In the shadow of the Buddha

For nearly a decade, Matteo Pistono evaded Chinese security and smuggled out photos of prisons, secret documents and first-hand interviews of torture victims and other atrocities committed by the Chinese Government. Yet, Pistono had not initially gone to Tibet to fight for human rights but as a Buddhist pilgrim.

After Pistono became the student of a venerated meditation master in Tibet, he began couriering messages to him from the Dalai Lama in India. In the Shadow of Buddha is both a vivid account of how Tibet’s rich spiritual past is slipping away under repression, and the story of one man who merged political activism with Buddhist mysticism in pursuit of freedom and peace.

‘This story of Matteo Piston’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 contemporary Tibet.’
THE DALAI LAMA