Shangri La

A couple friends and I toured Shangri La, socialite Doris Duke’s waterfront mansion in Honolulu, while the kids were happily occupied in summer camp a couple weeks ago. Doris Duke was born in 1912 and inherited an unholy amount of money from her beloved father before her 13th birthday. She fell in love with Hawaii at the end of her year-long, around-the-world honeymoon, bought a few seaside acres on the backside of Diamond Head, and built a house. As one does. Then she traveled around commissioning and buying art and antiquities. Again, as one does.

Khanic tiles formed in 13th Century Iran while the region was subjugated under Mongolian rule. Spanish tiles from a cathedral in Seville. Murals and doors etched in the Islamic style, with symmetry, a floral pattern, a geometric design, and calligraphy. Carved wooden screens filtered the bright tropical sunshine while fountains tinkled and trickled inside and waves crashed on the shore beyond the lanai. 

Mosey through the white marble bedroom and bathrooms (commissioned and shipped from India after visiting the Taj Mahal). Step into the adjoining powder room to flip through her scrapbook, noting that, yes, both the admiral and the viceroy, the Maharajah and Lady something-or-other were in fact all able to attend that luncheon during the happy couple’s four months in India. They always come to my luncheons too, of course. Some of the walls and ceilings were bought from Turkish homes and restored by Doris Duke herself. Syrian wooden chests inlaid with mother-of-pearl flanked rooms lit with stained glass.

Ooooooooooooo it was lovely! Shangri La has been on my to-do list since my talented artsy friend Jill May told me about it (thanks for the recommendation)! The tour books out far in advance sometimes, and no kids under age eight allowed, so it took some planning. Oooooooooo every moment was worth it! It was transporting. I said that about the Byodo-In obon festival too, except this one was transporting in the other direction—East! 

Especially prized is an Iranian luster mihrab dated 1265 and one of only five like it in the world (top picture). A mihrab is supposed to sit in a mosque to point the way to Mecca (this one does not). Doris Duke bought it in 1940. When Pearl Harbor was attacked in 1941, Doris Duke had the mihrab and many other priceless artifacts stored underground until the end of World War II.

An Australian on our tour asked if having the mihrab was offensive to Muslims or Middle Easterners. The tour guide said the museum is sensitive to that, but the usual reaction is one of happiness and acknowledgement that if it had remained in Iran it probably would have been destroyed. Since it was bought before 1975, it’s exempt from the art repatriation act that I don’t know anything about.

How can you follow that? It had been a high adrenaline morning as Robyn, Jess and I raced across the mountains after camp drop off, scavenged for parking downtown, then sprinted the last half-block to the meeting point, where the tour bus was juuuuuuuust backing out for the short (mandatory) drive from the Honolulu Museum of Art to Shangri La. They stopped and let us on. So after the tour we settled for a relaxing lunch of coconut curry soup and tropical iced tea at the museum’s lanai cafe. Fanning ourselves languidly of course. As one does.