Ian Baker’s incredible life story reads like an Indiana Jones movie. Consider this script for a film: in his formative years, practically still a teenager, he meets his Buddhist master, his “Merlin,” in Tibet, and enters into a lifelong fascination with ancient texts that describe hidden magical lands. Returning to his home in the West, he exhaustively pours over Tibetan manuscripts in Oxford’s hallowed halls of academia. He realizes that these realms are not fantastical fiction, but actual sacred paradises with records. He returns to Tibet to embark on a perilous hero’s journey across the mighty snow-covered Himalayas, running out of food, both faith and mettle tested, until his monumental discovery of the “Hidden Falls of Pemako,” a lush, green, mild region of subtropical wonder, buttressed by guardian peaks on all sides. The waterfall at Pemako is part of a dramatic 2,400-meter cascade, and is regarded as a portal into the heart of the world.
A prolific Buddhist scholar and practitioner, Ian chronicled his extraordinary journey in his 1994 book The Heart of the World, which delves into the esoterica and spiritual insights he encountered. His discovery not only validated the ancient texts but bridged the gap between myth and reality, offering a new dimension to our understanding of Vajrayana Buddhism and the Tibetan Buddhist concept of hidden lands, or beyul.
Such an accomplishment led the National Geographic Society to recognize him in 2000 as one of the seven “Explorers for the Millennium” for his groundbreaking fieldwork in Tibet’s Tsangpo Gorge. Not only are the secluded falls a site of profound significance for Vajrayana Buddhism, but by meticulously following the directions laid out in ancient texts, Ian provided tangible evidence to support the mystical narratives of Tibetan terma myth—“terma” means hidden treasures.
A hero’s journey: departure
Ian’s journey reminds me of comparative mythologist Joseph Campbell’s archetypal hero’s journey. It all began in 1977, at 19 years old. As an undergraduate at Middlebury College in Vermont, Ian ventured to Nepal during his junior year. The moment he set foot in Kathmandu, he was captivated by the country. “I’d come home, this is where I’m going to live,” Ian recounts to me during our recent meeting in Paro, Bhutan. We’re in a high-altitude pine forest and, true to form, he is days away from venturing forth on a dakini pilgrimage.
With slightly unkempt hair and stubble, Ian’s eyes smile as much as his lips. His energy is gentle, grounded, and contemplative, with well-thought-out responses reflecting his professorial air. He has an MA in English literature from Oxford, and has conducted postgraduate work in Buddhism and medical anthropology at New York’s Columbia University.
After graduation, Ian returned to Nepal, where he spent the next seven years running overseas educational programs. During this period, he met his first teacher, Chatral Sangye Dorje Rinpoche, a highly respected Nyingma Dzogchen master, and began his apprenticeship under him.
“It was like meeting Merlin. Nepal was the right place; I met the right teacher,” Ian reflects.
While studying and practicing in the spiritual kingdom where Siddhartha Gautama was born, Ian first learned about the tradition of hidden lands in the Himalayas and the concept of Shangri-La, a mythical hidden world. And so on his hero’s journey he received his first test when his master sent him to meditate in a remote cave. Dwelling in profound states, he crossed the first threshold, leaving the ordinary world and stepping into the unknown.
Reflecting on his awakening, Ian says: “The experiences I had just led to this idea that the connection we have as human beings with what we often refer to as outer and inner nature, they’re so incredibly interwoven on every level—mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually.” He was experiencing the integration of his mind-stream with the cosmic consciousness, a total union and unqualified oneness.
What is a hidden land?
Beyul are deeply intertwined with the tradition of terma, or hidden treasures. These beyuls are sacred valleys that offer sanctuary and spiritual refuge, echoing the myth of Atlantis as described by Plato—a tale of an advanced lost civilization. Guru Rinpoche, also known as Padmasambhava, is credited with concealing these lands, intended to be revealed by tertons, or treasure revealers, in times of great turmoil.
One of the most renowned beyuls is Pemako, situated on the border of Tibet and India. Much like the legendary land of Shambhala, Pemako is steeped in mystery and spiritual significance. Shambhala, often depicted as a mythical kingdom of peace and enlightenment, is first mentioned in the Kalachakra Tantra, adding to its allure and mystique.
The outer hidden lands
An area in southeastern Tibet, extending into the northeastern corner of India, Pemako has long fascinated explorers, but the uninitiated never succeeded. In 1924, a Royal Geographic Society expedition failed to locate the falls and considered them a “romance of geography.”
Reaching Pemako is not for the faint-hearted. The region is characterized by cliffs, waterfalls, and rugged mountainous terrain, lying along the Yarlung Tsangpo River at Tsangpo Gorge—one of the world’s deepest and most remote gorges that is often referred to as the “Grand Canyon of the East.”
Consider the scroll terma left by Padmasambhava, The Outer Passkey to the Hidden Lands, which was revealed in 1366 by Lama Rigzin Godemchen: “Those who contemplate journeying to the hidden lands often fall prey to their doubts and lack the required courage. . . . For all who lack the auspicious circumstances to enter the hidden lands, they will remain an imagined paradise. They will not manifest simply through idle talk. . . .”
For Ian, these challenges were part of the allure. “It was very difficult to reach but if you reach it, it’s a paradise,” says Ian. Often referred to as the “Lotus Array” or “Lotus of Great Bliss,” Pemako is believed to be the sacred body of Vajrayogini or Dorje Phakmo, a female buddha and the queen of dakinis, embodying the essence of all buddhas. According to prophecies, Padmasambhava concealed these sacred paradises to serve as sanctuaries during times of strife.
Guru Rinpoche is said to have hidden 108 valleys in the Himalayas, including Pemako, as spiritual refuges. These locations are described in texts such as the Guidebook to Pemako, which outlines the outer, inner, and secret levels of the land. The Tango River waterfall is also 108 feet, a number that holds deep significance in Buddhism, symbolizing the spiritual journey.
The discovery of the hidden falls added to the mystique of Pemako, reinforcing its status as a hidden treasure both geographically and spiritually, where terma traditions can be renewed. And Ian’s encounter with this mystical waterfall portal brought him face to face with an unknown, uncharted paradise.
The inner hidden lands
As within, so without. Ian’s real search was for a high-energy vortex, a place that would accelerate a higher state of understanding and enlightenment. He had discovered what he calls the “outer gate,” but now he was ready to explore the “inner and secret gates.”
“These are places where spiritual practice, meditative practice, in one day and one week, you accomplish what you would accomplish in a month or a year. The energy in this place amplifies spiritual yoga practice. If you work with the energies that are there, they are the best places to practice, and, at the same time, they became progressively different, more difficult to get to,” says the tantric teacher. “As I explored the outer hidden lands and dived deeper and deeper into what really were numerous landscapes, I was also simultaneously going deeper and deeper into my own nature, the nature that’s often hidden to us, because we don’t challenge ourselves to go beyond our normal range and horizons of perception.”
While hidden lands exist geographically in remote corners of the Earth, the real meaning of the awakened qualities can be developed only within oneself. The outer initiation may involve finding the sacred portals, rites, guru guidance, and rituals, but the jewel lies with the internal initiation where the seeker, through meditation and practices, experiences personal revelation, inner transformation, and encounters with divine psychic architecture. By activating and balancing both dimensions—geographical and spiritual—the seeker aims to enter a quantum realm of infinite possibilities.
Sharing the concept of consciousness states and practices, Ian says: “Whereas the whole idea of hidden lands, when they’re outer, inner, secret, and innermost secret levels are paralleling, you know a spiritual journey is not just within, it’s without, it’s beyond.” This principle suggests that the inner world reflects the outer world, and vice versa, emphasizing the interconnectedness of all things.
A hero’s journey: return
“So the feeling of being there was just like both sides of me, of my world and reality. It was like two models of reality—the physical and the spiritual; the Eastern and the Western—all coming together at once. My outward geographical exploration reflected my inward journey.”
After embarking on such a breathtaking expedition, Ian returned to our ordinary world, achieving a harmonious balance between the material and spiritual realms within himself. Transformed by his journey and having glimpsed the tantric divine, he began generously sharing the energy of his experiences through lectures, writing, and pilgrimages.
He discovered that visionary practices arise where the boundaries between the inner and outer worlds dissolve. The tantric teacher explains: “My journey into the Buddhist world of tantrism and its connection to the exploration of nature were always very connected for me, because the outer explorations were also inner explorations. It’s just whatever brings you into that state . . . which is the ultimate hidden land, the old Shambhala, the awakened state of the heart. Awareness is not a practice. It’s a state. And the only practice is to stay in the state.”
Shambhala, as it turns out, is not so much a place as a mental state of inner peace and self-growth.
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