Former Lander resident Matteo Pistono presents

Location: Intertribal Center 116

Mon, Feb 28, 2011 starting at 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM
 

            Former Lander resident Matteo Pistono shares the stories and images of his ten-year journey in Tibet while discussing his book “In the Shadow of the Buddha,” at Central Wyoming College Monday, Feb. 28 at 3:30 p.m.

Pistono, born in Cody and raised in Lander, tells a story of multiple pilgrimages to Tibet where he witnessed countless human rights violations against the Tibetan people. The discussion is in the Wind River Room (116) of the CWC Intertribal Education and Community Center and is free and open to the public.

            While Pistono, a practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism, was on his own spiritual journey across Tibet in 1999, he learned of abuses of Tibetans, particularly monks and nuns. For nearly a decade, he secretly carried out evidence of the atrocities by sewing them into boots and backpacks in order to share them with international news organizations and the U.S. government. In an illustrated slideshow, Pistono weaves together images from the Himalayas and vast landscapes of Tibet.

Pistono, who had worked in Wyoming in environmental politics, shared his stories with Wyoming political leaders, speaking often with the late Sen. Craig Thomas.

He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Wyoming and his masters at the University of London. He is the founder of Nekorpa, a foundation to protect sacred pilgrimage sites around the world.