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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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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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In the Shadow of the Buddha makes Booklist's 2011 Top Ten


Top 10 Books in Religion and Spirituality.
Booklist: Cooper, Ilene (author).
November 15, 2011

This year’s top 10 religion books pay homage to the King James Bible, with 4 of the 10 titles addressing aspects of the book’s 400-year history. Other selections explore Indian spirituality, the history of Jerusalem, and the challenge of bringing compassion to daily life. — 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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Two Journeys Into the World of Tibet by Mindy C. Reiser

The Washington Independent Review of BookS
Two Journeys Into the World of Tibet Reviewed by Mindy C. Reiser

Few international issues have drawn such widespread and sustained popular concern as the cause of Tibetan religious and cultural rights. The struggle for Tibetan freedom and self determination, waged now in the face of an increasingly assertive China, has attracted the support of such well known figures as South African Bishop Desmond Tutu, Czech dissident and man of letters Vaclav Havel, and Holocaust survivor and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel. Richard Gere, Hollywood star and activist, a tireless promoter of Tibetan human rights, serves as chair of the International Campaign for Tibet.  Read More 
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Book Review by Divanee-South Asian Politics & Entertainment

Most Westerners today know who the XIV Dalai Lama is. Many would be able to recognize a picture of him. Some, like me, have even seen his wax likeness at Madame Tussauds. Less known is Tertön Sogyal, a lama who was a contemporary of the previous Dalai Lama. It is this man whose journey Matteo Pistono followed over the course of nearly ten years. Out today, “In the Shadow of the Buddha” details not only Pistono’s pilgrimage but also the countless human rights violations committed against the Tibetan people by their Chinese occupiers. Read More 
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Mikel Dunham reviews "In the Shadow of the Buddha"

Mikel Dunham writes:

In the Shadow of the Buddha is a book about religious freedom, transmitted from a prism that refracts a quartet of incisively written points of view. What’s really remarkable about Matteo Pistono’s book is that he wears his various narrative hats with equal authority.  Read More 
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Best Damn Creative Writing Blog Reviews In the Shadow of the Buddha, by Jan Rider Newman

"Tibet – the word calls up images of high Himalayas and red-robed monks meditating and chanting in ancient temples. Unfortunately, China is destroying that Tibet. Much of what remains of traditional Tibetan Buddhism is centered in India, where the Fourteenth Dalai Lama lives in  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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