The second Uncharted game from Naughty Dog begins with a quote, “I did not tell half of what I saw, for I knew I would not be believed.” This is supposed to be from famous explorer Marco Polo, who started as a merchant and then gained the trust of Kublai Khan to travel and trade within his empire only to end up in a Genoan prison. What we know of Marco Polo we get mostly from the book The Travels of Marco Polo or Il Milione. A book that was not written by Marco Polo, but his cell mate or at least that is the legend.
The quote at the beginning is not part of his travels but of a Dominican Friar named Jacopo of Aqui in his manuscript Imago Mundi. While he was of the same time period as Polo, his account of Polo’s capture during the conflict between Venice and Genoa is not the right date which was a matter of record so we will take his account with a grain of salt. Another part of Nathan Drake’s story in the game that coincides with Polo is that Marco Polo did travel with 14 ships. He was tasked with delivering a princess to Persia but had to stop for several months on the island of Sumatra, not Borneo, to wait out the storms brought on by the Monsoon season. Out of those who left, 600 in total, only 18 or 8 (depending on the translation of the edition) would survive the two year journey to reach Persia. It is not stated where the ships and the crew were lost.
The locations in the games are just as essential to the plot as the historical figures it surrounds itself with. For the second game in the series we visit: Turkey, Borneo, Nepal and Tibet. Drake and company are searching for the Cintamani Stone that is rumored to be in Shambhala. Shambhala, which the game also referred to as Shangri-La, and the Cinatami stone are both in Hindu and Buddhist mythology. In the game, Drake races to see if he or the villain Lazarevic will make it to the Cintamani Stone first. A powerful gem that gives power to those who possess it such as historical figure Genghis Khan. To get to the stone, they have to first find the entrance to Shambhala, which in the game is located in Tibet. In his 1933 novel Lost Horizon, author James Hilton places his Shangri-La in Tibet based on documents from French priests who were in Tibet that Hilton saw in the British Museum.
First, let us explore the legend of Shambhala. Around 400 CE, Sambhala is mentioned in book 4, chapter 24 of the Vishnu Purana (A Hindu text) as the birthplace of Kalki, an incarnate of Vishnu. Kalki will have the 8 superhuman faculties to destroy the barbarians and thieves and begin a new age of righteousness and awakened minds. The first Buddhist mention of Shambhala is thought to be found in an 11th century text. It is a hidden place in the North where the ruler of Shambhala will ride from for the final battle between the Buddhists and the Muslims. The Buddhists will be victorious and this will spring forth a golden age. It is not surprising that the legends of Shambhala are similar as the Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, was raised Hindu.
That brings us to the legend of the Cintamani stone. In the game, the stone is thought to be a sapphire but turns out to be resin tied to the tree of life. Many cultures and religions have a tree of life including; Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, and we cannot forget the Yggdrasil in Norse mythology. In Hinduism, it is called Kalpavriksha and is a wish fulfilling tree. The Cintamani stone is also thought to be wish fulfilling.
I read a lot of Hindu and Buddhist texts to try to find the truth behind the legend. In the Skanda Purana (Hindu text of the 8th century CE but probably written earlier), the Cintamani stone is a ruby that has ties to Vishnu. In the Lotus Sutra (Buddhist text written between 100 BCE- 200 CE), there are 7 treasures which are mentioned a lot and one of those 7 is a ruby, but another is a pearl which is also came up as an option when researching Cintamani. The other 5 treasures are: crystal, mother-of-pearl, agate, lapis lazuli, gold, and silver but none are mentioned in any other Cintamani story. However, after reading all of the passages mentioning the 7 treasures, there were none that I found that talked about wish fulfillment which is a specialty of the Cintamani stone. There is yet another story, this one is about a Tibetan king from the 5th century who found a chest that fell from the sky with 4 relics in it. Two strangers came and claimed the box that brought dharma or peace to Tibet. The Cintamani stone is thought to be one of those relics.
When searching online for the Cintamani stone it may surprise you that you can purchase it, it’s even available on Amazon. There are 2 main types of stones that appear online, one is a moldavite and the other is Saffordite. Moldavite is green in color and was made when a meteorite hit the Earth’s surface creating molten glass from the heat and friction of impact also known as a tektite. Saffordite has a lavender color and is only found near Safford, Arizona where volcanic activity shot magma into the air which cooled and created volcanic glass in the same family as obsidian. If the legendary Cintamani stone is indeed moldavite, then the story of Tibetan king Lha Thothori Nyantsen finding a box from the sky makes the most sense. Moldavite may also have been the inspiration for the philosopher’s stone but that is a legend for another time.
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is the only game out of the 4 Nathan Drake video game series that does not have Sir Francis Drake as a legendary figure. In this case, Marco Polo picks up the reins as someone who is shrouded in lore and mystery. We do have historical documents that bear his name but most of what we remember about him is his adventures in a book that he did not write. Shambhala and its literary counterpart Shangri-La have captivated the public and many political figures for centuries. Even the US President FDR renamed the presidential retreat now known as Camp David as Shangri-La. The Cintamani stone may have been a ruby or a pearl but I like the idea that its power came from either under the surface of the Earth or from outer space. Wherever Shambhala is or the Cinatmani stone comes from, it created a whole lot of chaos for the promise of peace.
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