Original subtitles

[ Chimes Peal ]

Gates: We Have This Idea Of This Place,

This Paradise Up In The Mountains,

What We Call Shangri-La.

♪♪

Those Are All Caves. -Yes, They Are.

All Made By People.

Come On, Come On, Come On, Come On.

Be Careful.

Very Slippy And Incredibly Dangerous.

It's Not A Cave.

It's A City.

Oh, My Word!

--Captions By Vitac-- Www.Vitac.Com

Captions Paid For By Discovery Communications

♪♪

The Great Western Religions Tell Us

That Heaven Doesn't Have A Physical Address.

You Can't Use Google Maps

To Calculate The Route To Paradise.

But The Legend Of Shangri-La Says Differently.

♪♪

For Hundreds Of Years, Explorers, Spiritualists,

And, Well, Nutcases Have Been Lured To The Himalayas

By The Tantalizing Promise Of A Mystical, Hidden Valley,

A Real Utopia.

The Residents There, They Say, Never Age

And War And Sickness Are Just Distant Memories.

But, Surely, The Story Of Shangri-La Is Just That --

A Story, A Hopeful Myth About A Magical World.

But Maybe Not.

In The Most Remote Reaches Of Nepal,

Near The Border Of Tibet, Is An Area Known As The Mustang,

A Region That Has Been Closed Off To The Outside World

And, Seemingly, To The Passage Of Time.

But Now Archaeologists Have Been Granted Access

To Explore This Hidden Realm.

They've Discovered Thousands Of So-Called Sky Caves,

Man-Made Chambers Carved Into The Sides

Of Impossibly High Cliffs.

Who Made Them, How,

And What Secrets Are Hiding Inside?

Several Caves Have Already Been Explored

And Have Yielded Up Incredible Artifacts

And Manuscripts That May Point To A Real Paradise.

I Plan To Join A Team Of Explorers

Near The Roof Of The World, Seeking The Truth

Behind The Mythical Kingdom Of Shangri-La.

The Mission Is Dangerous,

But The Reward Could Be Nothing Short Of Heaven On Earth.

♪♪

My Name Is Josh Gates.

With A Degree In Archaeology And A Passion For Exploration,

I Have A Tendency To End Up In Some Very Strange Situations.

Good Lord!

[ Laughs ]

My Travels Have Taken Me To The Ends Of The Earth

As I Investigate The Greatest Legends In History.

We're Good To Fly. Let's Go.

This Is "Expedition Unknown."

My Expedition Begins

Half A World Away From The United States,

In The Himalayan Nation Of Nepal.

[ Flute Plays ]

[ Birds Crying ]

♪♪

Kathmandu, A City Of More Than A Million People,

Perched At The Intersection Of Faith And Commerce.

You Step Off The Curb Here, And You're Swept Up In A River

Of Buddhists And Hindus,

Of Taoists And Trekkers,

All Somehow Blended Together In A Beautiful Chaos.

♪♪

[ Horns Honk ]

Kathmandu Has Long Been A Destination

For Spiritual Pilgrims

And A Magnet For Daring Climbers From Around The World.

Inside One Of The City's Many Bookshops,

I Even Manage To Learn My First Lesson About Shangri-La.

So We All Know And Use The Term "Shangri-La"

To Describe Anything That Seems Like A Paradise On Earth.

It Was First Coined In 1933 By A British Writer

Named James Hilton In His Novel "Lost Horizon."

And, In The Book, He Uses It To Describe This Mystical Valley

In The Himalayas, A Place Of Eternal Happiness,

Whose Residents Are Nearly Immortal.

But It Turns Out That Hilton Based The Term Shangri-La

On Something Much Older.

♪♪

To Learn About The Real Origins Of Shangri-La,

I'm Meeting A Monk At Swayambhunath Temple,

Otherwise Known

As Charlton Heston's Worst Nightmare.

Monkeys -- Very Cute, But They Can Be

A Bit Moody And Aggressive.

These Monkeys Are Considered Holy,

Which Means That Nobody Messes With Them

And They Basically Run The Joint.

Easy. Easy.

I Have No Idea Where All These Monkeys Are Going.

I Assume There's A Matinee

"King Kong" Screening Happening Up Here.

[ Chattering ]

At The Top Of The Temple, I Emerge Into Another World

A Realm Of Incense,

Of Prayer Wheels, And Of Sacred Spaces.

I Must Have Come To The Right Place.

After All, The Lama That I'm Meeting Is Named Buddha.

We Have This Idea Of This Place,

This Paradise Up In The Mountains,

What We Call Shangri-La.

Is It Based, Though, On Something Real?

Yeah. We Don't Call Shangri-La.

Traditionally, We Call It Shambhala.

Shambhala.

Shambhala Is A Sacred Land, Pure Land.

It's A Kind Of A Physical Place,

But We Can't Go There With Mortal Body

That We Have Now.

Tibetan Buddhism Teaches

The Pursuit Of Enlightenment, A Mental State Achieved

Through Meditation, Encapsulated By Pure Joy

And A Total Release Of A Sense Of Self.

Shambhala Is The Physical Expression

Of This Enlightenment.

If I Go To Shambhala, All My Suffering Is Gone.

It's Only Bliss There.

It's Blissful World.

So How Do I Get To Shambhala? -Very Easy.

You Can Go To Himalayas And Meditate

And Then Begin Your Journey.

I See.

So Shambhala Is A State Of Being.

But Could It Also Be Related To A Real Place?

There's A Team Of Archaeologists Trying

To Figure That Out Right Now In A Remote,

Ancient Kingdom Within Nepal Known As The Mustang.

They've Recently Begun

To Explore A Valley Filled With Mysterious Sky Caves

And Whether This Could've Been A Real-Life Shambhala.

My Mission Is To Join Them And To Find Out.

♪♪

But Before Journeying Into The Mustang,

It's Important That I Get Properly Equipped.

-I Have You Want. -You Have What I Want?

-Oh, Yeah. -What Do I Want?

[ Whimsical Tune Plays ]

This Is What I Want?Yeah.

A Pornographic Pipe.

You Know Me Too Well.Ah. [ Laughs ]

But Kathmandu Is Also A Staging Area

For The Nearly 100,000 Trekkers

Who Pass Through These Crowded Markets Every Year.

Stores Are Filled With Climbing Gear

For Even The Most Hardcore Expeditions.

Whew. Sir, Is It 100 Degrees In Here?

I Don't Think It's Gonna Be This Cold.

Okay. If You Say So.

You're The Expert.

I Just Got To Get My Shoes On Here.

I'm Close. [ Panting ]

Just Got To Get My --

I Feel Like I'm In "A Christmas Story" Right Now.

I Got This, Guys. Nobody Jump In.

♪♪

By The Light Of A New Day,

My Crew And I Head To Kathmandu's Airport.

We're Accompanied By Our Fixer And My Dear Friend, Mahendra,

One Of My Most Trusted Contacts In The Region.

To Link Up With The Archaeologists

Investigating The Sky Caves Of Mustang,

I'll Need To Undertake One Hell Of A Commute.

First, We'll Have To Fly By Plane From Kathmandu

To The Remote Landing Strip In Jomsom.

From There, We'll Take A Convoy Of 4X4s North

Into The Mustang Valley And The Village Of Chhusang.

Unfortunately, My Crew And I Have Arrived

During A Political Firestorm.

Tensions Are Brewing To The West, And India Has Decided

To Shut Off All Fuel Flowing Into Nepal.

The Result?

A Crippling Gasoline Shortage

That Threatens To Derail My Entire Expedition.

♪♪

With No Fuel, A Lot Of People Are Stranded Here,

Turning The Domestic Terminal Here Into Bedlam.

Our Flight To Jomsom Is No Different.

Our Fixer, Mahendra, Talks To The Pilot

And Brings Back What I'm Hoping Is Good News.

What's The Word?

A Charter Flight, Yeah.

Charter's Canceled?Yeah.

♪♪

♪♪

Gates: My Crew And I Are Trying To Get Out Of Kathmandu Airport

To Meet Archaeologists Working In The Himalayas,

Investigating A Real-Life Shangri-La.

But Things Aren't Looking Good.

Charter's Canceled? -Yeah.

100%?

-No Gas. -Yeah.

-So They Can't Fuel The Plane. -Yeah.

So How Do We Get To Jomsom?

Well, Let's See If They Can Hook Us Up.

Thanks.

Mahendra Goes To Wheel And Deal.

And We Wait.

20 Minutes Later, We Get Our Answer.

-You Got It? -Yeah, We Got 'Em.

-Seriously? -Yeah.

We Have A Limited Window There,

But We Should Be Okay.

Let's Do It.

There's A Catch, Though.

Due To The Altitude,

We Have To Limit The Weight Of Our Gear,

And We Can't Go Over By A Single Pound.

13.6 Plus?

-5.5. -5.5 Plus?

-16.3. -16.3.

So We're At 579 Pounds.

What's Our Max Weight?

-880 Pounds. -880. We're Good. We're Under.

-All Right. -All Right.

Everybody Had A Salad For Dinner Last Night?

Yep.

With Our Gear Stripped Down, We Hit The Runway.

Due To Its Location, Kathmandu Airport

Is Socked In By Fog Nearly Every Morning

And All Manner Of Aircraft Have To Wait For A Window

To Punch Through The Mist.

Incidents And Accidents Are Common.

I Try To Put That Out Of My Mind, Though,

As We Climb Aboard Our Modified, High-Altitude Chopper.

♪♪

Coordinates? Check. Seatbelts? Check.

Fuel? Sure.

[ Voice Over Radio ] Tower --

Speaker: Clear For Takeoff.

Gates: As We Rise Over Kathmandu,

The Scope And Scale Of The City Comes Into View.

And Then, We Enter The Clouds.

This Is, In Short,

Some Of The Most Stressful Flying On Earth.

It Doesn't Matter How High The Helicopter Rises

Because All Around Us Are

8 Of The 10 Tallest Mountains In The World.

♪♪

♪♪

There Is Nothing In The World

To Which I Can Compare This View,

No Metaphor To Do It Justice.

Beyond The Glass, There Is Only The Towering,

Snowcapped Majesty Of Himalaya.

Is It Any Wonder That Buddhists Consider

This The Home Of The Gods?

The Pilot Navigates Between Two Soaring Peaks.

And While It Seems Like The Absolute Ends

Of The Earth Up Here,

I'm Amazed To See A Village And An Airstrip Below.

Fuel Is Running Low.

And We Circle In To Land

With Nearly 50-Mile-An-Hour Wind Gusts.

♪♪

Let's Go Find Shangri-La.

♪♪

We Suck In The Thin, Cool Air

And Enter What Feels Like A Waking Dream,

A Picture-Perfect Village 8,800 Feet Above Sea Level.

This Is The Village Of Jomsom.

It's Little More Than A Street With A Few Little Shops

And Guest Houses For Trekkers Who Make It Up This High.

For Us, A Staging Area Where We Can Begin

Prepping Our Vehicles For The Road Ahead.

And I Do Mean Theroad.

♪ Somebody Take Me ♪

♪ Home ♪

There's Only One Here.

♪ Destination -- Anywhere ♪

Here's The Plan -- From Jomsom, We'll Follow The Snaking Canyon

North To The Town Of Chhusang, To Meet The Archaeologists.

From There, Our Convoy Will Push Further North,

To Investigate The Mysterious Sky Caves

That Could Be The Real-Life Shangri-La.

♪ Destination -- Anywhere ♪

♪♪

A Few Miles North, We Pass A Faded Sign.

Rough Translation -- "Entering The Mustang Region --

No Trespassing By Outsiders."

This Is A World That Was Totally Closed Off To Foreigners

Until The 1990S.

Even Today, Entry Permits Like Ours Are Extremely Limited.

The Result? A Place Out Of Time

And Nearly Untouched By The Modern World.

It's Almost Night When We Arrive At Our Destination.

Welcome To Chhusang.

This Is A Tea House

And You Find These All Over The Himalayas.

They're Basically Very Simple Guest Houses;

Caters To A Lot Of Trekkers.

A Family Will Run This Place.

They Have Food, Hot Tea, And Coffee.

They Are Very Simple, But Essential Accommodations.

These Are Lifesavers Up Here.

There Is No Heat Here Or Electricity At Night,

It Doesn't Look Like, But That's Okay Because,

Well, It's Not Outdoors.

I Mean, It's Almost Outdoors.

It's Really Cold In This Room.

Home Sweet Home. Brr. [ Cow Lows ]

♪♪

In The Morning, My Crew And I Get Busy Packing

For The Onward Journey

And Right On Schedule Is Archaeologist Mark Aldenderfer

And Mohan Singh Lama From Nepal's Archaeological Ministry.

This Is Your Office? -Yes, This Is My Office.

That's Right. -What An Office, Huh?

Mark May Look Like The Lost Allman Brother,

But He Happens To Be One Of The Leading Experts

On High-Altitude Civilizations.

So We're Just Getting The Cars Loaded Up,

But While They're Doing That, Maybe You Give Me A Walk Around?

-Yeah, Let's Do It. -Please Lead The Way.

-Let's Take Off. -Yeah. Come On.

We Hike Out Of Chhusang To Find Our First Clue

To Shambhala's Location, And Mark Leads Me To A View

That I've Traveled 8,000 Miles To See.

Okay, This Is Stunning.

It's A Pretty Extraordinary Place, Isn't It?

Those Are All Caves. -All Caves, All Made By People.

-All Those Little Black Dots? -All Made By People.

They're Not Natural Caves At All.

Do We Know Who Built Them?

We Believe That The People Who Built These

Were From The Tibetan Plateau.

How Many Individual Caves, Total, Do You Think There Are?

I Would Guess There's More Than 10,000.

More Than 10,000?

And, Of That 10,000,

How Many Have Explorers Been Into?

-300. -[ Laughs ]

You Guys Got A Lot Of Work To Do.

The Cliffs Are Made Of Very Poor Sandstone

Riddled With Larger Rocks.

The Result Is A Fragile Conglomerate

That Can Collapse At The Slightest Touch.

Several Climbers Have Been Injured,

Attempting To Reach Some Of The Caves,

Which Is Why Most Are Still Unexplored.

Now, If You Want Something Hard To Get Into,

Check That Out Up There.

-Those Are Caves? -Yes, They Are.

That's Insane!

I Mean, Those Must Be 1,000 Feet Off The Ground.

So Those Could Be Filled With Archaeological Treasures?

Yes.

♪♪

To Understand Who Made These Cave Complexes

And Whether They Could Be Related To Shambhala,

Mark Guides The Convoy Further North Into The Valley.

His Route Will Take Us To Caves Near The Village Of Chhoser

And Then To Lo Manthang --

Once The Capital Of An Ancient Kingdom

And The Largest Village In The Region.

How Would You Describe The Roads North Of Here?

There's Some Parts Of It That Are Decent,

And Then Most Of The Road Is Quite Scrappy.

When You Say, "Some Parts Are Decent."

A 1/2-Mile.

You're Gonna Want To Use Whatever Driving Skill

You Have Achieved Over The Years Of Your Life.

This Is The Ultimate Test.

How Bad Could It Be?

♪♪

Bad.

There's No Pavement, And Instead Of A Shoulder,

You Get A 300-Foot Drop Into A New Career In Archaeology.

As A Subject.

As We Progress, The Road Gets Markedly Steeper.

Then It Gets Downright Sinister.

Ice.

Wow, Look At This.

Okay. Here We Go.

♪♪

I See Water.

Come On, Come On, Come On, Come On, Come On.

Come On, Come On, Come On.

♪♪

♪♪

Gates: Struggling To Pass 12,000 Feet Above Sea Level,

My Road Trip To The Sky Caves Of Nepal Hits A Major Roadblock.

Literally.

I Get Out Of The Car To Assess The Situation.

We Might Be Stuck.

Cascading Ice And Water From The Peaks Above

Have Turned An Unstable Road Into A Death Trap.

One Of Our Vehicles Is Now Stuck In The Slushy Mess.

Real Icy In Here And Wet And So Much Weight

In The Cargo Vehicles That You Just Can't Get Through It.

Our Team Tries To Fill The Hole With Flat Stones

Over Which The 4X4 Can Roll.

Ah!

[ Speaking Native Language ]

Go, Go, Go, Go, Go, Go, Go, Go! Yeah!

Nice Work.

Out Of Breath, But Safe, We Climb Back Into The 4X4s

And Drive Until The Steep And Rocky Terrain Forces Us To Walk.

-Stop Here. -Yes, Sir.

No More Road. On Foot.

♪♪

Okay. Let's Get Ready To Hike.

♪♪

The Landscape Here Is Utterly Empty.

For The First Time In My Life,

I'm Getting A Good Idea Of How Buzz Aldrin Must Have Felt.

Whew!

Not Easy.

[ Choir Sings ]

Mark Has Brought Us Here Because Archaeologists

Have Identified Another Collection Of Sky Caves,

And Locals Claim To Have Spotted

Other Structures That Have Never Been Explored.

We Hike On, Enveloped By The Clearest Sunshine

And Purest Air On Earth.

Though, As We Pass 13,000 Feet,

I Could Use A Bit More Of The Air.

[ Panting ] Hold On.

♪♪

Caves, Yeah?

♪♪

Hours Of Hiking, And We've Arrived

At Some Seriously Remote, Manmade Caves.

Okay. Now, We Just Have To Get In.

Get The Ladders Goin'. We'll Get Up There.

The Nepalese Team Quickly Lashes The Two Ladders Together

Into An Extension Ladder In Which I Have Zero Confidence.

Okay.

Let's Get Into It.

One Of Our Local Guides Takes The First Trip Up To The Cave.

Okay.

Next, It's Mark's Turn.

You Make It, Mark?

I'm Good.

Okay, I'm Comin' Up.

♪♪

This Is One Crazy Ladder.

Almost There.

Okay, Here We Go.

Oh, Wow.

Climbing In, I See That The Small Opening

In The Cliff Was Just The Beginning.

A Low Passage Leads To A Sunsoaked Chamber

And On The Walls -- Painted Art From More Than 500 Years Ago.

♪♪

[ Gasps ]

I Was Not Expecting This.

Oh, My Word.

This Was Worth The Walk Up, I Hope, No?

Oh, My God, Big Time.

That Is Incredible.

From Floor To Ceiling, The Walls Are Covered

With Meticulously Painted Buddhist Imagery,

And Within That Art, Clues To Help Understand

The Cave Itself.

What Makes This Unique Is That There's

Artistic Designs In Different Hands.

So, In Other Words, A Number Of Different Individuals

Came Here And Painted This On The Walls Of This Cave.

When You Look At Each Of These Panels,

There Is A Variety Of Different Artistic Styles

That Are Represented On This Wall.

-Okay. -So You Take A Look

At This Individual Here With, You Know,

The Staring Black Eyes Looking Right Out At You.

There's An Identical Image Found In A Monastery

In Ladakh, Which Is In Northwestern India.

Only One Of Two Images Like That In The World.

-That's Correct. -Wow.

But That Tells You The Strength

And Power Of This Place.

The Existence Of Work By Different Ancient Artists,

As Well As The Same Painting In Two Different Places,

Means That People Traveled Hundreds Of Miles By Foot

To This Cave As A Destination.

Sadly, It Is Vanishing Before Our Very Eyes.

They're Gonna Be Reclaimed, I Would Think, At Some Point,

By The Environment.

Even Though It's Dry, It's Still Wet Enough

That, You Know, If Water Begins

To Seep In Cracks, The Paint Peels Off,

Right.The Art Is Gone.

In 100 Years, It Is Almost Certain This Place Will Be Gone.

Perhaps, Like Shambhala Itself,

One Day, These Caves Will Be Thought Of As A Myth,

So I Count Myself Lucky To Have Seen Them.

Mark, This Was Amazing.

We Carefully Move Back Through The Narrow Cave Entrance

And Down The Ladder To Continue Our Investigation.

We're Trying To Spot Never-Before-Excavated

Rock Structures That We Were Alerted To

By The Locals In The Village Below.

We Carefully Hike Across The Sheer Ridge.

There's Little Room For Error Here.

Watch Your Step.

Once Across, We Look For A Way To The Top Of The Rise.

♪♪

If You're Afraid Of Heights, Here's A Pro Tip For You --

Don't Ever Lean A Homemade Ladder

Up Against A Crumbling Rock Tower At The Edge Of A Cliff.

Wall Is Crumbling Here, Guys.

Be Careful. Back Up, Back Up, Back Up.

You Okay?

It's Really Sketchy Up Here.

So, What Do We Got?

When You Have Small Chambers Like This,

There Are Only One Of Two Things Usually Put Inside --

Something Stored Or Human Burials.

So, Let's See What The Hell's In There.

♪♪

Oh, My God.

♪♪

♪♪

Gates: At Nearly 14,000 Feet In The Himalayas,

We've Discovered A Rock Tower

That Could Help Unravel The Mystery

Of Why People Came To This Valley So Many Centuries Ago.

Aldenderfer: Now, Let's See What The Hell's In There.

♪♪

We Got Human Burials.

Oh, My God.

Wow. -Very Good Score.

Any Sense Of How Old This Might Be?

It's Earlier Than 800 Ad.

This Is Actually An Amazingly Important Find.

This Is Astounding.

We've Discovered Human Remains

That Indicate That, Even In Ancient Times,

People Considered These Mountains Sacred.

By Extension, The Dizzyingly High Sky Caves

May Have Been Put Up Here For The Same Reason --

To Be Closer To The Gods.

No Doubt That Many Of The Caves Were Considered Holy Ground

For Cremations And Burials Of The Dead.

Look At That. This Is A Group Of People

That Still Are Largely A Mystery, Right?

If It's As Early As I Think It Could Be,

It Might Help Us Recalibrate

What Our Thinking Is About This Region.

This Is A Really Tangible Link To The Past.

♪♪

After Photographing The Site, We Hike Back Down The Mountain

To Our 4X4s And Drive Toward Our Next Stop --

The Ancient City Of Lo Manthang.

It's Dark By The Time We Arrive At Our Tea House,

So We Won't Get Our First Look Until Morning.

♪♪

Morning In The Mustang Region.

We're Only About 20 Miles From The Border Of Tibet,

And We're On The Doorstep Of A Place

That I've Traveled A Long Way To See.

This Is Lo Manthang.

Population -- About 1,400 People,

But, Believe It Or Not, That Still Makes This

The Biggest City For Hundreds Of Miles.

This Was Once The Capital Of The Kingdom Of Lo,

A Walled Fortress With 14 Guard Posts

And Two Gates To Keep Out Potential Invaders.

Today, This Is Not Just An Entrance To A City.

It Is A Portal To Another Time And Place.

♪♪

Welcome To The Past,

A City Made Of Mud, Sweat, And Prayers.

This Isn't A Tourist Attraction.

This Isn't A Reenactment.

This Is, For All Intents And Purposes,

Life In The Middle Ages.

It Is Also The Best-Preserved Example

Of Ancient Tibetan Culture Left On Earth.

Residents Even Collect And Dry Out Yak Dung

To Burn In Their Stoves.

Excuse Me. Just --

If I Could Just -- -[ Lowing ]

It's Fine.

Hi.

As I Continue My Stroll Through The 1400S,

I Notice That The Women Of Lo Manthang

Seem To Be Doing A Lot Of The Heavy Lifting.

Meanwhile, I Find The Guys In Town

Hanging Out At The Local Bar.

Namaste.

Just Without The Bar Part.

What Are We Talkin' About? Women? Money?

The Usual.

[ Lows ]

Sure Enough, It Isn't Long Before Someone Brings A Tray.

And It Isn't Just Tea They're Pouring.

For Me? -Yeah.

-What Is This? -Oh, Very Good.

Smells Good.

Whew! Whoo-Hoo-Hoo! -Yoo-Hoo-Hoo-Hoo!

Hoo-Hoo!

Think I Just Found Enlightenment.

This Is Raksi, Nepalese Moonshine.

Cheers. Cheers. -Cheers.

I'd Tell You What It Tastes Like,

But I Can No Longer Taste Anything Else For Comparison.

[ Laughter ]

Aha!

Ahh. You Guys Are The Best.

I Love You Guys.

Let's Always Stay In Touch. Yeah.

Because I'm Driving, I Leave My Full Glass Of Raksi

With Norm And Cliff Back There And Take A Stroll

Before We Load Up And Move Further Into The Mustang.

♪♪

Okay, Convoy, We're Movin' Out. Here We Go.

Where Are We Headed?

Today, We're Headed Toward The Martung Area.

Apparently, There's A Cave System Called Pumamba.

And What's In The Pumamba Caves?

Well, We Don't Know What's In The Pumamba Cave.

-A-Ha! -They Have Not Been Explored

By Anybody's Team, So I Think That

They're Worth Taking A Look At.

For Sure.

God! Just A Little Bumpy In Here.

The Road To Paradise Is Far From Paved.

We're Driving Near The Restricted Border Of Tibet

To A Valley That Contains The Mysterious Sky Caves.

We Drive Through The Seemingly Barren Valley,

Inventing The Road As We Go.

But Soon, We Hit The End Of The Line.

Okay. So Here We Are.

Pumamba Is Just A Little Bit Further Downvalley.

Okay. Here We Go.

We're Less Than An Hour's Hike To The Caves,

But Once The Sun Goes Down, It Gets Really Cold Around Here,

So We'll Need To Make Camp Before We Set Off On Foot.

Josh, You Want Me To Carry One Of Those?

No, No, I Got This, Brian.

-Are You Sure? -No, No, Don't Worry About It.

All Right. You Look Pretty Solid.

You Know, You Just Stand There With That One Small Camera.

-Okay. -I Got All This.

[ Clapping ] Josh Gates Finally Doin' Some Work

Around Here, Finally.

This Is How I'm Gonna [Bleep] Kill All Of You.

I'm Gonna Leave You All Out Here For Dead.

♪♪

With Camp Set, It's Time For Another High-Altitude Hike.

We're Setting Out To Survey A Group Of Sky Caves

That Have Never Been Explored.

The Enigmatic Caverns Of This Region

Have Been Linked To The Shangri-La Legend,

So We're Eager To See What Might Be Hiding Inside.

Is That It? -That's Pumamba,

Right Dead Ahead. -Wow.

So Nobody's Been Up Inside Them Before?

No. This Is Uncharted Territory For Us.

♪♪

Caves Are Absolutely Stunning And Really Mysterious Looking,

But As You Get Close To Them, They're Also Something Else.

They're Terrifying.

The Enormity Of The Caves Is Finally Clear To Me,

And One Thing Is For Certain --

We're Going To Need A Bigger Ladder.

That Is A Real Challenge.

[Bleep] Me.

♪♪

♪♪

I'm In The Himalayan Mountains Of Nepal,

Searching For The Origins Of The Shangri-La Legend

And My Investigation Just Got A Whole Lot Harder.

Good Lord. That Is A Real Challenge.

Looks Doable. You Know,

With The Right Kind Of Ropes And A Good Guide,

You Should Be Able To Get In There, No Problem.

♪♪

You'regoing In There. -No, I'm Not Going In There.

-Really? -Really.

Bad Back.

I Got Bad Everything, Mark. -[ Laughs ]

High-Altitude Caves, Like This, Are Mark's Passion,

But, Since He's Recovering From A Recent Injury,

He Won't Be Able To Attempt An Ascent.

Who Is The Man In Charge, Then?

I Think That The Most Important Thing To Do Is

To Put This All In Nima's Hands 'Cause He's The Pro.

He Know How To Get Into These Places.

Our Local Team Member Nima Has Been Climbing

In This Region All His Life And Knows Firsthand

How Dangerous These Crumbling Cliffs Really Are.

First, We Need To Put Some Anchors Up There

And Then Traverse That Scary, Rough Section,

And Then Climb Up To The Rocky Point.

Okay, Great. Let's Get To Work.

♪♪

The Cliffs Here Are Made Up Of The Softest Rock

This Side Of Barry Manilow,

Which Is Why They're Collapsing To Dust Before Our Eyes.

My Cameraman, Jj, Sums Up The Climb Very Succinctly.

If This Snaps, I Die.

So, Order Of Events --

You're Gonna Go Up First. -Yep.

You Guys Are Gonna Set The Anchor Points.

We're Followin' Up, And We'll Be Talkin' To You

On Walkie-Talkie. -Sounds Good. Climb Safe.

-Hey, Thanks, Man. -Good Luck.

We Carefully Hike

Up The Lower Embankment, While Nima Sets Pitons Into The Rock.

We'll Then Clip In To A Fixed Rope

And Move Together Across The Cliff Face.

The Problem Is That These Canyons Are Made

Of Loose Conglomerate.

Step In The Wrong Place, And The Whole Hillside Can Come Down

Like The World's Biggest Game Of Jenga.

There They Go.

♪♪

I Thought Shangri-La Was Supposed To Be Peaceful.

This Is Terrifying.

We Make It Up To The First Plateau

And Then Clip In To The Next Section Of Rope

And Ease Our Way Across The Face Of The Cliff.

Very Slippy And Very Loose.

These Are The Widowmakers Right Here.

There's Just Huge Boulders And All This Loose Conglomerate

Waiting To Let Go Makes This Incredibly Dangerous.

♪♪

Whew. Got A Kind Of Foothold.

Okay, Now What? What Now? What?

I Got It.

Finally, We Make It To The Edge Of The Caves.

-Yeah. -Yeah.

Hey.

That Was [Bleep] Stupid. Oh, God.

Look At How Sketchy This Thing Is Now That We're Inside Of It.

It Looks Twice As Bad.

How The Hell Am I Gonna Get Down From Here?

The Cave Openings That We Saw From The Ground Are Deceptive.

Now That We're Up Here, There's More Than Meets The Eye.

The Caves Are Merely Windows To A Huge Network

Of Interconnected Tunnels.

This Place Is Like A Massive Ant Farm For People.

On The Right, Room After Room.

On The Left? Not Much.

[Bleep]

♪♪

Long Way Down.

Check This Out.

♪♪

Wow!

This Is So Cool. Look At This.

Inside The Caverns, There's Construction --

Mysterious, Mud-Brick Enclosures Of Every Shape And Size.

Lots Of Little Chambers In Here.

There's Actually So Much Architecture,

Once You Get Inside Of These Caves;

They Actually Have Design To Them.

I Make Sure To Take Dozens Of Photos

For Mark And Mohan To Analyze Later.

Okay, Good. Let's Keep Movin'.

The Number Of Passages Is Disorienting.

Left, Right, Up, Down.

It's A Total Labyrinth.

But With Effort Comes Reward.

Oh, Look At This! Come Here.

Look. Look At That.

Beautiful Piece Of Ceramic.

How Cool Is That?

Mark, Can You Read Me?

Yes, Josh. Come In.

I Found Some Beautiful Pottery Up Here, Mark.

Looks Like A Bowl Of Some Kind, Black On The Outside.

Okay. We Think It's A Cooking Pot.

That Is Unreal.

We Explore For Hours,

Carefully Traversing Passage After Passage.

In Each Chamber, We Find The Remains Of A Vanished Culture.

Room After Room After Room.

It's Not A Cave.

It's A City.

Thousands Of People Could've Lived Up Here.

It's Incredible.

But Just When I Think I've Explored

Every Nook And Cranny...

Oh, My God. Look At This! Look At This.

Come Here, Look.

Holy [Bleep]

Oh, My God.

Mark, We Got Artwork Up Here.

There's Painting On The Wall Here.

It Looks Like A White And Red Plaster.

It Looks Tibetan.

That Is Totally Fantastic.

Make Sure You Get A Good Documentation Of This.

I'll Take A Lot Of Photos For You.

That Is Somethin'.

I Mean, We Are The First People To See This.

You Are The First People To See This In Probably 500 Years.

[ Chuckles ] That Is Discovery.

This Is Awesome.

The Painting Is Vivid,

Spelling Out A Message From Across Time.

Josh For Mark. Come In.

-Mark Here, Josh. -What Can You See Above Me,

Anything? How High Up Am I In The Complex?

You're In The Upper Window.

There's No Place Higher For You To Go.

I Do Have A Question For You, Though.

Yeah, Hit Me.

Have You Found Shambhala Yet?

[ Laughs ]

Maybe I Have.

Copy That.

You Think, "Why Would Anybody Want To Live In A Cave

On The Side Of A Cliff?" And Then You See The View.

♪♪

For A Life Of Quiet Reflection,

There's No Better Place In The World To Be.

Oh, Man.

Imagine Living Here.

Pull Up The Ladders, And No Army Could Take This Place.

You're In The Ultimate Fortress Of Solitude.

With The Sun Beginning To Set, It's Time To Head Back To Camp.

As We Warm Up By The Fire, I Sit Down With Mark And Mohan

To Review Our Pictures Of The Caves.

And Here Is The Painting.

Wow, That Is Just Amazingly Beautiful.

Look How Well-Preserved That Is.

It's Really Clear And Crisp. -Yeah.

Not Often Do We Find Whole Wall Segments

That Have Painting On It Like This.

Oh, Cool. What Are We Looking At Here?

A Buddhist Mantra.

Okay.

Looking At The Structure Of The Rooms,

Looking At The Paintings, What Can We Say About This Place?

This Is Home.

This Is Home To Families

That Came Down From The Tibetan Plateau

At Some Point After 1,000 Ad.

Why Go Through All The Trouble

Of Going Up To These Really Dangerous Cliffside Areas

And Hollowing Out These Caves?

You Know, Arable Land Is So Scarce Here.

What People Are Doing Is

Not Living On That Arable Land.

Keep In Mind, There's A Great Deal

Of Political Instability In The Entire Region,

So People Are Likely Also Putting Themselves

Into These High Places To Protect Themselves

From Other Folks Coming Through

That Might Want To Take That Away From Them.

That Security Is One Of The Most Crucial Aspects

Of The Shambhala Myth,

A Safe Place Free From The Threat Of War.

But The Biggest Clue About Whether These Caves

Were A Real Shangri-La

Is The Meditation Painting We Discovered.

The Locals Have Told Mark And Mohan

That They've Seen Similar Paintings

At A Remote And Hidden Monastery,

A Place That Might Have Been Built By The Same People

Who Constructed The Sky Caves.

Could This Location Reveal The Truth

Behind Whether This Place Was Really A Heaven On Earth?

With Temperatures Now Well Below Freezing,

The Answer Will Have To Wait Until Tomorrow.

♪♪

My Team And I Face The Day

And Get Ready For One Last Adventure.

We Notice Some New Arrivals At Camp.

Headed Out To A Place Called Chuzum.

And What Is This Place?

Well, It's Got A Cave Monastery.

It's A Branch Of Tibetan Buddhism,

Which Is Relatively Rare Around Here.

And Has Anybody Looked Inside This Place?

Never.

This Is A Place Totally Unseen By The Outside World.

Only The Locals, Who Continue

To Maintain The Monastery For Rituals, Know Its Location.

No Foreigner Has Ever Filmed There.

[ Snorting ]

♪♪

We're Accompanied By A Local Monk, Who Carries A Key

And His Blessing For Us To See The Holy Site.

The Landscape Is Frigid And Vast

And Roads Are Nonexistent.

Though These Valleys Seem Like The Surface Of The Moon,

There Is Life Here.

Grass Growing And Signs Of Agricultural Terraces.

As We Get Further Up Valley...

There It Is!

See It? You See It?

Want To Know More About Tonight's Expedition?

Then Set A Course For Travelchannel.Com,

Where You Can Go Behind The Scenes

With Exclusive Photos, Never-Before-Aired Footage,

And More.

♪♪

See It? You See It?

Look At That!

On The Trail Of The Legendary Shambhala, We've Traveled

To One Of The Most Hidden Monasteries On Earth.

Few People In The Modern Age Have Ever Seen This Place.

Okay, Let's Tie Up The Horses Here,

And We'll Try To Find A Way Up On Foot.

[ Bell Rings ]

We Hike Toward The Cliff.

It Seems Impassable, But The Monk Leads Us

To A Narrow And Hidden Slot In The Rocks.

Then, Round The Bend,

We Encounter Stunning Religious Murals

Painted With The Same Pigments We Saw At The Sky Caves.

That's Just Beautiful.

Wow!

And Then, Like Characters From "Lost Horizon,"

The Weary Western Travelers Arrive Hungry And Tired

At The Door Of A Remote Monastery.

♪♪

Wow!

This Is Gorgeous.

This Is Unbelievable.

Wood Beams Half A Millennia Old And Representations

Of Kalachakra, The Deity Who Guards Shambhala.

Well, Shall We See What's Inside?

Let's Do.

The Lama Produces A Key And Unlocks The Door To A Place

That Has Been Hidden Away For Centuries.

♪♪

This Is Like Something From Another Age.

I Mean, It's Like A Time Capsule.

Very Much So.

But As Staggering As This Is,

It's Nothing Compared To What's Waiting In The Inner Sanctuary.

Wow.

♪♪

Oh, My Word!

Look At This.

Here We Are, At Last, The Home Of The Gods,

Deities, Created In Intricate Detail

In The Darkness Of This Holy Site.

They All Are Demanding Their Sacrifice.

Each Of Them Has A Skull Cup In Their Left Hand.

This Is The Top Of A Human Skull?

Correct.

Tantric Offerings Are Put Inside Those,

Sometimes Blood, Sometimes Grain,

Sometimes Water.

That Is Something Else.

The Statues Are Adorned With Armor And Weapons

Brought Here Over The Course Of Centuries.

There Are Crossbows From The 1400S,

Helmets From Tibet, And Even Armor From The Era

Of Chinggis Khaan. Wait A Minute.

Is This What I Think It Is, Mark?

-If Only. -Oh.

I Know Where You're Goin' With It, But It's Not.

Boy, For A Second, I Thought We Really Hit The Jackpot Here.

Returning To The Monastery's Outer Chamber,

We Try To Take Stock Of What We've Seen.

This Idea Of Shangri-La, What's Your Impression Of It

Now That You've Seen The Collection In Here?

It Looks Like A Very Uninhabitable Place,

But, Yet, Look What They Do It.

They Create All Of This Beauty And All Of This,

You Know, Ritual And All Of This Circumstance.

They Reflect That Idea Of The Shangri-La.

They've Turned This Place Into Something That Is Magical.

It Is. Very Much So.

This Is The Final Puzzle Piece

In Our Exploration Of Nepal's Sky Caves.

At Lower Altitudes, We Saw Caves Used By Buddhists

As Workshops For Skilled Artists.

The High Caves We Climbed Into

Revealed A City Inside A Mountain,

A Place For Meditation, And A Home

With Impenetrable Security, Which No Army Could Breach.

And Now Here, Evidence Of Sustained Agriculture,

Terraces That Transformed Valleys Into Farms,

And Within This Shrine,

A Portal To Commune Directly With The Gods.

Shangri-La Is Not A Myth.

The Mustang Region Of Nepal Is, In A Very Real Sense,

An Earthly Shambhala.

It Is A Land Hidden Among Clouds,

A Place Of Tranquility Cradled By The Eternal Himalayas.

But It Is Also Fragile.

The Art, The Caves, Even The Land Itself

Is Constantly Being Returned To The Earth,

Where It Is Renewed Again.

Here, Time Is Measured In Eons.

The Himalayas Will Give And Take,

And We Will Continue To Rest In Their Shadows

And Search For Enlightenment.