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FPMT Mandala magazine Editor's Choice review of In the Shadow of the Buddha

FPMT Mandala Magazine Book Review
Editor’s Choice April-June 2012

Author Matteo Pistono skillfully tells the interweaving stories of his spiritual quest, political work and travels to remote areas of Tibet in his book In the Shadow of the Buddha, recently released in paperback. The author’s high-stakes adventures, which take place over the course of a decade, are by themselves riveting. But add to the mix a fascinating profile of an historic Tibetan master and a frank account of human rights abuses and you get a page-turner that has real substance.

In his twenties, Pistono launches into a pilgrimage in Tibet to trace the steps of Terton Sögyal (1856-1926), a highly regarded Buddhist spiritual master who also advised and taught the 13th Dalai Lama. Terton Sögyal’s ability to combine high-level Dharma practice with politics attracts Pistono,  Read More 
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Upcoming dates for 'In the Shadow of the Buddha' in Chicago, Feb 6-8

Monday, February 6, 2012, 4:30-6:00 p.m. Evanston
Northwestern University Harris Hall-Room 108
"Conversation on Tibet, China, Religion, Human Rights, and Friendship"
Hosted by Dept. of Religious Studies, Asian & Middles East Studies, and Asia Studies Cluster
free and open to the public (refreshments will be provided)

February 7, 2012 Chicago, IL
SLIDESHOW & TALK "Tibetan Pilgrimage: In the Shadow of the Buddha"
6:00 p.m. at Loyola University Museum of Art (LUMA)
820 N. Michigan Avenue
RSVP to luma@luc.edu or 312.915.7608 free and open to the public

February 8, 2012 Evanston, IL
SLIDESHOW & TALK "Tibetan Pilgrimage: In the Shadow of the Buddha"
7:00 p.m. at Tibet Alliance of Chicago
2422 Dempster Street
RSVP: RigpaChicago@att.net free and open to the public
A traditional Tibetan dinner will be offered after the event

for more information, click on the image to the left...see you in Chicago Read More 
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Matteo Pistono invited to Tucson Festival of Books, February 10, 2012

I am honored to present “In the Shadow of the Buddha” at the Tucson Festival of Books on Saturday, March 10, 2012 at 4 p.m.

I will participate on the ‘Eden Seekers’ panel, which will include Brook Wilensky-Lanford, author of "Paradise Lust: Searching for the Garden of Eden," and Carolyn O'Bagy Davis, author of "The Fourth Wife: Polygamy, Love & Revolution.” The moderator of the hour-long panel is Rabbi Samuel Cohon of Temple Emanu-El, the oldest congregation in Arizona.

The Tucson Festival of Books brings together authors, publishers and the reading public in a family-friendly community event. Net proceeds of the Festival are used to promote literacy in Southern Arizona.  Read More 
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Upcoming New York and Chicago dates for 'In the Shadow of the Buddha: One Man's Journey of Discovery in Tibet'

The paperback edition of 'In the Shadow of the Buddha: One Man's Journey of Discovery in Tibet' will be released January 31, 2012. This is the redesigned cover with His Holiness the Dalai Lama's blurb about the book at the top.

Matteo will launch the paperback edition in Bedford, New York, and then head to Chicago for a few talks and slideshows.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012 Bedford, NY 6:00 p.m.
Westchester Buddhist Meditation Center
954 Old Post Road in Bedford, NY.

Monday, February 6, 2012 Evanston, IL 4:30-6 p.m.
Northwestern University, Harris Hall, Room 108
Department of Religious Studies
Contact: Antonio Terrone a-terrone@northwestern.edu

Tuesday, February 7, 2012 Chicago, IL
6:00 p.m. at Loyola University Museum of Art (LUMA)
820 N. Michigan Avenue
RSVP to luma@luc.edu or 312.915.7608.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012 Evanston, IL
7:00 p.m. at Tibet Alliance of Chicago
2422 Dempster Street
RSVP: RigpaChicago@att.net
 Read More 
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Review in Tibetan of 'In the Shadow of the Buddha' གཞིས་ལུས་བོད་མིའི་རེ་སྐུལ་སྐ&#4017

གཞིས་ལུས་བོད་མིའི་རེ་སྐུལ་སྐྱེལ་བའི་གྲིབ་མའི་འོག་གི་སངས་རྒྱས །
གཟའ་ལྷག་པ།, 23 ཕྱི་ཟླ་གསུམ་པ། 2011 Cornelius Lundsgaard, The Tibet Post International

རྒྱལ་སྤྱིའི་བོད་ཀྱི་ཆ་འཕྲིན། ཕྱི་ལོ་༢༠༡༡ཟླ་༣ཚེས་༢༤ཉིན།
ཨ་རིའི་རྩོམ་པ་པོ་མའི་ཊོ་ཕེ་སུ་ཊོ་ནོ་ལགས་ཀྱིས་རང་ཉིད་བོད་ནང་དུ་སྤྲོ་འཆམ་ལ་བྱིན་པའི་ལམ་བར་དུ། རྒྱ་གཞུང་གི་བཙན་གནོན་འོག་བོད་མི་ཚོས་དཀའ་སྡུག་དང་མནར་གཅོད་གང་མང་མྱོང་བཞིན་པ་ཟིན་བྲིས་སུ་ཕབ་པའི་༼གྲིབ་མའི་འོག་གི་སངས་རྒྱས༽ཞེས་པའི་དེབ་ཅིག་བརྩམས་གནང་ཡོད་འདུག

དེབ་དེའི་ནང་དུ་འདས་པའི་ལོ་རྒྱུས་ཁྲོད་ཀྱི་རིག་གནས་ཕུན་སུམ་ཚོགས་པའི་བོད་རྒྱལ་ཁབ་ཇི་ལྟར་གཏོར་བཤིག་ཏུ་བཏང་བ་དང༌། བོད་རིགས་མི་མང་གིས་རང་སྲོག་བློས་གཏོང་གིས་རང་དབང་དང་ཞི་བདེའི་ཆེད་དུ་འཐབ་རྒོལ་བྱས་པའི་དོངས་བྱུང་ལོ་རྒྱུས་སོགས་བཀོད་ཡོད་འདུག

འདས་པའི་མི་ངོ་བཅུ་གྲངས་ཀྱི་ནང་དུ། ཁོང་གིས་ཉེན་ཁ་ལ་མ་འཛེམས་པར་རྒྱ་ནག་གིས་བོད་ནང་དུ་བཙན་གནོན་དང་མནར་གཅོད་གཏོང་བཞིན་པའི་དངོས་ཡོད་གནས་སྟངས་བདེན་དཔང་དང༌། གཞིས་ལུས་བོད་མི་ཚོའི་རེ་སྐུལ་འཛམ་གླིང་མི་མང་ལ་ཤེས་སུ་འཇུག་པའི་ཆེད་དུ། དེབ་དེ་ཨ་རིའི་གཞུང་དང་འགྲོ་བ་མིའི་ཐོབ་ཐང་ཚོགས་པ། དེ་བཞིན་བོད་ནང་གི་གནས་ཚུལ་ཤེས་འདོད་མཁན་ཚང་མར་སྤྲད་ཡོད་འདུག

ནང་དོན་ཞིབ་ཕྲ་ཤེས་འདོད་ཡོད་མཁན་ཚོས་མའི་ཊོ་ཕེ་སུ་ཊོ་ནོ་ལགས་ཀྱི་དྲ་ཚིགས་ www.matteopistono.comགཟིགས་རོགས་ཞུ།

རྒྱལ་སྤྱིའི་བོད་ཀྱི་ཆ་འཕྲིན་གྱི་གསར་འགོད་པ་པདྨ་མཚོས་མདོར་བསྡུས་བསྒྱུར།
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"In The Land Of Lamas"

The Pioneer, INDIA

Apart from Tibetan politics and human rights violations, one will learn about tantric rituals and mysticism while reading Matteo Pistono's book, writes Claude Arpi.

Some books come at the right time on the shelves; it is the case with Matteo Pistono’s latest book, In the Shadow of the Buddha: One Man’s Journey of Spiritual and Political Danger in Tibet.

For the past few weeks, Tibetan activists have been in the news trying to bring the horrifying self-immolations of Tibetan monks and nuns to the attention of the world leaders. Hundreds of them invited themselves to Cannes where the G20 Summit was held. That the leaders have remained deaf is another matter, but the Tibetan issue is alive.  Read More 
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Claude Arpi's review of In the Shadow of the Buddha

Some books come at the right time on the shelves; it is the case of “In the Shadow of the Buddha” (one Man’s Journey of Spiritual and Political Danger in Tibet) written by author and spiritual seeker Matteo Pistono.

For the past few weeks, Tibetan activists have been in the news trying to bring the horrifying self-immolations of Tibetans monks and nuns to the attention of the world leaders. Hundreds them, shouting, “Tibet is burning”, invited themselves to Cannes on the French Riviera where the G20 Summit was held. That the leaders have remained deaf is another matter, but the Tibetan issue is alive.

In the book’s Foreword, Hollywood actor and practicing, Buddhist Richard Gere explains:  Read More 
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Interview with Matteo Pistono, HayHouse's 'Author of the Month'

Hay House is publishing "In the Shadow of the Buddha" in the UK, India, Australia, South Africa, and elsewhere the second week of September. Hay House has named Matteo Pistono their author of the month coinciding with book launch events in London Sept 6-12th. As part of launch, Hay House is featuring on their website an extract from the book, videos, Matteo's talks and appearances while he is in the UK, and discounts on book, as well as this interview with Matteo:

An interview with Matteo Pistono

If you were an animal, what animal would you be and why?

Probably a dog, and I’d be my own dog’s (named ‘Karpo’) best dog-friend.

What is your idea of happiness?

Happiness is an attitude that is open, naked, and fresh. Abiding in the flow of that attitude, no matter the situation — on the meditation cushion or in the halls of political debate, on a mountain top or in the middle of the city — brings great inner strength.

When did you last cry? Read More 
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Kirkus reviews In the Shadow of the Buddha


“Pistono. Matteo Pistono. Buddhist superspy, teaching bad guys the disappointments that come from attachment.

Since 1999, Pistono has been journeying into Chinese-occupied Tibet, porting in messages from the Tibetan government in exile, stealing out with evidence of official misdeeds, such as the mistreatment of a cleric “who was scalded with boiling water and then jailed  Read More 
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