Walking Pilgrimages: 200 Monks Walking for Peace and Himalayas
India, the land of Buddha has attracted millions of Buddhist from all over the world. People, monks, researchers and travellers from every continent come here to visit the places, belongs to Gautam Buddha, the man who enlightened the world by his knowledge and self-realisation. Centuries passed, the places from Bodhgaya to Sarnath are as sacred as Mecca and the Vatican.
This inspired a group of Thailand based monks to start a spiritual tour four years ago. The idea was to come to India, then start a walk to the places belonging to Buddha. This is a challenge, as they decided to walk by foot wit all arrangements. This year 200 pilgrims are taking a long walk or Pad Yatra through the Himalayas. Its fourth consecutive year for the month-long yatra by nearly 200 monks and nuns from Thailand. They travel a few kilometres daily, cook, pray, meditate and sleep for a few hours. The spiritual journey is a dedication for peace and Himalayas.
The importance of this yatra of walking pilgrimages become bigger when they collaborated with Laddakh based Mahabodhi Internation Mediation Centre, founded by Spiritual Leader Bhikkhu Sanghasena. He invited all monks to his ashram in Ladhakh and culmination of this walk organised there on 25-26th June 2019.
As this spirital journey of monks is special and holds a great value, HH Dalai Lama every time invite them to Dharmashala and arrange a meal and other facilities. The challenges being faced during padyatra are arrangements for food, stay & climatic conditions which r different from Thailand. Proper arrangements are also required to be made for medical facilities. However, all these things are being taken care well & Padyatra is going on smoothly without any major challenge. The monks met HH Dalai Lama on 23 & 24 May, 2019.
A three-day international conference on world peace and the protection of Himalayan heritage will organise on MIMC, Ladakh. “World peace is the need of the hour,” says Sanghasena told Asian Age. “In the current global scenario, we are facing terrorism, war and violence in various forms, and we can’t be just mere spectators.”
Agenda of the Conference: conference-agenda
