Orientalism at Shangri La

Abstract

Part of the mission of Shangri La as a museum is to expose the public, who may not have had any exposure to it previously, to Islamic art and culture for the first time. Therefore, rather than considering the message of the estate to scholars of Islamic art and culture, this paper will focus on the possible messages taken away by the public at large who have had little previous exposure to the art and culture of Islam.4 Considering that the majority of tours are given only in English, and first time visitors may only be familiar with Shangri La as the home of an extremely wealthy woman, narrowing the origins of the average tour attendee to a visitor from the U.S. mainland or Hawaii is helpful. Certainly some do come from other countries, but these are limited both by their facility with the language as well as their interest in the home of a woman they may have heard little about. Visitors from the United States, however have almost certainly at some time heard the phrase "the richest little girl in the world," or been exposed to stories in the media of Doris Duke's eccentricities. Visitors who have a background in Islamic art, the Middle East, or are simply from another country will certainly have a different perspective, but for the purposes of this paper, the average visitor to Shangri La is considered to be from the U. S. mainland or Hawaiʻi, and have little exposure to the Islamic world beyond the American media.