Shambhala within the Soviet intelligence service, as well as rival efforts of the Soviet Foreign Commissariat that sent its own expedition to Tibet in 1924. French Buddhist Alexandra David-Néel associated Shambhala with Balkh in present-day Afghanistan, also offering the Persian "Sham-i-Bala", "elevated candle" as an etymology of its name. In a similar vein, the Gurdjieffian J. G. Bennett published speculation that Shambalha was "Shams-i-Balkh", a Bactrian sun temple. Shambhala may have been the inspiration for Shangri-La, a paradise on Earth hidden in a Tibetan valley, which features in the 1933 novel "Lost Horizon" by British author James Hilton. Shambhala In Hinduism
Paradise (novel) Paradise (novel) Paradise is a 1997 novel by Toni Morrison, and her first novel since winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. According to the author, it completes a "trilogy" that begins with "Beloved" (1987) and includes "Jazz" (1992). The book was chosen as an Oprah's Book Club selection for January 1998. Morrison wanted to call the novel War but was overridden by her editor. The book is structured into nine sections. The first is named "Ruby" after the town on which the book centers. The rest are named for women implicated variously in the life of the town