Matteo Pistono

I researched "In the Shadow of the Buddha" for nearly a decade in Tibet, Nepal and India; wrote much of it on the Lower East Side in New York City; and edited most of it while sitting at the coffee shop 'Modern Times' just below Politics & Prose in Washington DC. And the book was launched at Politics & Prose to a standing room only with over 100 folks. So I had to smile when I saw Politics and Prose in Doonesbury yesterday. Love it.  Read More 

...from 'In the Shadow of the Buddha' page 123-124

“You smell like curry spice and Kathmandu’s dust,” the president of the In¬ternational Campaign for Tibet said, handing me a black blazer at Dulles Airport. Though I had not slept for over twenty-four hours, we sped off toward the U.S. Capitol. He had borrowed a pair of shoes from his office’s media director to replace my hiking boots. I changed in the car ride into Washington. He dropped me off a few blocks from the White House, at the massive office buildings that house key policy decision-makers, including the National Security Council and vice president’s office. It was there I met another advocate from the International Campaign for Tibet. We ducked out of the rain and entered a marble lobby.

The first thing that caught my eye was a large emblazoned seal hanging above our heads: a Roman cuirass surrounded by unsheathed swords, crossed bayonets, and other artillery, and a rattlesnake with a scroll unfurling from his fanged mouth that bore the inscription "This We’ll Defend". We were in the former Department of War building. The seal above us is still used today, with its blades and swords—not unlike the wrathful weaponry used in Tibetan Buddhist iconography to symbolize destroying the self-cherishing ego. But what is the difference between  Read More 

I was pleased when Antonio Terrone called me a few weeks ago to ask me if I wanted to join him for an event at Northwestern University, where he is a professor of Tibetan Buddhism. Antonio asked if I wanted to sit down with him for a conversation about Tibet, China, human rights...and our friendship. I heartily agreed. The event is planned for February 6 (check on the event page for full details.

It was in fact over a decade ago when I met Antonio Terrone in a remote part of Eastern Tibet. We were both researching treasure revealers in Tibet. We made an immediate connection. I wrote this about Antonio in "In the Shadow of the Buddha" about a later pilgrimage:

"Antonio and I had met years before while we both were traveling near Serthar, and after a month of grueling travel from Golok to Lhasa—where on two occasions, we had to get out of our transport and hike a wide detour around the police check posts undetected, before returning to the main road to  Read More 

from Chapter 2 of Matteo Pistono's "In the Shadow of the Buddha: One Man's Journey of Discovery in Tibet"

Winter 1999, Year of the Earth Hare
Larung Buddhist Encampment, Eastern Tibet

The younger monk with whom I had traveled in the bus to the encamp¬ment had space on his kitchen floor for me to sleep. We wound our way through the muddy alleyways of the encampment to his shack. Monks and nuns chanted scriptures behind the doors we passed. Smoke rose from simple tin chimneys in the homes of those who had money to buy yak dung for fuel. A few refugee dogs were curled against the doors of some of the huts, trying to stay warm. My head pounded from the lack of oxygen at this altitude. When we arrived at my host’s small home, he started a fire as I fell into a corner, exhausted from the journey. The monk put a kettle of water on to boil and then ran out the door halfway down the valley to Khenpo’s residence to deliver my request to meet the teacher, and pass along a letter Sogyal Rinpoche had written for me requesting assistance on my pilgrimage.

For the next week, while waiting for a response to the request to speak privately with Khenpo, I attended his teachings  Read More 

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 

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།

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 

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 

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 

The image of monks and nuns burning themselves in protest in Tibet is reminiscent of the Vietnamese monk Thich Quang Due’s self-immolation in 1963.

Fellow monk and countryman Thich Nhat Hanh wrote a few years after the incident, “The Vietnamese monk, by burning himself, says with all his strength and determination that he can  Read More