Published by: World Tibet Network News, Saturday, June 29 1996

By The Associated Press

Excerpts from ``Shangri-La: The Return to the World of Lost Horizon,'' by Eleanor Cooney and Daniel Altieri:

``Zhang walked to the top of a small ridge. The shabby little monastery was glorified by the pink-gold light of the setting sun. Icy peaks stood cold and high in the distance, receiving the parting rays. He thought about night atop those peaks. Night on one of the planets in the outer ring of the solar system could not be darker, colder or lonelier.

``What if there was a valley -- lush, green and hidden -- lying in the folds of those frozen crags? It was not impossible. These mountains produced their own weather systems; that he knew. Pressure vortexes, magnetic influences, inventions. Perhaps a pocket of teeming life, like something you see through a microscope when you look into a crack in a chunk of mineral. No, it was not impossible.

``So far, the clues he had been following had been a game, a challenge. But ... hadn't they led him right to this spot, right to a small boy who chattered away about a valley where most unusual things went on? And hadn't he seen a photograph of a place that should not exist, and a man who should have been old or in his grave right now?

``... What if the foolish old men in Peking were right? If he continued to follow the clues, might he come upon the ultimate treasure trove? Might he find the secret of eternal youth? Was he not Zhang, who had yet to meet the code he could not crack?''

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``Smell and color had become inseparable in her brain. There were brown smells, yellow and scarlet smells, purple smells, blue smells. She saw noblewomen in the street dressed in their colorful, embroidered finest, wearing their wealth in gold jewelry on their ears, heads and necks, their hair elaborately dressed and glistening with animal fat. She saw people in from the countryside, their garments still and shiny with filth, fingernails black with grime but faces and smiles radiant. Filth and brilliance, filth and brilliance. This land was a living work of art, and it was getting into her soul. And she saw something else in the eyes of the people: pity for the Chinese invaders, and prayers that they be forgiven. Extraordinary.''

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``Men of Han, Conway said to himself. You have arrived. The prophecies spoke of barbarians taking over the world and destroying the knowledge, and here you are. I know that barbarians come in many forms, and that the word is a relative term. We all take our turn at it at one time or another. One man's gentleman is another man's barbarian. There was a time when the Chinese were the protectors of Tibet against the barbarian hordes of the Mongols, but now it's all come round and it is you who are the invaders, you who trample the earth and soak it with blood. And walking at my side -- I, an Englishman, the ultimate barbarian-gentleman -- is one of your own. To her, you are now the enemy.''

End advance for Weekend Editions of July 5-7