went sideways and she became an alcoholic to cope.

* ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}'': One of these villages appears in "[[Recap/TintinTintinInTibet Tintin in Tibet]]". For bonus points, it includes an airplane crash and [[BigfootSasquatchAndYeti a yeti]]. However, the monastery is in a realistic portrayal of Tibet -- it's just that ''one'' monk has visions (which is [[PsychicDreamsForEveryone not that special]], as the story begins with Tintin having one himself). Hergé also apparently believed that yetis really exist and did quite a bit of research, e.g., talking to the French mountaineer Maurice Herzog, who claimed to have seen yeti tracks himself.

* ''ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse'':
** The Creator/CarlBarks Uncle Scrooge comic "Tralla La" is a satirical take on the idea of a moneyless utopia; the story also incidentally bears some similarity to ''Film/TheGodsMustBeCrazy'' (totally coincidental, given that the comic was published 27 years before that movie came out). It was later adapted into a ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'' episode. The story revolves around Scrooge accidentally introducing the concept of scarcity to the society with the bottle caps from his medicine bottles (Tralla La does not have any native metal, all tools are made of wood, stone or clay), and when he tries to fix his mistake, he ends up flooding the place with bottlecaps instead.
** Creator/DonRosa did a sequel to the comic, in which it is revealed that Tralla La is in fact [[spoiler: Xanadu, the place described in Creator/SamuelTaylorColeridge's poem ''Kubla Khan''.]] Also, the Ducks unintentionally bring big trouble into peaceful Tralla La. ''Again''. It reveals that Tralla La is also the hiding place of the treasury of Kublai Khan, unbeknownst to anyone alive, as the treasure is hidden in the underground reservoir that keeps Tralla La from flooding.
* ''ComicBook/{{BPRD}}'':
** A yeti-guarded monastery (in the part of the Urals above the Arctic circle) know as Agartha plays an important part in the plot, being the place where Liz Sherman learns to control her powers. And the first ''BPRD'' story, ''Hollow Earth'' kicks off when this monastery gets invaded by subterranean monsters (note that the "original" Agartha was supposed to be underground).
** A similar monastery serves as [[YellowPeril Memnan Saa]]'s base of operations. In fact, it was central to his rise to power, as that was the place where he first learned to harness the powers of the ancient Hyperborean civilization.
* In Creator/HowardChaykin's comic book series based on ''ComicBook/TheShadow'', a sympathetic soldier-for-hire takes up both the Shadow alias and the Lamont Cranston identity when the real Cranston threatens to violently exploit Shambala.
* In ''[[ComicBook/AthenaVoltaire Athena Voltaire and the Brotherhood of Shambalha]]'', Athena's visit to Tibet naturally entails visiting a hidden monastery where ancient wisdom can be obtained. The Nazis are after it too.
* In ''ComicBook/TheFurtherAdventuresOfIndianaJones'' #18, Indy and Marion find themselves in the hidden city of Ra-Lundi high in the Himalayas (drawn to resemble Shangri-La from ''Film/LostHorizon''). The city is built around a MagicMeteor that confers immortality upon those who dwell in the city. However, any who spend more that day within the warmth of the stone become dependent upon it and cannot pass outside the gorge around the city without suffering unbearable agony.

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* ''Film/TheMummyTombOfTheDragonEmperor'' features the idealistic version. Also yetis.

* The heroes of ''Film/SkyCaptainAndTheWorldOfTomorrow'' go to Shangri-La in 1939, probably inspired by the novel ''Lost Horizon'', described below. Given a tragic edge in that the Shangri-La monks take care of a man made sick from radiation poisoning.
* The first film in ''Film/TheLibrarian'' series uses this trope: it has the heroes (and villain) search for and visit Shangri-La in the Himalayas during their quest to find the other two missing parts of TheSpearOfDestiny. It is, given the movie in question, probably not entirely surprising that it is an improbably warm, sunny and idyllic place filled with Buddhist monks and luscious green landscaping, despite literally being surrounded by deadly-cold ice and snow. The monks also have a giant mechanical Buddha statue that attacks the bad guy.
* The titular hero from ''Film/BulletProofMonk'' hails from a Shangri-La-style Tibet, and uses his ancient wisdom to school a cocky American pickpocket.

* ''Film/TheShadow'' opens with Lamont Cranston as a vicious opium lord in (apparently) Tibet; he is reformed and taught the mystic arts of projective telepathy by a lama.

* Creator/TerryPratchett frequently satirizes this trope:
** ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' has "Enlightenment Country" in the Hubland mountains, which is packed to the gills with different sects of monks, including the History Monks, the Monks of Cool, the Yen Buddhists (if money is the root of all evil, then the best way to reduce evil is keeping as much of it away from people), and the Listening Monks (and the occasional yeti, a variant of troll). What's more, sometimes young monks will leave their monasteries to seek enlightenment in the big city, because according to Pratchett "Wisdom is the one thing that looks bigger the farther away it is."
** The ''Literature/NomesTrilogy'' book ''Truckers'' has the Klothians, a mystical society of Store nomes who live on the top floor of the Store, and get their food from the staffroom rather than the delicatessen (meaning they live on tea and yoghurt).

* In Creator/ChristopherMoore's ''Literature/LambTheGospelAccordingToBiff'', a teenage Jesus travels to one of these with his best friend Biff. Yes, ''that'' [[MessianicArchetype Jesus]].

* ''Literature/Grandmaster2005'' by Warren Murphy and Molly Cochran had Rashimpur, a quintessential example of this trope complete with requisite MightyWhitey.
%%* Shambhala in ''Literature/EmperorMolluskVsTheSinisterBrain'' by A. Lee Martinez.

* ''Literature/TheBrotherhoodOfTheConch'' has Silver Valley, home of the titular brotherhood, a hidden valley in the Himalayas where it's always summer, extinct plants flourish, and various magical objects help the Healers do their work. Silver Valley can only be accessed by passing several magic obstacles and then entering an entrance in the rocks that only opens if the Healers will it.
* Shangri La appears also in ''The Secret of Dr. Honigberger'', an 1940 novella by the Romanian writer Mircea Eliade, but under the name of Shambala rather. The plot centres around the real life 19th-century physician Johann Martin Honigberger, who disappeared in India while searching for the invisible kingdom of Shambhala.

* ''Series/NoReservations'' actually went to one of the Tibetan villages that renamed themselves Shangri-la (see Real Life below), and mentions the portrayal in ''Literature/LostHorizon''. Even if it wasn't really Shangri-La, it's got monks, yaks, snow, mountains, and friendly natives, and is quite beautiful in its way.
* The protagonists of ''Series/TheChampions1968'' have their plane shot down over a Shangri-La, and the wise and powerful locals heal them and incidentally give them superpowers.

* Music/DenkiGroove has a song called "Shangri-La" that sounds just as heavenly as the name suggests.
* Music/InsaneClownPosse use Shangri-La as an allegory for Heaven; it features heavily in several of their lyrics, was the subtitle for their album Thy Wraith, and they even put out a Quest for Shangri-La board game.
* Japanese rock artist Acid Black Cherry wrote a song called ''Shangri-La'', in which he not only sings about a utopia of life and light but also about overcoming tragedy. Many clues in the lyrics and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAabwJ3Vt5I music video]] point to him silently dedicating the song to everyone affected by the 2011 Tohoku disaster.
* Shangri-La Shower by [[Anime/LoveLive µ's]].

* ''VideoGame/TombRaiderII'' has the level Barkhang Monastery towards the end of the game. It is one of the biggest and most impressive levels in the game, complete with a giant statue and monks who help you fight the enemies.
* The plot of ''VideoGame/Uncharted2AmongThieves'' centres on the search for Shambala, where the game's climax occurs. There are indeed yetis. [[spoiler: Except they're actually the human Guardians of Shambala, driven mad and super strong by eating the sap from the Tree Of Life that's also located in the city.]] The city itself mostly lies in ruins.
* In ''VideoGame/MightAndMagic IV: Clouds of Xeen'', Shangri-La is an underground town. Notable because unless you know the [[PortalNetwork shortcut]], you have to fight your way through demon-filled caverns to get there.

* The prologue of ''VideoGame/{{Dreamfall|TheLongestJourney}}'' follows Brian Westhouse, an adventurer from Boston, who is sent to a parallel universe by the helpful monks of an unspecified Tibetan monastery.
* Shangri-La is one of the levels in ''VideoGame/{{Conduit 2}}''.
* Although it's located in a FantasyCounterpartCulture of ''Scandinavia'' of all places, the Throat of the World from ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'' has a bit of this vibe. It's the tallest mountain on the entire continent, people regularly climb it as a form of pilgrimage, and at the very top is a secretive monastery inhabited by an order of monks that have lived on the mountain from a young age and obtained mystical powers from years of meditation. Bonus points for being guarded by a frost troll (basically the closest thing to a yeti in the game).
* ''VideoGame/{{Terranigma}}'' has the town of Lhasa, whose religious leader Lord Kumari is said to be the latest of many reincarnations of a god.
* Certain regions of ''VideoGame/FarCry4'''s Kyrat, particularly in the ''Valley of the Yetis'' DLC, are a twisted, DarkerAndEdgier take on the trope far from idyllic or utopian. But the mountains and breathtaking vistas, as well as isolated mountain hamlets, certainly qualify. Given how Kyrat is, as typical for ''Franchise/FarCry'' locales, a CrapsackWorld {{Qurac}} based on Nepal, but with a few Tibetan influences thrown in, this is not surprising. Interestingly, the game also has a secondary storyline (played through collecting the individual pieces of a thangka that was once on the wall of the protagonist's family homestead) which tells the story of a warrior from a long time ago searching for the ''actual'' Shangri-La.
* ''VideoGame/EarthBound1994'' has Dalaam, a [[FarEast far-eastern]] country located at the top of a high mountain (or floating continent). Your fourth party member, Poo, comes from this area.

* In ''VideoGame/JadeEmpire'', Dirge, the Spirit Monks' mountaintop fortress, was this before soldiers destroyed everyone dwelling within. Even in its ruined state, it provides a lot of impressive scenery and plot-relevant information.
* In ''VideoGame/IndianaJonesAndTheInfernalMachine'', one of the parts of the titular Infernal Machine is located in Shambala in the Tian Shan mountains in Kazakhstan.
* ''VideoGame/RaymanOrigins'' has Mystical Pique, a snowy mountain with Tibetan-style architecture, prayer flags and meditating fakirs.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/TaleSpin'' episode "Last Horizons", Baloo seeks out and discovers the mythic "Panda-La" to become famous. Then the "enlightened, peaceful" populace subverts the trope by following him back home and invading. The Chinese stereotyping in this episode was strong enough that some Chinese-Americans complained rather loudly, and the episode was [[MissingEpisode pulled from reruns]].
** "The Gates of Shambala", A ''Tale Spin'' comic from ''Magazine/DisneyAdventures'', offers a straighter version of the trope.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "Godfellas" features an ashram that doubles as a parabolic radio telescope.
* The Air Temples of ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' served as these for the Air Nomads. But, after the Air Nomads were wiped out, they fell into disrepair.

* In ''WesternAnimation/ChillOutScoobyDoo'', during their ice-cold adventure, Scooby-Doo and Shaggy discover Shangri-La, which contains crystals that the bad guy wanted.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Jem}}'' episode, "Journey to Shamgri-La", both the Holograms and the Misfits search the eponymous Shamgri-La to discover a new music.
* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/TazMania'', the Platypus brothers discover the lost city of Platy-La in their attic. (It's a ''really big'' attic.) One of them initially mistakes it for Shangri-La, even though the architecture is Greek, and it's not in the mountains, and it's ''in Australia''.
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Cyberchase}}'' there's a cybersite called Shangri-La run by one Master Pi. Though it actually is generally peaceful and harmonious, the guards are obligated to carry out the orders of the current leader... even if that leader is [[BigBad "The Hacker"]]. And sometimes you have to play Nim with dragons for your freedom or something.

* ''Shamballa'' appears in ''WesternAnimation/JonnyQuestTheRealAdventures'' episode "The Bangalore Falcon". It's a mystical land in the Indian mountains which appears every 500 years, and houses the titular blue falcon (no, not [[WesternAnimation/DynomuttDogWonder him]]), among other exotic flora and fauna, as well as the River of Eternal Life.

* ''WesternAnimation/AMissMallardMystery'': One episode, "Danger in Tibet", had one named Sagahappy, which Miss Mallard stumbled on in her search for Willard.

[[folder:Fanfic]]

** The ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' has "Enlightenment Country" in the Hubland mountains, which is packed to the gills with different sects of monks, including the History Monks, the Monks of Cool, the Yen Buddhists (if money is the root of all evil, then the best way to reduce evil is keeping as much of it away from people), and the Listening Monks (and the occasional yeti, a variant of troll). What's more, sometimes young monks will leave their monasteries to seek enlightenment in the big city, because according to Pratchett "Wisdom is the one thing that looks bigger the farther away it is."
** ''Literature/{{Truckers}}'' has the Klothians, a mystical society of Store nomes who live on the top floor of the Store, and get their food from the staffroom rather than the delicatessen (meaning they live on tea and yoghurt).
* Creator/ArthurCClarke's short story "The Nine Billion Names of God", which is about Tibetan monks purchasing a computer to help them calculate the aforementioned names so that the universe may achieve its purpose and [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt be destroyed by God]].

Not to be confused with the light novel/anime series ''LightNovel/ShangriLa'', or the old 1960s all-girl band which is called The Shangri-La''s'', in the plural.

Surrounding Shangri-La is an endless expanse of beautiful but dangerous mountain peaks, untouched by the sprawl of civilization or tourism. Sometimes getting to the village or monastery requires the mountaineer to be near death, though a special Sherpa with secret knowledge is just as common -- often, the VanishingVillage is only accessible at certain times. Other times, it's just a case of turning a corner. Either way, there are ''definitely no tourists''.

* The heroes of ''Film/SkyCaptainAndTheWorldOfTomorrow'' (2004) go to Shangri-La in 1939, probably inspired by the novel ''Lost Horizon'', described below. Given a tragic edge in that the Shangri-La monks take care of a man made sick from radiation poisoning.

* ''Film/DoctorStrange2016'' has Kamar-Taj -- though unlike most, it's HiddenInPlainSight in Kathmandu (or at least, the main doorway is), with the entrance being a rundown door that's directly contrasted with the flashier temples across the street. While it is a beautiful mountainous landscape, it also has Wi-Fi, the MagicLibrarian (Wong) listens to Music/{{Beyonce}} on his iPod, and the mystic arts are explained in terms of spells and magic, but also as programs using extradimensional energy to achieve various effects.

* In Franchise/TheDCU, fighters travel to the city of Nanda Parbat in Tibet, where they learn alongside wise monks. Also, there is no death there. Which makes it really suck when a guy dies on the doorstep.
** ''ComicBook/FiftyTwo'': Rene Montoya tries to save Victor Sage from his fatal uncurable cancer by taking him to Nanda Parbat, but it is an unmappable location that most seekers never find and Vic dies just before she is rescued by the monks. She becomes ComicBook/TheQuestion to honor his legacy and that he dedicated the last year of his life to helping her find her feet after her own life went sideways and she became an alcoholic to cope.
** ''ComicBook/RichardDragon'' has spent a lot of time soul searching in Nanda Parbat, and other heroes who travel there often end up under his tutelage while there.
** In his quest for immortality ComicBook/RasAlGhul wants to find, conquer and study Nanda Parbat. In the ''ComicBook/RobinSeries'' he sends his assassins to kill off the families who each hold part of the "map" to the place and steal their knowledge, however Nanda Parbat has little to offer to those who are not pure of heart and is well defended against the kind of threat Ras poses.
** During the year she spent missing Franchise/WonderWoman was in Nanda Parbat trying to decide what she should become in order to be true to herself but avoid situations where she's forced to kill as she had to when facing [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1987 Medusa]] and [[ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis Max Lord]]. [[ComicBook/WonderGirl Cassie]] chewed Diana out for leaving without telling her and Donna what she was doing when they meet again in ''ComicBook/WonderWoman2006'' as Donna was Diana's sister and had just about given her up as dead before her own apparent demise.
* Likewise, in the Franchise/MarvelUniverse, Tibet is the one-stop-shopping place for all your power needs.
** Both ComicBook/DoctorStrange and Doctor Druid learned the mystic arts at Kamar-Taj.
** ComicBook/IronFist developed both his [[CharlesAtlasSuperPower martial arts skill]] (via TrainingFromHell) and his mystical [[KiManipulation iron-fist technique]] (via absorbing a dragon's heart) in K'un L'un. As one would expect, it's full of {{Martial Pacifist}}s who will ''ruin the shit'' of anyone who goes there looking for trouble. Said city is loosely based on the mythical land mentioned in Lost Horizon (see below) but is Marvelized as an [[FantasyKitchenSink extra-dimensional city whose gateway leads to Earth, which was founded by the crew of a crashed spaceship]]. With apostrophes. Bonus points for said gateway only opening for a short period of time every fifteen years or so, effectively making this one a VanishingVillage.
** Please note that neither of the above had anything to do with ComicBook/DoctorDoom, though -- that was just a random temple that failed to realize that the guy they rescued from the snow was a megalomaniac.
* Marvel again: Attilan, the home city of ''ComicBook/TheInhumans'', is located in the Himalayan mountains. While it isn't entirely this trope, some of the Inhumans (especially Karnak) use MagicalMartialArts.
* ''ComicBook/{{Tintin}} in Tibet'' has one of these villages. For bonus points, it includes an airplane crash and [[BigfootSasquatchAndYeti a yeti]]. Though it's actually a bit of a subversion because the monastery is in a realistic portrayal of Tibet, it is just that ''one'' monk has visions (which is not that special, as the story begins with Tintin having one himself). And Hergé apparently believed that yetis really exist and did quite a bit of research, e.g. talking to the French mountaineer Maurice Herzog, who claimed to have seen yeti tracks himself.
* In a story from the ''Franchise/TombRaider'' comics, Lara Croft finds Shangri-La. However, she discovers that [[spoiler: nobody can leave, and those who try are turned into yeti-like monsters that guard its walls. Lara brings an old caretaker from her childhood to Shangri-La, in exchange for her own release.]]
* The Creator/CarlBarks Uncle Scrooge comic "Tralla La" is a satirical take on the idea of a moneyless utopia; the story also incidentally bears some similarity to ''Film/TheGodsMustBeCrazy'' (totally coincidental, given that the comic was published 27 years before that movie came out). It was later adapted into a ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'' episode. The story revolves around Scrooge accidentally introducing the concept of scarcity to the society with the bottle caps from his medicine bottles (Tralla La does not have any native metal, all tools are made of wood, stone or clay), and when he tries to fix his mistake, he ends up flooding the place with bottlecaps instead.

* ''ComicBook/{{BPRD}}''

** A similar monastery serves as [[YellowPeril Memnan Saa's]] base of operations. In fact, it was central to his rise to power, as that was the place where he first learned to harness the powers of the ancient Hyperborean civilization.

* The ComicBook/SilverSurfer comes from [[RecycledInSpace a planet called Zenn-La]], which is populated by PerfectPacifistPeople.

* In ''ComicBook/TheFurtherAdventuresOfIndianaJones'' #18, Indy and Marion find themselves in the hidden city of Ra-Lundi high in the Himalayas (drawn so it resembles Shangri-La from ''Film/LostHorizon). The city is built around a MagicMeteor that confers immortality upon those who dwell in the city. However, any who spend more that day within the warmth of the stone become dependent upon it and cannot pass outside the gorge around the city without suffering unbearable agony.

* ''Film/DoctorStrange2016'' has Kamar-Taj - though unlike most, it's HiddenInPlainSight in Kathmandu (or at least, the main doorway is), with the entrance being a rundown door that's directly contrasted with the flashier temples across the street. While it is a beautiful mountainous landscape, it also has wifi, the MagicLibrarian (Wong) listens to Music/{{Beyonce}} on his iPod, and the mystic arts are explained in terms of spells and magic, but also as programs using extradimensional energy to achieve various effects.
* The heroes of ''Film/SkyCaptainAndTheWorldOfTomorrow'' (2004) go to Shangri-La in 1939, probably inspired by the novel ''Lost Horizon'', described below. Given a tragic edge in that the Shangri-La monks take care of a man-made sick from radiation poisoning.

* The protagonists of ''Series/TheChampions1968'' have their plane shot down over a Shamgri-La, and the wise and powerful locals heal them and incidentally give them superpowers.

--> Everyone is helpful, everyone is kind on the road to Shambala...

* Certain regions of ''VideoGame/FarCry4''[='=]s Kyrat, particularly in the ''Valley of the Yetis'' DLC, are a twisted, DarkerAndEdgier take on the trope far from idyllic or utopian. But the mountains and breathtaking vistas, as well as isolated mountain hamlets, certainly qualify. Given how Kyrat is, as typical for ''Franchise/FarCry'' locales, a CrapsackWorld {{Qurac}} based on Nepal, but with a few Tibetan influences thrown in, this is not surprising. Interestingly, the game also has a secondary storyline (played through collecting the individual pieces of a thangka that was once on the wall of the protagonist's family homestead) which tells the story of a warrior from a long time ago searching for the ''actual'' Shangri-La.
* ''VideoGame/{{Earthbound}}'' has Dalaam, a [[FarEast far-eastern]] country located at the top of a high mountain (or floating continent). Your fourth party member, Poo, comes from this area.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibleHulk1996'' had Bruce Banner visit one of these to try to subdue his UnstoppableRage SuperPoweredEvilSide persona, but then of course, by the end of the episode [[StatusQuoIsGod has to release it again]].

* In Creator/HowardChaykin's comic book series based on ''Radio/TheShadow'', a sympathetic soldier-for-hire takes up both the Shadow alias and the Lamont Cranston identity when the real Cranston threatens to violently exploit Shambala.

* ''Literature/Grandmaster'' by Warren Murphy and Molly Cochran had Rashimpur, a quintessential example of this trope complete with requisite MightyWhitey.