A group of about two dozen Buddhist monks reached Georgia on Tuesday, day 66 of a walking trek across much of the United States to promote peace, pressing on despite injuries sustained last month when a truck struck their escort vehicle outside Houston.
The group, which set out from Fort Worth, Texas, on Oct. 26, planned to walk Tuesday from the town of Morrow to Decatur, on the eastern edge of Atlanta, where they invited the public to a Peace Gathering that afternoon.
The walk has drawn more than 400,000 followers on Facebook and highlights a tradition of Buddhist peace activism that figures including the Dalai Lama and Thich Nhat Hanh carried into political and social justice movements across the 20th century.
Accident on a Texas highway
The trek has not been without danger. Last month, while the group was walking on the side of a highway near Dayton, Texas, their escort vehicle — traveling with its hazard lights on — was struck from behind by a truck.
Dayton Interim Police Chief Shane Burleigh said the truck driver “didn’t notice how slow the vehicle was going, tried to make an evasive maneuver to drive around the vehicle, and didn’t do it in time.” The truck, Burleigh said, “struck the escort vehicle in the rear left, pushed the escort into two of the monks.”
One monk sustained what Burleigh described as “substantial leg injuries” and was flown by helicopter to a hospital in Houston. A second monk with less serious injuries was taken by ambulance to a hospital in suburban Houston. A spokeswoman for the group said the more seriously injured monk was expected to undergo a series of surgeries to address a broken bone, but that his prognosis for recovery was good.
The route ahead
The monks are walking through 10 states on their way to Washington, DC. In the days ahead, the group planned to pass through or near Athens, Georgia; Charlotte, Greensboro, and Raleigh, North Carolina; and Richmond, Virginia, before reaching the capital.
Accompanying the group throughout the journey is a dog named Aloka — a Sanskrit word meaning enlightenment — who has developed its own following under the hashtag #AlokathePeaceDog. The group’s Facebook page is frequently updated with progress reports, poetry, and reflections on its mission.
“We do not walk alone. We walk together with every person whose heart has opened to peace, whose spirit has chosen kindness, whose daily life has become a garden where understanding grows,” the group posted on Facebook.
Buddhism and peace activism
Buddhism, a religion and philosophy rooted in the teachings of Gautama Buddha, has a long tradition of peace advocacy. The Dalai Lama and Thich Nhat Hanh pioneered its social application, bringing principles of compassion and non-violence to bear on political, environmental, and social justice causes around the world.