Born at St. Petersburg in 1874, Nicholas Roerich was a precocious polymath, excelling at painting, poetry, archaeology, anthropology and botany. In adulthood, Roerich began a life-long fascination with eastern mysticism, founding (with his wife Helena) his own school of 'Agni Yoga' in 1920, and embarking, six year's later on an epic five-year expedition through Chinese Turkestan, Altai, Mongolia and Tibet, to study the religions and culture of the region and to search for the fabled city of Shambhala.

Hidden between towering, snow-covered peaks, Shambhala is said to be earth's central chakra, a point of balance between this world and the invisible realms, a place where adepts and ascended masters watch over the evolution of humanity and chart its future course. By the end of his expedition, having faced countless dangers and privations, Roerich was certain that he had found clear proof of Shambhala's existence. As he himself said "We know the greatness of Shambhala. We know the reality of this indescribable realm on earth... Shambhala is connected with the heavenly one. And in this link, the two worlds are unified."