The Search for Shangri-la

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Visiting a hidden world has always fascinated travellers and explorers. This selection of films from the BFI National Archive reveals extraordinary images taken in Tibet from 1922 -1950. The first film was taken during the 1922 attempt to climb Mount Everest. Subsequently British political officers undertook diplomatic missions – one such visit witnessed the Installation of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama in Lhasa. None of the original cameramen could have anticipated the devastating events that would overtake Tibet or predict the future for its religious leader. The images are poignant testimony and a vital record of that lost world