CHAPTER 10

Summary

The High Lama tells Conway that he has never met anyone like him before. They especially discuss how Conway seems wise beyond his years, perhaps because of the intense and premature experience of the war. Conway emphasizes that he had exhausted his passions during the war, and that was the beginning of his wisdom. The High Lama remarks that he has just expressed the doctrine of Shangri-La.

Conway also comes to the realization that he has fallen in love with Lo-Tsen. It is not a love he feels he must urgently act on; instead, he sees her as a delicate, fragrant promised jewel that he is certain, given all the time they have ahead of them, will be fulfilled. As for his traveling companions, Miss Brinklow and Barnard both decide to stay, at least for awhile, as they feel a mysterious power working behind the scenes to make them want to be in the Valley of Blue Moon. Mallinson furiously remarks at this news that Shangri-La is a prison to which Conway notes that there people all over the world who would give everything they have to live in this valley. So, he says, Are we in prison or are they? Mallinson still insists that they are monkeys in a cage.

Conway has become fond of Mallinson as a kind of son and discovers that young man, too, is in love with Lo-Tsen. This doesn't anger Conway, but instead worries him about how Mallinson will accept the truth about his future at Shangri-La. Chang shows little worry about this, because he feels that the porters - who will come - won't be willing to take Mallinson with them. He also explains that no one will hold Mallinson back if he chooses to leave, but that past experience has convinced anyone who has tried that they are fools after one night on the plateau. As for Lo-Tsen, Chang says that Conway's love for her is quite suitable as long as he pursues it in moderation. He himself had once loved her, but she showed only an appreciation for the compliment he paid her by loving her, and they instead developed a deep friendship with each other over the years. She has been living in the past and still is a comfort to the sorrowful exile who learns there is to be no return. Instead of being like Shakespeare's Cleopatra who makes hungry where she most satisfies, Lo-Tsen removes hunger where she least satisfies.

Barnard tells Conway that he has found the perfect job at Shangri-La: he will prospect the gold supplies and make it available for the lamasery to fulfill its purpose. The man has found immediate and satisfactory comfort in a job that is perfectly suited for him.

The High Lama is also happy about Barnard's ability to become accustomed to life in the valley, but he indicates that Mallinson will be Conway's problem, because he, the High Lama, is going to die. He tells Conway he only has time for one more thing: he is naming Conway the new High Lama and placing the heritage and destiny of Shangri-La in his hands. He has waited a very long time for Conway to come along. He has looked in every face that has come to the lamasery looking for a man just like Conway: one who is gentle and patient, who cares for the riches of the mind, who agrees to reside in wisdom and secrecy while the storm rages in the outside world. The storm he indicates is a premonition of the Second World War, and he feels that there will be a kind of Dark Age from which there will be no escape. Out of this will come the saving grace of Shangri-La, a saving grace that will rise out of the ashes to create a new renaissance. With these final words, The High Lama - Father Perrault - dies. At this point, as if in a dream, Conway feels himself the Master of Shangri-La. He eventually ends up in the courtyard with the lotus pool, and it is here that Mallinson finds him and drags him away by the arm.

Notes

Once again, Conway's wisdom gained as a result of his war experiences is emphasized which foreshadows how the High Lama will name him the new High Lama. There is also foreshadowing in the discussion of Lo-Tsen who has been the object of the love of many who live at the lamasery. The fact that she has not loved in return, but has only offers friendship, is ironic in the end when she chooses to leave with Mallinson, knowing that she will lose her youth the minute she steps outside the valley. The High Lama's predictions for the future are also ironic in that we who are reading this in 2006 know how the world fell into the worst war in history. Yet James Hilton, the author, is writing this from the year 1933. He has the same premonition as the character he has created.