s a place for the study of Islamic art and culture, as mandated in Doris Duke’s will, Shangri La presents a complex set of challenges, including intellectual, interpretive, and aesthetic ones.

What can be said of a young American woman, herself not a Muslim but a keen admirer of Islamic cultures, and her dream to collect Islamic art in the 1930s? What can be said of her designing and building a house in Hawaii, using architectural principles and art forms from throughout the Islamic world? Further, what is meant by the monolithic term “Islamic world”—a simple phrase that can obscure a diversity of cultures, traditions, and aesthetics—and how does Shangri La help us to understand such diversity?

In a way, Duke herself addressed this last question by variously calling her home “Near Eastern,” “Hispano-Moresque,” and even a “Spanish-Moorish-Persian-Indian complex.” She recognized that all these cultural identities are part of Shangri La.

Visitors to Shangri La may find that the site prompts more questions than it provides answers. It offers several layers of possible inquiry.

Architectural Styles

In addition to Islamic architectural traditions, other styles are discernible. The estate demonstrates principles of modern architecture, a movement gaining popularity at the time Shangri La was built. Various levels of floor changes and the integration of the house into the environment are reminiscent of Frank Lloyd Wright’s homes; the descending glass wall recalls Mies van der Rohe’s Tugendhat House; the overall asymmetric plan and the low, geometric structures are both characteristic of the modernist ethos. Yet the house also demonstrates aspects of Spanish/Mediterranean Revival styles in the overall sprawl of the buildings and gardens, the white-washed walls, and the use of roof tiles and balconies.

Hawaiian Influence

Part of Shangri La’s cultural identity is most certainly Hawaiian. Its physical location, its landscaping, and its ocean and Diamond Head views continually remind visitors that this is no place but Hawaii. Although there is currently little on display that reminds one of the material culture of Hawaii, originally Duke incorporated Shangri La’s locale into her design of the Dining Room.

Surfboards, painted barware, shell necklaces, and other locally produced objects can be found at Shangri La, but they are stored in the basement, in cupboards, and in drawers. Duke used these functional objects in her daily life, rather than using them as decoration in the house.

American Wealth

Shangri La can also be seen as a product of American upper-class culture whose extremely wealthy citizens, particularly at the turn of the 20th century, built sensational seasonal homes for themselves. Typically these homes were located in socially sanctioned resort towns, such as Newport, Rhode Island, and Palm Beach, Florida.

Shangri La was a seasonal home for Duke, and in some ways it reflects the idea of re-creating foreign architecture on American land. Well-known examples of this trend can be seen in Newport (the Vanderbilts’ Italian-style villa, The Breakers, and their French-style mansion, Marble House), and in Palm Beach, where the Stotesburys built the Spanish-style El Mirasol. Duke’s preference for the relatively remote location of Honolulu and a breadth of Islamic architectural traditions, not just Spanish, suggests that she partly accepted and partly rejected the formula established by her peers.

American Orientalism

Shangri La can also be interpreted from the perspective of American Orientalism. Duke was born in an era when ideas of the “Orient” were increasingly available to American consumers through movies, international expositions, advertising, imported goods, and even architectural design. To what extent was Duke affected by these visual representations of the “Orient”? How do her travels compare to the experiences of American artists, such as Frederic Church and Louis Comfort Tiffany, whose visits to the East in the 19th century also gave rise to a lifetime of creative responses? Shangri La can shed considerable light on the phenomenon of visual culture and American Orientalism from the 1930s forward, which has so far received little critical attention.

Islamic Cultures

Despite the fact that Duke was not Muslim herself, Shangri La does provide a thought-provoking introduction to Islamic cultures. For example, it demonstrates a variety of architectural contexts within which to understand Islamic art. Several domestic spaces are present. The Mughal Garden, the Playhouse, and the tent-like Dining Room—although created on site by Duke— provide immediate visual tools suggestive of garden, palace, and nomadic architectural forms found in the Islamic world. While religious spaces are less well represented, religious works of art are.

Examples of Islamic urban architecture are present through the estate’s courtyard plan and the historic interiors that adjoin it. The collection boasts Islamic art from a diversity of Muslim cultures including those in Spain, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey, India, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Philippines, and China, among other countries, from the earliest periods of the religion into the present. Just as significantly, the numerous, beautifully-made 20th-century architectural commissions confirm that the superb artistic traditions of the past are vigorous and dynamic in the modern world. Doris Duke appreciated this fact, and even participated in this tradition.

Vision of Doris Duke

Finally, and perhaps most important, Shangri La must be seen as a product of Doris Duke herself. Although analyzing objects and formulating theories may contribute to an understanding of Shangri La, in the end its creator must be carefully considered in any interpretation. She decided to build, she determined which objects would be purchased, and she decided how they should be displayed. Architects and artisans contributed to Shangri La’s appearance, but Duke was the only constant contributor throughout its 60-year development.

What did she seek to accomplish at Shangri La? Why did she decide to build a home of Islamic art in Hawaii? Such questions may never be fully answered, for Duke left little in the way of personal writings to provide clues. However, Shangri La itself provides visual clues about Duke’s motivation, and her staff and friends provide insights as well.

For example, in walking around Shangri La and listening to her staff share memories, one gains a strong impression of Duke’s love for being engaged with life, for learning new skills, and for improving her mind and abilities. With both Islamic art and Hawaii, Duke probably saw an opportunity to immerse herself in new cultures. Shangri La allowed her to test her creative skills and collaborate with professional artisans, architects, and others whom she admired.

As it was envisioned, built, and inhabited during Doris Duke’s life, Shangri La probably supported all of these interpretations, and our understanding of it need not be limited to just one. In fact, to do so is something of an injustice to the fluidity of its creation and evolution, and to the numerous hands that were involved in producing it.

As Shangri La moves into a new phase and opens to the public and academic community, it will generate more identities and interpretations, including, as Duke herself wanted, an identity as a place for educating people about the breadth and diversity of Islamic art and cultures. Doris Duke’s last will and testament charges the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art, which owns and supports Shangri La, with promoting and encouraging the study of Islamic art.

Can a site imagined and created by a wealthy young American woman accomplish just that?