“Walk for Peace” monks in Port Gibson Sunday

PORT GIBSON, Miss. (VDN) — The monks who are walking from Fort Worth, Texas, to Washington, DC, will spend the night in Port Gibson on Sunday. The monks are walking to raise awareness of peace, loving kindness, and compassion across America and the world.

Vicksburg Daily News’ David Day met with the monks on Friday in Ridgecrest, Louisiana. “The reason behind is because I’ve been seeing so many sufferings around us. And so as Buddhist monks we talked about, we practicing loving kindness,” said the spokesperson, Panna Kara. “And so I would like a thing that is calm for us to do something for our country and the world, because around the world is so much problem too. So I decided to take on this journey to walk, and we call for venerable monks around, and we have about 18 to 24 monks joining.”

The walk started on October 26, and Sunday will be day 43. “We still have about 70, 80 days left to walk to reach to Washington DC. Lately, we’ve been having a lot of support and love from the community which is really good, and that warms our heart,” said Kara.

Local police and firefighters are escorting the monks through their communities for their safety. Early in the walk, one of the escort vehicles was involved in an accident that injured a monk, who eventually lost a leg to the accident.

When the monks rested for lunch in Ridgecrest, Louisiana, they were met by their support team and dozens of curious locals. Panna Kara took several photos with the locals.

The monks plan to spend the night in Port Gibson and will head to the Natchez Trace on Monday. You can track their planned journey by clicking this link. You can find their approximate location at this link.