Shambhala Publications

Samuel Bercholz and Michael Fagan founded Shambhala Publications in 1969 out of the back of a bookstore Bercholz ran on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, California, at the height of the Bay Area's countercultural interest in Asian religion and contemplative practice, choosing the name Shambhala after the mystical kingdom described in Tibetan Buddhist tradition as a hidden source of wisdom beyond the Himalayas.

The press's first publication, Meditation in Action by the Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, appeared that same year and set the tone for the young company's list, which concentrated heavily on Buddhist teaching, meditation instruction and related contemplative literature rather than the broader occult and New Age subject matter other esoteric publishers of the era pursued. Trungpa himself became closely associated with the press over the following years as he built his own teaching organization in the United States, giving the company an unusually direct connection to a living teaching lineage rather than the historical reprint work that characterized several of its contemporaries. The company relocated from Berkeley to Boulder, Colorado in 1976 to be near Naropa Institute, the Buddhist inspired university Trungpa had founded there the previous year, deepening the press's institutional ties to his teaching community.

Shambhala broadened its catalog considerably from the 1980s onward beyond its founding focus on Trungpa's teaching and Tibetan Buddhism specifically, publishing across the wider field of Buddhist traditions, contemplative practice and psychology, and what became known as the mind body spirit category, while retaining its reputation as a serious publisher of translated Buddhist source texts and teacher commentary rather than a purely popular press.

The company moved its headquarters from Boulder to Boston, Massachusetts in 1986, operating for a period from Horticultural Hall before later returning its base of operations to Boulder, reflecting the shifting geography of its ownership and staff over the decades rather than any change in editorial direction. Samuel Bercholz has remained Chairman and Editor in Chief of the company for its entire history, with his children Sara and Ivan Bercholz taking on ownership and leadership roles alongside president Nikko Odiseos, appointed in 2010, keeping Shambhala a family and employee led independent press rather than passing to a larger publishing conglomerate as happened to many of its contemporaries. Shambhala Publications remains active today as one of the most respected English language publishers of Buddhist and contemplative literature, continuing to publish both classical translations and contemporary teaching more than five decades after its founding in the back of a Berkeley bookstore.