Shangri La in Hawaii

America’s Largest Islamic Art Collection

By Sheila O’Connor

The Dining Room and the Baby Turkish Room at Shangri La, courtesy of the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art, Honolulu, HI, 1999 David Franzen

There’s more to Hawaii than sun, sand, surfing, and beaches. What about a touch of Islam on Oahu? Shangri La, a tropical hide-away built in the 1930s, is home to the most diverse and extensive collection of Islamic art in the United States.

The late Doris Duke, heiress at age 12 to the fortune of her father, James Buchanan Duke, founder of the American Tobacco Company and later the main benefactor of Duke University, is the lovely lady behind Shangri La. She came to Hawaii as the final stop on her honeymoon tour of the world with then husband James Cromwell and simply fell in love with the wild beauty she found here. The couple decided to extend their stay and four months later when she’d returned to the mainland, Doris Duke decided that the peace and privacy she had found back on Oahu was enough to make her choose this island for her home.

As well as falling in love with Hawaii, on her travels, the heiress and philanthropist had also fallen in love with Islamic cultural traditions, art and architecture, and decided to put both of her new loves together: she would build a captivating private retreat away from the public eye and fill it with her exquisite Islamic art collections. In doing so, she would not only be able to distance herself from the public eye, she would also be able to distance herself from her privileged upbringing, a background she never felt totally comfortable with.

One benefit of her background, however, was that she was able to see and purchase many items most people had never seen up close and personal. These exotic influences can be seen throughout the home. A visit to the Taj Mahal, for instance, led her to commission a marble bedroom and bathroom suite from a firm in New Delhi. Although both rooms are not open for public viewing, visitors can take a virtual tour of the rooms at the website: www.shangrilahawaii.org

Don’t be surprised to see various media, time periods, cultures and regions of the Islamic world all juxtaposed in different rooms around the house. This was Doris Duke’s unique style. Many works of art are even physically embedded in the structure of the house itself. The house was finally completed in 1938 after two years of building, and at the time, was the most extensive residential project in the (then) Territory of Hawaii.

Unfortunately, the Cromwells separated in 1940. Ms. Duke did have a baby during her marriage, but the child sadly died at only one day old. Although she had no offspring in her early years, Ms. Duke did own several dogs later on and these, in effect, became her “children.” They were to become a huge part of her life.

“She had 24 dogs who all swam with her every day,” says 79 year old Jin DeSilva, the caretaker at the home for over 20 years. “They swam in the Olympic size pool and every one of the them is buried in the garden.”

Doris Duke was certainly able to give back to society. By the time of her death in 1993, she realized that future generations could study and understand Islamic art and culture through her home and she willed that most of the 14,000 square foot, 4.9 acre estate, be opened to the public. At the time of her death at age 80, her vast estate was valued at more than a billion dollars. Visitors to the property can admire her extensive collections of tile work, painted ceilings, carved doors, marble screens, textiles, ceramics, and paintings, all of which amount to more than 3,500 objects.

Aside from the art itself, a point of admiration is the beautiful setting of the estate itself. Situated on a bluff on Oahu’s Diamond Head coast the surroundings are nothing short of spectacular. Sun-drenched with the wild beauty of a windswept coastline, this retreat is a fitting home for the passionate artworks Ms. Duke gathered over her 60 years of collecting.

The artwork is even seen throughout the garden, where one seems to step into another world, where time doesn’t seem to matter. It certainly doesn’t matter to the age-old banyan tree, one of the oldest plantings, that stands testament to the timelessness of the treasures inside, or to the mottled shades of the central courtyard, an elegant place for rest and reflection. Here the breezes are a cool relief to what can often be oppressive heat on the island.

The hanging lamps in the courtyard originate from Iran but Ms. Duke had two of them sent to India, leaving her short, so she had the remaining two pieces copied. If she didn’t buy an item or have it copied, Ms. Duke was often known to commission her artwork. She worked extensively with architect Marion Sims Wyeth to get the house just as she liked it, adding in architectural elements from Iran, Morocco, Turkey, Spain, Syria, Egypt and India. Shangri-La is, in fact, the only one of Doris Duke’s three homes (the others are in Hillsborough, New Jersey and Newport, Rhode Island) that she personally had a hand in furnishing.

The most modern room in the house is the living room, where glass walls reveal dramatic views to the ocean and at the merest touch of a button, lowers to the basement, welcoming the “outdoors” inside.

A number of ceilings, doors, and screens were commissioned by Moroccan designer Rene Martin, and one will see that ceramic, plaster, and wood are used extensively throughout. It’s worth noting that it was customary to build flaws into the artwork, since “only God can create something perfect and man should deliberately not try to compete.”

One of the most loved rooms in the house and one where guests were often hosted, is the Turkish Room, where some of the furnishings date back to the 1800s. The interior came from the home of the Quwwatlis, a prosperous family who had lived in Damascus for over seven centuries. In the 1920s the Quwwatlis sold the interior and it was passed into several dealer’s hands before ending up at the home of Doris Duke. The installation of this room required major structural renovations including removal of a billiards room, bathroom, and office to raise the ceiling and lower the floor.

Doris Duke personally cleaned the artwork on the walls, lovingly taking time to restore the dull wall coverings back to life. Look up and notice the ceiling, which is 100 years older than the rest of the room and originates from Damascus. Stunning. This room is where Ms. Duke brought her dinner guests after a meal. No doubt much of their conversation revolved around just how glorious the house was.

But not everything in the home cost a small fortune, even in Doris Duke’s day. Just take the two stone camels that decorate the front door. Exotic they may seem, but they were actually purchased at a Honolulu department store! Amongst the priceless treasures that do belong to the home, you’ll note that there’s an absence of photographs or other personal effects. Doris Duke was happy to display her artwork but nothing from her personal life; that’s how private she was.

On your tour of the house, look out for the Mihrab, or prayer niche, that dates back to 1265. It looks like silver, but is in fact ceramic and painted by hand. It is supposed to be pointing to Mecca, but actually points to Diamond Head. The Mihrab was originally made for a tomb. That tomb was dismantled and arrived at the home in 60 numbered pieces where the parts were re-assembled. So precious is the Mihrab that during the Second World War it was stored in the basement for safe keeping.

One sight that in deed remained safe was the range of manicured gardens. Walking through, one will see views of the ocean, views of the swimming pool, vistas of water terraces and steps of white marble. In addition, splendor in the landscaped Mughal Garden, inspired by those in Lahore, Pakistan.

There’s also the Playhouse, a veritable feast for your eyes. It has two guestrooms and a central living space, all fashioned after the Chihul Sutun, a royal pavilion built in Isfahan, Iran in 1647.

It’s all very well looked after too. These days, it’s the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art that is the proud caretaker of the estate. “We’re grateful to have this extraordinary resource for building understanding of Islam and the beauty, diversity, and complexity of Islamic art and culture,” says Deborah Pope, executive director of Shangri La. Doris Duke willed that the Foundation for Islamic Art she set up be used “to promote the study and understanding of Middle Eastern art and culture.” This she has certainly succeeded in doing.

Shangri La has been described as “a place—somewhere between east and west—where borders dissolve and the senses delight.” The description is perfect for this oasis of calm. It’s no surprise that the name Shangri La, after the 1930s novel Lost Horizon by James Hilton, evokes visions of paradise on earth and a place whose location is kept secret. The name couldn’t be more accurate for this most private of retreats.

Tours are available from Wednesday through Saturday at 8.30am, 11.00a.m. and 1.30pm. Tours are limited to 12 people and are not appropriate for children under 12. Tours begin at the Academy with a visit to the exhibition Arts of the Islamic World and a 10 minute video Creating Shangri La after which visitors are taken to the estate. Reservations are required. (Tel: 1-866-385-3849). Expect the tour to take around 2 and a half hours with 1 and a half hours on site in Shangri La.

For a top class hotel that exceeds your expectations and where service is both discreet and a delight, check out the Halekulani Hotel on the beach, consistently voted in the Top 3 Hawaiian hotels by Travel & Leisure.

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