A peace walk or peace march, sometimes referred to as a peace pilgrimage, is a form of nonviolent action where a person or group marches a set distance to raise awareness for particular issues important to the walkers.
Kharlzada Kasrat Rai, twice the World Record holder for Peace Walks, has devoted his life for the cause of Peace, Education, Health and Cultural activities. He has achieved a widespread fame for the sake of his noble cause.[1]
He has conducted several walks with the flag of peace within and beyond the boundaries of Pakistan.[1]
In 2020, he made a 350km Long Peace Walk from Wellington to Christchurch in commemoration of the Christchurch Mosques Attack. He is doing this walk voluntarily for the sake of humanity and Peace. The Peace Walk will start from New Zealand Parliament on 5 March.[2]
India
Starting in 1951, Vinoba Bhave undertook a peace walk with many of his followers throughout India for land reform. He walked for more than a decade, asking landowners to consider him a son and give him one-sixth of their land for him to distribute to the poor.[3]
A peace walk campaign called "Freedom Walk" was organized by the Free Software Community in Kerala in 2008. Four volunteers walked 750 miles (1,210km) from one end of the state to the other to promote free software.[4]
Europe
During the Second World War, peace pilgrimages took place across Europe with the aim of bringing an end to the conflict. In Italy, pilgrims prayed at Loreto and Assisi. In Wales they went on pilgrimage to St David's Cathedral, in France they went on pilgrimage to Our Lady of Pontmain who had saved the French in an earlier war. In Ireland and Switzerland, pilgrims prayed that the war would not spread across their borders.[5]
Hungary and Italy
In 2014, a group launched the first permanent peace walk route, which runs from Budapest along the former division between Eastern and Western Europe, and ends in Trieste, Italy. Donol Corcoran of Ireland had completed the "European Peace Walk" six times by July 2019.[6]
Peace walk for the Unity of Hungary, on 29 March 2014
A peace walk for the Unity of Hungary occurred in March 2014.[7]
About 7,000 San Diego Peace Marchers in Balboa Park Protest the Iraq War, 15 March 2003
Various peace organizations throughout the United States organized marches to protest wars, including the Iraq War, on a regular basis. Sometimes these marches are coordinated to take place on the same day across the nation. In San Diego, the greatest number of anti-war protesters, an estimated 7,000, turned out for a demonstration on 15 March 2003, five days before the beginning of the Iraq War.
Native Americans have organized numerous cross-country peace walks, including the "Longest Walk" in 1978 and the "Long Walk for Survival" in 1980. The projects raised awareness not only for peace, but environmental issues and protection of native sites. In 1984, several walks crossed the nation, including "On the Line," which traced the route of trains carrying nuclear weapons from Bangor Base, Washington, to Charleston, South Carolina, and the "Peace Pilgrimage of Europeans."[8]
The Bridge Walk for Peace is held every year since 2008 on April 4 in Philadelphia to commemorate the assassination anniversary of Dr. King is the longest such observance in the country. The event gathers individuals at sunrise at the foot of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge to walk to the pinnacle and offer a prayer for peace.
International
From India across the world
From 1963 to 1965, two members of Gandhi's Sarvodaya movement, Satish Kumar and E.P. Menon, walked an estimated 8,000 miles from New Delhi to Washington, D.C., via Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Russia, Poland, Germany, France, and Belgium. They crossed the channel and Atlantic Ocean via ships. Their prior experience of Bhave gave two gifts to Kumar and Menon: pennilessness, i.e. voluntary poverty, and vegetarianism.[9]
From 1982 through 1986, Prem Kumar[clarification needed] walked more than 17,000 kilometers (about 10,500 miles) around the world for international peace and disarmament. He organized walks in India involving participants from all over the world and founded social service organizations.[10]
Interfaith Pilgrimage for Peace and Life
The "Interfaith Pilgrimage for Peace and Life" started in Auschwitz, Poland, on 8 December 1994, and ended in Nagasaki on the 50th anniversary of the Nagasaki bombing on 9 August 1995. It was led by Nipponzan-Myōhōji-Daisanga Japanese Buddhist monks. The monks, however, were dwarfed in number by American, European, South American, and Japanese lay people.
The trip was organized to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II as well as to be a witness to suffering in contemporary war zones. From Auschwitz, the group walked to Vienna, then traveled through Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia. They crossed the front lines of the Bosnian War in Mostar and held a day of vigil, fasting and prayer there. The next leg took them through Israel, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Jordan and Iraq.
The group traveled across the front lines in Cambodia, where they joined the Dhammayietra, an annual Cambodian peace walk led by Maha Ghosananda, known by some as the "Gandhi of Cambodia." They then visited war sites in Vietnam and the Philippines before going to Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
This walk was one of many peace pilgrimages organized by the Nipponzan-Myōhōji-Daisanga monks, but this one was among the largest and longest. More than 1,000 people participated in at least part of the pilgrimage, including Buddhists, Quakers, Catholics, Muslims and Jews.[11]
A Walk to Moscow
Donna Bradley and her son on A Walk For Survival, Oregon Coast, 22 April 1980
"A Walk to Moscow" was one of many walks for peace in the 20th century. They were specially organized by groups of pacifists and peace activists who wanted to protest against the politics of war and the use of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.
In 1960–61, the Committee for Non-Violent Action organized the "San Francisco to Moscow Walk for Peace." The group covered some 6,000 miles in ten months and was able to walk through Russia. Walk organizer Bradford Lyttle wrote a book on the project called You Come with Naked Hands.[12]
In 1981–83, a group walked across the United States and Europe to Moscow to show solidarity with all people and to demonstrate in a grassroots way that all people are linked by their right to live on the earth in peace and safety. This walk was conceived by organizers while on another peace walk called "A Walk for Survival", which went from Santa Cruz, California, to Bangor Base, Washington, in 1980. While at a requested meeting with the Russian Consulate in San Francisco, co-organizer Jack Chalmers asked if the group continued to walk eastward across the U.S. and then to Europe, would it be allowed to walk to Moscow? The Consulate official answered, "Of course."
So when "A Walk for Survival" ended at the site of a Trident nuclear submarine base in Bangor, organizers immediately started planning "A Walk to Moscow." The project began in Bangor on 1 March 1981, and reached the East Coast in time to stay for the winter in Boston. Members flew to Europe in March 1982 and walked across the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, and Federal Republic of Germany. Members took some side trips to Ireland and West Berlin by bus, returning to the starting point so the walking route could continue uninterrupted. Advance teams were sent a few weeks ahead to cities and towns along a prospective route to organize media opportunities, speaking engagements and accommodations. Decisions were made by complete consensus, which often led to long and stormy meetings.
The German Democratic Republic had refused entry to the group, so members walked south to Bavaria and stayed there for the winter while negotiating for visas to enter Czechoslovakia, Poland and the USSR. "A Walk to Moscow" (the indefinite article, rather than the definite "The Walk," was important to many original walkers, as it implied that it was only one initiative and others would hopefully follow. The distinction was, however, lost on people in the Eastern countries as Slavonic languages do not have words for "an" or "the.") spent nearly a year in Europe working from an old mill house in Regnitzlosau, Germany.
It was difficult to get the governments then in the Communist Bloc to allow the group to walk through their territory. While some group members negotiated, other walkers visited places on foot in Germany and gave talks to local peace groups. Some members got involved in passive resistance, chaining themselves to railings over conscription in Germany, and others fasted for peace in the world. Some went to Denmark to meet with peace groups and talk about the walk.
In 1983, visas were obtained for Czechoslovakia and Poland, and a continuous walking route was planned and successfully carried out as far as the border between Poland and the USSR. Relations with official peace groups in those countries were tricky; the Czech government tried to incorporate the initiative into its showpiece pro-Warsaw Pact 1983 conference in Prague. However, the group did not participate, although a few members lobbied delegates outside and were invited in for one discussion.
Walking across the USSR was not permitted, however. The group entered and transited to Minsk, then Smolensk, hoping for some compromise in negotiations. But that did not happen. At this point, many members chose to return and not go to Moscow; some tried to walk to Moscow anyway but were immediately apprehended and sent to rejoin the others in Minsk. When the walk finished, some people from the group talked at a CND rally about their work and the passive resistance movement. The group membership was international, as people came from all over the world to join and make a difference.
Some Walk to Moscow participants later met with other walks that crossed the U.S. and Europe, including Walk of the People - A Pilgrimage for Life, which occurred from 1984 to 1985. That project was also not allowed to walk in Russia, but some members rode a train to Moscow to meet with officials and ordinary people.
On 24 May 2015, International Women's Day for Disarmament, thirty women— including feminist leader Gloria Steinem, two Nobel Peace laureates and retired Colonel Ann Wright— from 15 different countries linked arms with 10,000 Korean women, stationing themselves on both sides of the DMZ to urge a formal end to the Korean War (1950–1953), the reunification of families divided during the war, and a peace building process with women in leadership positions to resolve decades of hostility.[15] It was unusual for South Korea and North Korea to reach consensus on allowing peace activists to enter the tense border area, one of the world's most dangerous places,[16] where hundreds of thousands of troops are stationed in a heavily mined zone that divides South Korea from nuclear North Korea.[17]
In the weeks leading up to the walk, feminist Gloria Steinem told the press, "It’s hard to imagine any more physical symbol of the insanity of dividing human beings."[17]
On the day of the crossing, South Korea refused to give the women permission to walk through Panmunjom, a border town where the 1953 truce was signed, so the women had to eventually cross the border by bus. Nevertheless, Steinem labeled the crossing a success. "We have accomplished what no one said can be done, which is to be a trip for peace, for reconciliation, for human rights and a trip to which both governments agreed."[18]
In addition to Steinem, participants in the crossing included organizer Christine Ahn from Hawaii; feminist Suzuyo Takazato from Okinawa; Amnesty International human rights lawyer Erika Guevara of Mexico; Liberian peace and reconciliation advocate Leymah Gbowee; Philippines lawmaker Liza Maza; Northern Ireland peace activist Mairead Maguire and Colonel Ann Wright, a retired officer who resigned from the U.S. military to protest the US invasion of Iraq.[16]
Supporters of the crossing met criticism with insistence that war, which divides and destroys families, impacts women, as well as men; therefore, if governments led by men cannot or will not lead the peace process, grassroots women have every right to take to the streets—and even the DMZ. Participants said the crossing focused global attention on the unnecessarily protracted Korean War, with support from world leaders, including UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon,[19] Archbishop Desmond Tutu,[20] the Dalai Lama,[21] former US President Jimmy Carter and South Korean lawmakers.[16][22]
For Ahn and the others, the crossing symbolized a reaffirmation of peace through dialogue, as opposed to an escalating arms race.[23]
Crossing participant Kozue Akibayashi, International President, Women's League for Peace and Freedom, wrote, "Addressing the division and bringing peace to the Korean Peninsula is not only the task for North and South Korea, but a responsibility of the international community."[24] Akibayashi said Women Cross DMZ strongly condemns the North Korean government's human rights violations while recognizing that such violations must be viewed through the lens of a "society where the priorities of the military outweigh the basic needs of its people." Akibayashi also featured as a keynote speaker at the first annual Peace Education Conference,[25] held virtually in September 2021.
A demilitarized zone is an area in which treaties or agreements between states, military powers or contending groups forbid military installations, activities, or personnel. A DZ often lies along an established frontier or boundary between two or more military powers or alliances. A DZ may sometimes form a de facto international border, such as the Korean Demilitarized Zone. Other examples of demilitarized zones are a 14 km (8.7 mi) wide area between Iraq and Kuwait; Antarctica ; and outer space.
Gloria Marie Steinem is an American journalist and social-political activist who emerged as a nationally recognized leader of second-wave feminism in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
The Korean Demilitarized Zone is a heavily militarized strip of land running across the Korean Peninsula near the 38th parallel north. The demilitarized zone (DMZ) is a border barrier that divides the peninsula roughly in half. It was established to serve as a buffer zone between the countries of North Korea and South Korea under the provisions of the Korean Armistice Agreement in 1953, an agreement between North Korea, China, and the United Nations Command.
Cheorwon County, also spelled Chorwon, is a county in Gangwon Province, South Korea. It is located right next to the North Korean border.
The Military Demarcation Line (MDL), sometimes referred to as the Armistice Line, is the land border or demarcation line between North Korea and South Korea. On either side of the line is the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). The MDL and DMZ were established by the Korean Armistice Agreement.
Nipponzan-Myōhōji-Daisanga (日本山妙法寺大僧伽), often referred to as just Nipponzan Myohoji or the Japan Buddha Sangha, is a Japanese new religious movement and activist group founded in 1917 by Nichidatsu Fujii, emerging from Nichiren Buddhism. "Nipponzan Myōhōji is a small Nichiren Buddhist order of about 1500 persons, including both monastics and lay persons." The community reveres the Lotus Sutra as the highest expression of the Buddhist message.
The Joint Security Area is the only portion of the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) where North and South Korean forces stand face-to-face. The JSA is used by the two Koreas for diplomatic engagements and, until March 1991, was also the site of military negotiations between North Korea and the United Nations Command (UNC).
A Peace Pagoda is a Buddhist stupa: a monument to inspire peace, designed to provide a focus for people of all races and creeds, and to help unite them in their search for world peace. Most, though not all, peace pagodas built since World War II have been built under the guidance of Nichidatsu Fujii (1885–1985), a Buddhist monk from Japan and founder of the Nipponzan-Myōhōji Buddhist Order. Fujii was greatly inspired by his meeting with Mahatma Gandhi in 1931 and decided to devote his life to promoting non-violence. In 1947, he began constructing Peace Pagodas as shrines to world peace. The first was inaugurated at Kumamoto in 1954.
Nichidatsu Fujii was a Japanese Buddhist monk, and founder of the Nipponzan-Myōhōji order of Buddhism. He is best known for his decision in 1947 to begin constructing Peace Pagodas in many locations around the world as shrines to world peace.
A Walk of the People – A Pilgrimage for Life was a walking personal and political action organized by peace activists Dale James Outhouse and Pamela Blockey O'Brien to bring attention to the perils of impending nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union. Former European Parliament member and French Green Party co-founder Solange Fernex was the European organizer of the project.
Kijŏng-dong, Kijŏngdong, Kijŏng tong or Kaepoong is reportedly a Potemkin village in P'yŏnghwa-ri, Panmun-guyok, Kaesong Special City, North Korea. It is situated in the North's half of the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). Also known in North Korea as Peace Village, it has been widely referred to as 'Propaganda Village' by those outside North Korea, especially in South Korean and Western media.
A transcontinental walk involves crossing a continent on foot. If a walk does not technically cross the entire continent, but starts and ends in a major city right near two opposing sides of a continent, it is usually considered transcontinental. People have crossed continents walking alone or in groups.
Junsei Terasawa is a Japanese Buddhist monk, belonging to the Order Nipponzan Myōhōji. He is notable for being the first Nipponzan monk to be active in Eurasia.
Kōsen-rufu (広宣流布), a phrase found in the Japanese translation of the Buddhist scripture Lotus Sutra, is informally defined to as "world peace through individual happiness." It refers to the future widespread dissemination of the Lotus Sutra.
Erika Guevara Rosas is a Mexican-American human rights lawyer and feminist, and the Americas Director at Amnesty International (AI), Prior to her tenure with AI, she was the Americas Director at the Global Fund for Women.
In 1981, Nichidatsu Fujii dispatched his followers to march and chant around the globe in support of the U.N. 2nd. special session for disarmament. In the U.S., marchers began in New Orleans, Los Angeles and San Francisco, and in Canada, marchers began in Montreal and Toronto. The San Francisco March began on Oct. 21, 1981 with a ceremony on Alcatraz. 13 marchers, being Buddhist followers of Nipponzan-Myōhōji, Native Americans, U.S. and German citizens, began the S.F. march. marching about 20 mile per day they were hosted each night by community groups in every town and on Native reservations. many mayors and town councils made proclamations and such honoring the peace and disarmament marchers. Over the course of the march citizens were moved to join. By the time they arrived in Chicago the S.F. marchers numbered about 30. In May 1982 the group of about 40 marchers from Toronto joined the S.F. group in Buffalo N.Y. at the International Peace Bridge doubling the size of the group. Through the state of N.Y. 10 to 20 people joined the march daily. When the S.F. group walked across the George Washington Bridge they numbered about 300. The groups on other march routes also grew over the 7 months. On June 12, 1982, in Central Park Nipponzan-Myōhōji marchers from the U.S.A., Europe, Africa, and Asia, joined with mobilization for survival organizers and religious and peace groups from around the world in a peaceful demonstration for disarmament of many million people.
DMZ Peace Train Music Festival is a music festival held in Cheorwon County, Gangwon Province, South Korea. It is held close to the border with North Korea, and is intended to promote peace and unification at a place symbolizing division of the Korean Peninsula. It was held as relations between the two Koreas warmed up.
Women Cross DMZ is a non-profit organization mobilizing women around the world to promote peace in Korea, as well as denuclearization and demilitarization of the Korean Peninsula. Founded in 2014 by Christine Ahn, a Korean American peace activist, the advocacy and education organization of feminists, lawyers and peace activists calls for a formal end to the Korean War and the replacement of the armistice agreement with a peace agreement. In 2015, WCDMZ made international headlines when it organized a historic crossing of the heavily armed De-Militarized Zone (DMZ) that separates North Korea from South Korea at the 38th parallel.
Christine Ahn is a Korean-American peace activist who serves as the Executive Director of Women Cross DMZ, an organization of women advocating for an end to the Korean War. In 2015, she led 30 international women peacemakers across the De-Militarized Zone (DMZ) from North Korea to South Korea. She is also the 2020 winner of the US Peace Prize for her work for peace on the Korean peninsula and her advocacy for women's leadership in peace-building efforts.
↑ Ellwood, Robert S. (1997). The Fifties Spiritual Marketplace: American Religion in a Decade of Conflict. Rutgers University Press. p.92. ISBN0-8135-2346-X.
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