One of the richest heiresses in the world, Doris Duke, daughter of a wealthy tobacco tycoon, fell in love with Hawaii in 1935 while on her honeymoon. So much so that she decided to make it her next home and called it Shangri La, after the imaginary idyllic land mentioned in the 1933 novel “Lost Horizon.”
The famed surfer and Olympian Duke Kahanamoku and his family helped her pick out the land, 4.9 oceanfront acres near Diamond Head for $100,000. Construction began on the $1.4 million dollar house in 1937, and Duke’s design for the home was strongly influenced by another love of hers: Islamic art and architecture. From floor to ceiling, the rooms were designed with elaborate decorative details, geometric patterns, carved and painted wood, carpets, ceramics and works of art.
The collection includes around 4,500 objects, nearly all on display at Shangri La, which opened to the public as a museum in 2002.
“We do not know what sparked Doris Duke’s interest in Islamic art. The startling juxtaposition of Islamic tile panels, glass vessels, metalwork and luxurious textiles with Hawaii’s luscious flora at first seems to be an anomaly,” historian Carol Bier wrote in her introduction to the book, “Doris Duke’s Shangri La.”…