Walk for peace: Buddhist monks and America’s search for healing

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* 

The #BuddhistMonks in the United States have completed their #WalkForPeace after covering nearly 3,700 kilometers in an arduous journey. They reached Washington, DC yesterday. The journey began at the Huong Đạo Vipassana Bhavana Center in Fort Worth, Texas, on October 26, 2025, and concluded in Washington, DC after a 108-day walk. The monks, mainly from Vietnam and Thailand, undertook this journey for peace and mindfulness. Their number ranged between 19 and 24. Led by Venerable Bhikkhu Pannakara (also known as Sư Tuệ Nhân), a Vietnamese-born monk based in the United States, this “Walk for Peace” reflected deeply on the crisis within American society and the search for inner strength among its people.

The march took place at a time when Donald Trump appears to have drifted from his slogan of “Make America Great Again,” turning it into an aggressive assertion of power through domination and coercion. The global rules-based order, long championed by Western elites, often seems selectively applied to serve narrow interests. The world’s “most powerful” nation—capable of exerting extraordinary influence across continents, supporting wars that devastate regions like Gaza, maintaining decades-long sanctions on countries such as Cuba, and projecting force in the name of security—also faces profound internal fractures. If this Walk for Peace revealed anything, it is that people of different races, languages, and nationalities in America are yearning for love, dignity, and peace. Their lives reflect strain and disillusionment, and the jingoism associated with the military-industrial complex does not answer their emotional and social needs.

It was Anagarika Dharmapala of Sri Lanka who first carried Buddhism to the West in the modern era. This Walk for Peace stands as a powerful reminder of how Buddhist principles can inspire peace and happiness in everyday life. The monks made no political speeches or sectarian declarations. They spoke from the heart, and people responded in kind. I followed the walk from the beginning, watching videos and listening to people’s experiences. Old and young, Black and White, men and women, people in wheelchairs, and children waited for the march to reach their towns. Along highways and in cities, many lined up for a glimpse of the venerable bhikkhus.

Over the last thirty years, I have had the opportunity to travel widely, including in the United States. I have rarely seen such visible emotional brokenness despite the West’s economic dominance. Material success has not resolved deeper social and cultural anxieties. Families are fragmented, and community life has steadily yielded to individualism. Individualism can empower, but it can also isolate. What we witnessed from Texas to Washington, DC was a collective longing for connection—a desire to belong and to feel loved.

The progress of a nation cannot be measured solely by economic growth; it must also be assessed by its emotional and social well-being. A country cannot be at peace when its political leadership persistently divides people into categories of native and non-native, especially in a land built largely by immigrants. European settlers who displaced Indigenous peoples and brought enslaved Africans to America rarely described themselves as immigrants; they preferred the term “settlers,” a word still politically charged in other parts of the world. Language shapes power, and labels can marginalize.

India faces similar challenges, perhaps even more acutely. Sections of political discourse have declared India a “Vishwaguru,” yet a nation cannot claim moral leadership while remaining internally divided. No country can become truly strong if it alienates a significant portion of its population. A nation grows when it treats all citizens equally and respects every faith, as well as those who profess none. When any community is humiliated or pushed to the margins, social harmony erodes. A society cannot progress while thinking negatively about 15 percent of its own people.

India’s civilizational strength has long rested on coexistence and dialogue. Diverse religions, philosophies, and even traditions of atheism and humanism flourished here. Faith did not require state enforcement to survive. Among the most transformative moments in India’s history was the birth of the Buddha. Yet over time, Buddhism declined in the land of its origin, even as it flourished abroad, spreading ideas of compassion, rational inquiry, and ethical living across Asia and beyond. Its disappearance from India marked a profound social and cultural loss, though it remains a vital bridge to Southeast Asia.

No Indian peace initiative has walked across the Western world in this manner, but these Buddhist monks did. They offered hope. They spread love. Hatred ultimately consumes those who nurture it—whether in America, Europe, or India. Hatred cannot endure forever.

In that sense, India’s loss became the world’s gain. Buddhism today offers solace to many and has brought together communities that feel divided and fatigued. What unfolded on the streets of America was a spontaneous expression of people’s desire to unite, to embrace, and to rediscover the strength of compassion.

Even Aloka, India’s stray dog who joined this historic march, became part of the story. Found near Kolkata Airport by Venerable Bhikkhu Paññākāra, Aloka began walking with the monks and never left. Injuries and surgeries did not deter either the monks or their four-legged companion. The journey continued without fanfare, without triumphalism, and without claims of victory—yet it won hearts.

The world needs peacemakers who can bring people together. Politics often thrives on division, but true progress requires inner peace and collective strength. As long as vast sections of humanity suffer poverty and misery—often shaped by systems of domination and inequality—lasting peace will remain elusive. The crises in our homes and streets are frequently the consequences of power structures that profit from division.

Peace marches such as this should become part of a broader global movement that compels power elites to listen to ordinary people and restrain their impulses toward conflict. The lesson of this journey is simple: the wider public longs for peace. What matters most is not whether we succeed immediately, but whether we make the effort.

Let peace prevail.

Namo Buddhaya.

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*Human rights defender