Shangri La Village is a group of theme camps that choose to camp together each year at Burning Man

Burning Man

Burning Man is a week-long annual event held in the Black Rock Desert in northern Nevada, in the United States. The event starts on the Monday before the American Labor Day holiday, and ends on the holiday itself. It takes its name from the ritual burning of a large wooden effigy on Saturday evening...

. At the 2004 burn it had around a dozen theme camps and a population ranging towards 200-300, and filled an entire city block of Black Rock City. As most of the inhabitants of SLV are from San Diego, it occasionally makes an appearance at some of the regional burner events in Southern California

Southern California

Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...

 such as Xara Dulzura

Xara Dulzura

Xara Dulzura was an annual art, music and creative mythology festival lasting several days. It took place at the Madre Grande Monastery in late April, generally on or before the time of the traditional Beltane holiday, each year from 2003 through 2006....

. The big exception to this rule is PolyParadise, which hails (mostly) from Arizona and may be the single largest camp in the village.

Shangri La Village has one or more mayors. The mayor(s) typically change each year based on who is willing to take on the job. Additionally, each camp in SLV has a point of contact known as the "camp daddy" or "camp mommy." This person is the theme camp's contact with the mayor and is expected to have some responsibility over their camp. Each camp is expected to ensure that it leaves no trace before it departs.

SLV provides some rudimentary common infrastructure: a village gate, a performance stage, also a community chill space. In some years there has been a kiosk with a map of the village. For the most part, theme camps within SLV are fairly independent and really camp together because they enjoy it.

Theme camps

These are some of the theme camps that have found a home in Shangri La Village at one time or another:

• Spoon Return Center
• PolyParadise
• Free Beer Tomorrow
• Massage Confessional & Diyafa
• Purple Turtle Catnip Lounge
  Purple Turtle
  The Purple Turtle is the name of a group of burners, mostly visual and performance artists as well as engineers and photographers, that is based in San Diego...
  
  
• BRC Zendo
• Sex-O-Phonic Fire Tribe
• Liberace's Closet
• Elfenland

Additionally, space within SLV has been reserved for non-themed camps. In 2003, this space was known as "Shangri-NA" (for Non-Affiliated), and in 2004 it was known as "Shangri-Burbs" or sometimes just "the 'Burbs." In 2005 the space is known as "Shangri-Slums" ("the 'Bums"). The inclusion of this space has been controversial, as there have been some problems with litter control and camp placement. The general feeling has been that 'Burbs of 2004 went much better than Shangri-NA had in 2003.

History

SLV goes back at least to the 2002 burn, but probably began earlier still. In 2003, Viagra was the mayor. In 2004 there were three mayors: Smokeblower, Business Buddha and Indy. SLV planned to re-appear on the playa in 2005 with Viagra serving as mayor.