A Buddhist Spectrum is Marco Pallis' last book. This book is an in-depth survey of many aspects of Buddhism, and demonstrates his profound understanding of all dimensions of the tradition, a love of its ambience and the lands where it thrives, and his ability to present these as living realities to Westerners. Pallis had a particular talent for anticipating where Westerners might misunderstand the Buddhist message, and he carefully highlights the universal ideals of this great tradition in a way that is both clear and instructive to modern readers in the West.

A Buddhist Spectrum contains an insightful introduction from renowned scholar, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, and a foreword by Br. Wayne Teasdale. 

Marco Pallis was born of Greek parents in Liverpool in 1895, educated at Harrow and Liverpool University, and served in the British army during World War I. He later studied music with Arnold Dolmetsch, and was much influenced by the writings of two great early Traditionalists, Ananda K. Coomaraswamy and René Guénon. Pallis visited Guénon in Cairo and translated two of his books (along with his friend Richard Nicholson). 

In 1923 Pallis visited southern Tibet on a mountaineering trip. He returned to the area in 1933 and 1936, consumed by an interest in its traditional culture, and stayed in monasteries in Sikkim and Ladakh. He returned for a more extended visit after World War II. After visiting Ceylon and South India, and receiving the darshan of Ramana Maharshi at Tiruvannamalai, he studied under Tibetan lamas near Shigatse and was initiated, with the Tibetan name of Thubden Tendzin, into one of the traditional lineages.

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