Shangri-La Village: Paradise for Your Head

Shangri-La is a Burning Man Village started in 2003 out of San Diego, with villagers from all around the world. In Tibetan, Shangri-la means “land of sacredness and peace.” Most of us here in San Diego find some respite from the insanity of our society in our local Burning Man community, and we certainly find and create more of own insanity at Burning Man. Our true "Village" is the collection of people who have come together in this fine web of relationships throughout the year, bound by the commonality of attending Burning Man, and the love we share for each other. The Shangri-La Village aims to be the place where this group of people, organized into Theme Camps, can come together on the playa.

Shangri-La Village is thus a collection of theme camps who want to camp together in this Paradise for Your Head, symbolizing our connections as a true community. We love us (and probably you too...) !

The Village will be coordinated and organized by a five person team, and assisted by ad-hoc committees. While we will look out for and care for one another, the Village will operate on the principal of a do-ocracy. You want it done, you do it!

Just as what the Burning Man organization provides is limited, all that the Shangri-La Village organization will provide is the idea of Paradise for Your Head, the space, the organization of that space and a common area with some shade. The leadership team will take care of coordinating our plans with the Burning Man Organization. Just as Burning Man is itself limitless, bounded only by the imagination and actions of its participants, Shangri-La Village is limited only by its inhabitants.

Shangri-La Village will therefore be what you, the denizens, make it. Its unique identity will be determined by what each of you contributes to the village. Just as one person’s heaven is another person’s hell, it can be diverse and inclusive all at once. It will be a paradise of your own creation.

Welcome to Shangri-La Village , Paradise for Your Head!

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Organizational and structural tenets: (Working guidelines for camp leaders and relationship to Burning Man as a whole)

1. Shangri-La Village is a means of granting proximity and enhancing the probability of desired placement to a number of diverse, friendly theme camps, and the sharing of amenities. Ideal placement for us means frontage on the Esplanade, with boundaries stretching back to the second ring road to allow for quieter, close to Center Camp, and close to porta-potties. We prefer to maintain a healthy distance from large-scale sound installations. We prefer to become and remain a small village in order to avoid the attendant difficulties of larger villages and to retain an intimate atmosphere. We will therefore cap the total number of villagers at 300, and cut off new camp applications by April 30, 2005, in order to plan and execute a village that works for everyone.


2. In order to take best advantage of the diverse talents among us, and to avoid one person becoming overburdened, stressed and generally disagreeable about being mayor, there will be a six person mayoral committee with the following members and duties, in alphabetical order:

Dr. Random will act as special needs czar

Fraggle will organize Shangri-la slums, the camping area for villagers not affiliated with other camps, and co-manage pre-playa theme camp organization

Jones will be art curator and as San Diego Burning Man Regional Representative will act as a high level liaison to Burning Man LLC, and co-manage pre-playa theme camp organization

Scotto will be our village planner and layout manager on the ground and LNT Czar

Smoke Blower will be communicator and organizer

Viagra will coordinate space and planning with the Burning Man LLC prior to the event

3. We are a non-traditional village. Other than the very loose idea of “Paradise for Your Head” which only gives a psychological tie-in, we will avoid any overarching or obligatory village theme in order to maintain the individuality and identity of each theme camp. No single theme camp will dominate. Conflicts and compromises between member camps should be resolved to the general agreement of the camps affected, as represented by their leadership figures. The village mayor will act as facilitator and mediator, and ultimate decision maker if necessary.

4. We're all about realizing our potential for creativity and maximizing our enjoyment of Burning Man, therefore we wish to assemble a cohesive, yet diverse, village structure with minimum reliance upon group effort to make it happen. As such, each individual or group takes sole responsibility for the projects they wish to bring to the Playa. This means no village dues, no peer pressure.

5. We want this to be a village in which we are comfortable both living and entertaining the public. As such, we do not desire to have a central public area which will consume space and could compromise security and privacy, but will instead maintain our public areas on the periphery. We will, however, maintain a central courtyard where village members can gather to interact and entertain guests.

6. Through each camp, we will provide ranger(s), Leave No Trace leaders and other resources as needed in order to sustain the integrity of the village and our place in Black Rock City, through coordinating the volunteer efforts of village citizens.