James Hilton
It is unsure exactly where and how Hilton got his ideas about Tibet. He may have been inspired to write Lost Horizon and to invent Shangri-La" by reading the National Geographic Magazine by Joseph Rock. Rock was an Austrian-American botanist and ethnologist who explored southwestern China and areas near Tibet. Hilton have also read articles by early travelers in Tibet that he found in the British Library for more ideas Christian Zeeman may also have been the model for the hero of the story. He disappeared while living in Japan and there were rumors that he was living secretly in a Zen Buddhist monastery. Some say that the isolated valley town of Weaverville, California, in far northern Trinity County, was Shangri-La. However, this is  a misunderstanding of a comment by Hilton in a 1941 interview. In that interview, Hilton said that Weaverville reminded him of Shangri-La. Coincidentally, Junction City (about 8 miles from Weaverville) now has a Tibetan Buddhist centre with the occasional Tibetan monks in saffron robes.