Matteo Pistono

The Washington Post On Faith July 5, 2011
by Matteo Pistono

The Dalai Lama arrived in the nation’s capitol and will spend much of the next two weeks (July 6-16) at the Verizon Center conducting rituals and prayers for world peace, and imparting Tibetan Buddhist teachings. The Dalai Lama is also expected to have meetings with U.S. government leaders.

Events on July 6 will include a birthday celebration for the 76 year-old Tibetan leader. Martin King, son of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Mr. Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, will join the celebration.

On July 9, the Dalai Lama will give “A Talk for World Peace”on the West Lawn of the National Mall. Whoopi Goldberg will emcee the event, which will include chanting by monks from Namgyal Monastery, performances by cellist Michael Fitzpatrick and singer Skylar Gray.  Read More 

On Thursday, April 7, I presented "China, Tibet, and the Human Rights Debate: Why Can’t the Dalai Lama and China find Common Ground?" at the University of Wyoming International Scholars Lectures Series. An engaged crowd of 100 or so students and professors attended.

The gist of the lecture was this:
The Dalai Lama fled a pursuing Communist army in 1959 after the People’s Republic of China invaded Tibet. The Tibetan spiritual leader has lived as a refugee since, setting up a Tibetan government-in-exile in India, and today traveling the world as the spokesperson for the Tibetan struggle for freedom.  Read More 

The Huffington Post
Is the Dalai Lama Retiring?
by Matteo Pistono Monday, March 15, 2011

To understand the Dalai Lama's statement yesterday about devolving his political authority to a democratically elected leader, one must keep in mind what the Tibetan leader calls his three commitments. First, as a human being, the Dalai Lama is committed to the promotion of basic human values of compassion and tolerance; secondly, as a Buddhist leader, he works to promote understanding among the major religious traditions; and, thirdly, as the holder of the title "Dalai Lama" which is traditionally the spiritual and political leader of the Tibetans, he is committed to resolving the Tibet issue with China.  Read More 

The Huffington Post
Why I Went Public About Smuggling News of Brutal Crackdowns Out of China
by Matteo Pistono Monday, March 14, 2011


Today is the anniversary of the 19th century Tibetan mystic named Tertön Sogyal. Tertön Sogyal was a meditation teacher to the 13th Dalai Lama, the predecessor to the current Dalai Lama. In the late 1990s, I began a ten-year pilgrimage to Tibet in Tertön Sogyal's footsteps. I was drawn to this mystic's life because he, like the Dalai Lama today, was a master at integrating his social activism with spiritual practice, never losing the pure motivation that holds others' well-being as the priority. Read More 

The Huffington Post
China and the (Next) Dalai Lama
by Matteo Pistono Thursday, March 10, 2011

March 10 marks the anniversary when Tibetans rose up in the streets of Lhasa against China's nascent occupation of Tibet. It is also when a 24-year-old Dalai Lama fled a pursuing Chinese army and eventually crossed Tibet's border into India as a refugee. That was 52 years ago.  Read More 

"This story of Matteo Pistono’s quest to visit places in Tibet associated with Tertön Sogyal, the adept who was a companion of the thirteenth Dalai Lama, is revealing not only of the Tertön’s life but also of circumstances in  Read More