CHHOKANG PARO, NEPAL — I first read James Hilton’s classic 1933 novel Lost Horizon, his tale of finding the mythical Shangri-La, in Miss Golden’s Grade 10 English class. The story of Hugh Conway, a veteran member of the British diplomatic service, instantly awakened my sense of adventure and whispered an invitation to the Himalayas. In the book Conway finds inner peace, love and a sense of purpose in a fantastical mountainous kingdom whose inhabitants enjoy unheard of longevity. Four years after the novel was first published, director Frank Capra made a movie of the story, creating his own version of Shangri-La, a fictional utopian lamasery located high in the mountains of Tibet.
The search for this ideal society has long continued. It can be found. But not in the pages of Hilton’s book, not in the 1933 Capra film, nor in director Charles Jarrett’s 1973 musical take on the plot. Not even inside the Tibet border. It took me more than 50 years, but I finally found it for myself. Shangri-La awaits in the Tsum Valley, in northern Nepal, deep in the Himalayan mountains. For years the Tsum valley has been a well-kept secret, off limits to travellers and trekkers.

Above: The trek is hard and long but the people and places you see along the way make the journey to Shangri-La well worth the effort.

This pristine, mainly Buddhist area close to the border of Tibet, kept its doors firmly closed to outsiders until 2008.
In May 2017, my husband Barry and I, preferring to walk the routes less travelled, decided to have a look for ourselves. Our trek began in the village of Arkhet, close to the larger centre of Arughat, in Gorkha province northwest of Kathmandu.
Three days of walking along the well-travelled Manaslu Circuit route brought us to Lopka, at 2,240m, the turn off for the Tsum Valley route. We followed narrow trails, some dangerously damaged by the 2015 earthquake, through densely forested steep-sided mountains. Ukalo (up) to trails high along the rocky hillsides, then oralo (back down) to cross the Arket Khola or river. After an overnight in Chumling and one last steep scramble across a dangerously eroded scree slope to 3,031m, the Tsum Valley proper opened at the village of Chhokang Paro. Fields of potatoes, buckwheat, winter wheat, barley and mustard surrounded hand-built stone houses. For the first time and only time we encountered other foreigners. A group of Canadians, led by Edmonton author and yoga instructor Jane Marshall, had come to visit The Compassion Project, a health post initiated by Jane. Pressing on further we camped in Nile on the shore of the Shiar Khola, lulled to sleep by rushing waters.
The next morning, we trekked bistari, bistari (slowly, slowly) up the continuous, gradual northward slope to Mu Gompa. The monastery for which this place is named, sat hovering in the clouds at 3,700m above a landscape reminiscent of the arid Tibetan plateau. This community of resident monks marks the highest and most northerly permanent human settlement in the Tsum Valley. Below the monastery, amid grazing yaks, our guides set up camp on a terraced camping area cut out of the hillside by industrious monks. Afternoon fog obscured our view of the surrounding mountains.
The next morning we were awakened by the tinkle of pony bells. Entire villages in lower Tsum had been left deserted as a parade of yaks, ponies, families and rifle toting military headed up the rocky trail toward the Tibet border in search of yartza gunbu, the rare caterpillar fungus found only at altitudes between 3,000m and 5,000m. Soon every available man, woman and child would be combing the mountainsides to dig for this odd part animal, part plant. Known as the Viagra of the Himalaya, considered an aphrodisiac by the Chinese, the caterpillars sell for about $10 (U.S.) apiece. A good season can create an entire year’s income for villagers who usually subsist on $2 a day.

Above: A monk emerges from one of the traditional homes that cling to the side of rocky mountains.

Cerulean skies unveiled the splendour of the dramatic peaks soaring vertically above the procession. I knew I had reached Shangri-La. There on the opposite side of the valley, suspended above a steep, inaccessible-looking precipice, an expansive green meadow stretched across a wide plateau dotted with stone houses.
After breakfast our guide Tula led us up the steep 300m trail to the gompa, or monastery. After touring the grounds and the row of sparsely furnished rooms reserved for retreat accommodation, we climbed even higher along a precarious, often exposed trail to Dhephu Donma, a tiny 815-year-old nunnery. Once back down to Mu Gompa, one of the four resident monks hospitably invited us into his tiny quarters for tea before our visit to the assembly hall.
As is the custom, we had left our boots outside as we entered the sacred space. After the visit I sat down beside Tula outside the monastery threshold to lace up my boots. Because our view was from a different and higher angle I could now make out Rikang Gumba, a small monastery at the north end of the verdant plateau across the valley. At the south end of the meadow a snowy pass disappeared beyond the meadows, leading around a bend toward the partially hidden Longnang glacier.
A scene from Lost Horizon flooded my memory. I could clearly imagine Conway’s plane crashing on the glacier and the survivors trekking through a blizzard and discovering a narrow pass into a welcoming green valley. From our roost at the monastery entrance it all came together. Like Hilton’s magical kingdom, the Tsum Valley has a secret entrance, green meadows, monasteries high on a mountain slope and a scientific discovery that made men, at least, feel younger. But to me it was the stillness, the serenity that encouraged the hope for longevity. In reality, it was more likely rambling up and down hillsides every day that slowed the aging process.
Whatever the cause, Hilton’s novel inspired a journey that took me more than five decades to complete. I will be forever grateful.

JUST THE FACTS

• Kathmandu-based trekking company Ace the Himalaya can arrange a similar tour for you. For information, go to http://www.acethehimalaya.com