In the Shadow of the Buddha: Secret Journeys, Sacred Histories, and Spiritual Discovery in Tibet [Hardcover]

Matteo Pistono (Author)

Book Description

Release date: January 20, 2011

Spiritual biography meets edge-of-your-seat undercover reporting: how an American Buddhist smuggled out hard evidence of abuse and torture in Tibet.

For nearly a decade, Matteo Pistono smuggled out of Tibet evidence of atrocities by the Chinese government, showing it to the U.S. government, human rights organizations, and anyone who would listen. Yet Pistono did not originally intend to fight for social justice in Tibet- he had gone there as a Buddhist pilgrim.

Disillusioned by a career in American politics, he had gone to the Himalayas looking for a simpler way of life. After encountering Buddhism in Nepal, Pistono's quest led him to Tibet and to a meditation master whose spiritual brother is Sogyal Rinpoche, bestselling author of The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. Pistono not only became the master's student but also couriered messages to him in Tibet from the Dalai Lama in India. This began an extraordinary, and ultimately vital, adventure.

In the Shadow of the Buddha is a book about Tibet through the eyes of a devotee-a stranger hiding in plain sight. It's about how a culture's rich spiritual past is slipping away against the force of a tyrannical future. It's about how Tibetans live today, and the tenacity of their faith in the future in spite of dire repression and abuse. It's also about Pistono's own journey from being a frustrated political activist to becoming a practicing Buddhist mystic, a man who traveled thousands of miles and risked his own life to pursue freedom and peace.

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Pistono draws on his experiences as a journalist, activist, and student of Tibetan Buddhism to explore the intersection between spirituality and politics. He weaves together the stories of his pilgrimages in Tibet, his role in smuggling out evidence of the Chinese government's human rights abuses to the West, and the history of Terton Sogyal, a lama who served as spiritual and political adviser to the current Dalai Lama's predecessor in the late 19th and very early 20th centuries. Pistono follows the path of Terton Sogyal across vast expanses of the Tibetan landscape while hearing testimonies to suffering by Tibetans who sought him out to share their stories. The phurba, a "great weapon of compassion" in Tibetan ritual to destroy anger, provides a continuing motif. Spiritual aspirations and political realities collide tragically in present-day Tibet, and through this complex set of narratives Pistono explores his own search for freedom from anger when faced with massive injustice and the apparent ineffectiveness of activism on behalf of Tibet. These inner and outer journeys are no less astonishing for being told matter-of-factly, accompanied by keen analysis of modern realpolitik. (Jan.)
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From Booklist

*Starred Review* From Wyoming to Himalayan meditation caves to Capitol Hill, Pistono’s account of his quest for spiritual illumination and political justice is heartbreaking and awe-inspiring. Pistono, raised with the belief that social activism is a core responsibility, began traveling to Tibet in 1999, motivated, in part, by his fascination with Tertön Sogyal, a nineteenth-century mystic and “Tibet’s great champion and protector.” Pistono follows in Tertön Sogyal’s footsteps while telling the mystic’s astonishing story, from his father’s insistence that he join a band of highway robbers to serving as teacher to the XIII Dalai Lama and guiding Tibet through political turmoil and the intrusion of British forces. Traveling as both a journalist and a Buddhist pilgrim, Pistono also found himself at the crossroads of spirituality and politics when he was asked to serve as a human-rights courier, carrying to the West hard evidence of China’s systematic brutality in occupied Tibet. Pistono tells chilling cloak-and-dagger tales and offers mesmerizing descriptions of haunting landscapes and miracle-performing lamas. But what shimmers most in this riveting and mysterious chronicle, which includes a foreword by Tibet activist Richard Gere, is the courage of those dedicated to “the Dalai Lama’s vision for real autonomy and religious freedom in Tibet through nonviolent means.” --Donna Seaman

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Adult (January 20, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0525951199
• ISBN-13: 978-0525951193
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 1.1 x 9.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #596,718 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #45 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( B ) > Buddha

More About the Author

Matteo Pistono is a writer, photographer, practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism, and author of "In the Shadow of the Buddha: Secret Journeys, Sacred Histories, and Spiritual Discovery in Tibet" (Dutton, Penguin January 2011). Pistono's images and writings about Tibetan and Himalayan cultural, political, and spiritual landscapes have appeared in BBC's In-Pictures, Men's Journal, Kyoto Journal, and HIMAL South Asia. Pistono was born and raised in Wyoming where he completed his undergraduate degree in Anthropology from the University of Wyoming, and in 1997 he obtained his Masters of Arts degree in Indian Philosophy from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. After working with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. on Tibetan cultural programs, Pistono lived and traveled throughout the Himalayas for a decade, bringing to the West graphic accounts and photos of China's human rights abuses in Tibet. He is the founder of Nekorpa (www.nekorpa.org), a non-profit foundation working to protect sacred pilgrimage sites around the world, and he sits on the Executive Council of the International Network of Engaged Buddhists, Rigpa Fellowship, and the Conservancy for Tibetan Art and Culture. Pistono and his wife, Monica, divide their time between Colorado, Washington D.C., and Asia. See www.matteopistono.com.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An Amazing Book January 25, 2011

By Edward A. Dickey

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

There have been many fascinating accounts by western pilgrims, explorers, and adventurers (Alexandra David Neel, Heinrich Harrer, Lama Anagarika Govinda, and Ian Baker come to mind) about life-transforming experiences in Tibet. In the Shadow of the Buddha is a most worthy addition to this body of literature.

Matteo Pistono began with a plan to write a biography of Terton Sogyal, a highly realized holy man and revealer of hidden teachings, who lived in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He was a close advisor to the thirteenth Dalai Lama during years when Tibetan sovereignty was threatened by both the British and Chinese and used his considerable spiritual powers to guard against these threats. The book provides beautifully written and inspiring accounts of important events in the life of Terton Sogyal and of the author's visits to the places where those events took place.

During his decade of arduous travels in the Land of Snows, Matteo Pistono lived in a monastic encampment, sought out Buddhist masters and hermits, received advanced teachings, learned special practices, and witnessed the seemingly miraculous. He also encountered evidence of human rights abuses, including destruction of homes, imprisonment, torture, and even death meted out to monks, nuns, and others whose only crimes were to practice their religion, peacefully protest, express devotion to the Dalai Lama, or merely decline to denounce him. Before long he was spiriting evidence of these violations out of Tibet so that they could be seen by policy makers in Washington, Europe, and the UN. At the same time he was bringing in messages from the Dalai Lama. These were, to say the least, perilous activities, and the book often reads like the page-turning mystery thrillers of Eliot Pattison - except that this is no fiction.

So we have a biography of Terton Sogyal, accounts of Chinese government abuses, and of the adventures undertaken to expose them. Interwoven with these elements is the author's description of his own spiritual journey as a student and practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism during the decade that he took to research and write the book. Central to this spiritual journey is his struggle to reconcile anger at the actions of the Chinese government with his efforts as a Buddhist to practice meditative equanimity and cultivate compassion. As we learn how he resolved this conflict, we learn much about Tibetan Buddhism, about its practices and its teachings on wisdom, compassion, impermanence, and death, and the awakened mind's ability to transform thoughts and emotions.

In the Shadow of the Buddha is an amazing book - a gift for all who care about human rights, the Tibetan people, and the teachings of the Tibetan Buddhist masters.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb contribution to Tibetan literature January 31, 2011

By Mikel Dunham

Format:Hardcover

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. The end result is one of seemingly incongruous components interlocking to create a multi-textural experience seldom offered to readers.

Pistono, the spy: During the last decade, the author has made numerous trips to Tibet to surreptitiously photograph evidence of Chinese oppression inside Tibet and to smuggle out written documents that have become essential data to international human rights organizations, as well as to the US State Department. His fearless information gathering has contributed greatly to a deeper understanding of Tibet, normally off-limits to Western reporters.
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Pistono, the Tibetan historian: By weaving in the biography of the 19th century Tibetan mystic Terton Sogyal, the author brings a deeper understanding of the importance of spiritual lineage in Tibetan culture - both from religious and political standpoints. Terton Sogyal's recorded lineage began with Padmasambhava - the adept who brought Buddhism to Tibet twelve centuries years ago - gained renewed importance during the politically pivotal era of the XIII Dalai Lama, and remains extremely relevant to the XIV Dalai Lama, as well as to Terton Sogyal's present-day incarnation Sogyal Rinpoche, (author of the best-seller Tibetan Book of Living and Dying).
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Pistono, the travel writer: Having personally tackled the terrain of Kham, Golok and south-central Tibet, I can attest to the author's keen eye when describing the topographical contours (as well as the visceral experience) of the vast untamed countryside - this, in spite of the ever-greater encroachment of Chinese colonization. In this genre, Pistono can hold his head high with the likes of George Patterson, Robert Barnett, Fosco Maraini and Charles Bell.
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Pistono, the spiritual seeker: Over the years, the author has had access to many of today's most highly recognized Buddhist teachers. His Buddhist practice comes with physically and mentally challenging retreats in remote Himalayan caves as well as personal empowerments granted to him by leading lamas. One of the great challenges for the author, an ardent human rights activist, has been the fundamental question many Westerner in search of enlightenment can relate to: How does one reconcile the non-attachment teachings of Buddhism with the anger that often arises within one, when confronted with China's relentless and sometime violent suppression of Tibetan faith?

As Pistono writes toward the end of the book:

As I have heard Sogyal Rinpoche say many times, "the next life or the next breath, which will come first is uncertain." Even our teacher's bodies pass away - the Buddha, Terton Sogyal, the XIII Dalai Lama...
...There was no more sadness, no more spiritual yearning or political agenda. Sitting in the rain among the rock and rubble, there was no anticipation. I was not trying to accomplish anything. I was not encumbered by hope or immersed in fear. I released trying to accomplish, to win, or to overcome. And, the worry of losing, or being defeated, or getting caught by the Chinese, evaporated. In the absence of hope and fear, I felt the blessing of my teachers descend with the falling rain.

In the end, In the Shadow of the Buddha is the story of a man committed to sacred pilgrimages - whether those treks take him to remote caves above the Tibetan Plain, or simply (and far more profoundly) within himself.

(written by Mikel Dunham, author of "Buddha's Warriors")

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An extraordinary journey January 31, 2011

By Arizona

Format:Hardcover

This book has been keeping me up late the last few nights. Despite a desire to read quickly to learn more of Mr. Pistono's journey of self-discovery, I'm constantly stopping myself to re-read passages to experience the beauty and thoughtfulness of his prose. With every page I learn more about Buddhism, Tibet and the political attrocities occuring there. It's a privilege to read this book.