Shangri La
This stunning example of modernist architecture houses Doris Duke’s celebrated collection of Islamic art.
This entryway is located just outside the area that once served as Doris Duke’s dining room at the Shangri La estate.
In 1935, the late philanthropist and heiress Doris Duke traveled to Hawai‘i, the final stop on a honeymoon trip through the Middle East and South Asia. Enchanted by the beauty of the isles and its casual, carefree pace, Duke and her husband, James Cromwell, decided to extend their stay by four months, renting a house on the eastern slope of Diamond Head. In 1936, Duke purchased a 4.9-acre plot at Ka‘ālawai on the south shore of O‘ahu, where she would eventually build Shangri La, the 14,000-square-foot estate that now stands today.
Over the course of three years, Shangri La (likely named after the mythical land of perpetual youth and immortality depicted in James Hilton’s Lost Horizon) was built from the ground up, and Duke would come to accumulate a collection of about 2,500 Islamic objects and artifacts from the Middle East, as well as Spain, India, the Philippines, China, France, and elsewhere. In the early 1950s, Duke first began purchasing the elements from interiors of Syrian homes, and it was these rare gems that would be compiled to create the Damascus Room at Shangri La. She purchased a second set of interiors in the 1970s from the Quawatli family, one of the wealthiest 19th century merchants in Damascus, artifacts that became the makings of the Syrian Room.
Though the interiors are Syrian in origin, Duke referred to these rooms as the Turkish and Baby Turkish rooms.
This year, Kean is the official artist of the 2017 Vans World Cup, the second event of the Triple Crown.
To design her bedroom and bath, Duke commissioned noted Delhi-based architect Francis Blomfield, who installed floor-to-ceiling, carved marble panels and inlaid precious stones and mirrors into the elaborate suite. This Mughal Suite, as it became known, opened to the public for the first time in Shangri La’s history, in 2014. The newly renovated suite features photos and film that chronicle the two-month sojourn in India that ignited Duke’s lifelong romance with the art of the region, alongside Duke’s rarely viewed collections of sumptuous gold, diamond, ruby, and emerald Indian jewelry, rock crystal boxes, jewel-encrusted jade vessels, ivory figurines, and enameled-gold decorative objects.
Complimentary tours to Shangri La are provided to Halekulani guests on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month. Contact the concierge to schedule a tour.
Shangri La
This stunning example of modernist architecture houses Doris Duke’s celebrated collection of Islamic art.
This entryway is located just outside the area that once served as Doris Duke’s dining room at the Shangri La estate.
In 1935, the late philanthropist and heiress Doris Duke traveled to Hawai‘i, the final stop on a honeymoon trip through the Middle East and South Asia. Enchanted by the beauty of the isles and its casual, carefree pace, Duke and her husband, James Cromwell, decided to extend their stay by four months, renting a house on the eastern slope of Diamond Head. In 1936, Duke purchased a 4.9-acre plot at Ka‘ālawai on the south shore of O‘ahu, where she would eventually build Shangri La, the 14,000-square-foot estate that now stands today.
Though the interiors are Syrian in origin, Duke referred to these rooms as the Turkish and Baby Turkish rooms.
Over the course of three years, Shangri La (likely named after the mythical land of perpetual youth and immortality depicted in James Hilton’s Lost Horizon) was built from the ground up, and Duke would come to accumulate a collection of about 2,500 Islamic objects and artifacts from the Middle East, as well as Spain, India, the Philippines, China, France, and elsewhere. In the early 1950s, Duke first began purchasing the elements from interiors of Syrian homes, and it was these rare gems that would be compiled to create the Damascus Room at Shangri La. She purchased a second set of interiors in the 1970s from the Quawatli family, one of the wealthiest 19th century merchants in Damascus, artifacts that became the makings of the Syrian Room.
This year, Kean is the official artist of the 2017 Vans World Cup, the second event of the Triple Crown.
To design her bedroom and bath, Duke commissioned noted Delhi-based architect Francis Blomfield, who installed floor-to-ceiling, carved marble panels and inlaid precious stones and mirrors into the elaborate suite. This Mughal Suite, as it became known, opened to the public for the first time in Shangri La’s history, in 2014. The newly renovated suite features photos and film that chronicle the two-month sojourn in India that ignited Duke’s lifelong romance with the art of the region, alongside Duke’s rarely viewed collections of sumptuous gold, diamond, ruby, and emerald Indian jewelry, rock crystal boxes, jewel-encrusted jade vessels, ivory figurines, and enameled-gold decorative objects.
Complimentary tours to Shangri La are provided to Halekulani guests on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month. Contact the concierge to schedule a tour.
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