Greensboro found itself in a kismet moment as a group of Buddhist monks made their way into Guilford County on a bright, cold Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The monks, on a 2,300-mile journey from Fort Worth, Texas to Washington, D.C, are raising awareness for peace and compassion across America and the world.
Spartan student groups attended the local stop on their historic Walk for Peace, finding power in the Buddhist leaders’ simple actions in a busy, public scene.
Spartan Side Quest
Meeting near campus, a group of first- and second-year students in a seminar class titled Mindfulness, Resilience and Meaning boarded a Spartan Chariot with their teacher Sarah Krive. The group was bound for the Walk for Peace stop at Grandover Resort and Spa just south of campus. They brought daisies, the UNCG flower, to offer the monks. On the drive over, students talked about their class, which had just begun the week before. This “field trip” came at the perfect time for an introduction to mindfulness practices in religions like Buddhism.
Gregory Grieve, head of the Liberal and Professional Studies Department whose research includes Buddhist and Hindu religious practices, joined the class with a Buddhist flag to wave in support of the monks. Traffic thickened as the Chariot neared its destination, following a line of red brake lights as the sun dropped below the horizon.
Grieve and his sister, who had traveled from Idaho to see the Walk for Peace, had attended the monks’ lunch stop in High Point earlier in the day. He said the monks addressed their largest crowd to date at Truist Point Stadium and wondered if this group would be even larger.
Krive commented that the event had “captured the attention” of so many people. “We are watching history unfold right in front of our eyes,” she said.
As cars began to make parking lots out of medians and road shoulders, the group decided to disembark the Chariot and walk the mile and a half to Grandover Resort & Spa where the monks would address the crowd. If the monks could walk over 1,800 miles in 86 days, this crew could handle a three-mile hike.
“This is what the world needs today,” said Gabriella Pittman, a student from Charlotte. “What a perfect day for a side quest!”
Ripples of Peace Through a Busy Crowd
Meanwhile, Marcia Hale, associate professor in the Department of Peace and Conflict Studies, had arrived with some of her graduate students just in time to see the monks walk towards the entrance to the resort. As part of a Skills in Transformative Conflict class, these students are learning about nonviolent communication, mindfulness, negotiation and mediation, as it relates to relationships and community building.
“I was amazed how many people turned out,” she said. “It felt a bit more like a concert or celebrity event than I anticipated, but it was amazing to see so many people hungry for peace and unity, and willing to stand in the cold for the sake of it.”
Hale’s group witnessed a quiet fall over the crowd as the monks passed. They saw acts of kindness ripple through the crowd. Master’s in peace and conflict studies student, Caitlin Poe watched with her child and found a likeminded mother with tears in her eyes. They bonded over their hope for a more peaceful world for their children.
Hale noticed a sweet moment when one of the monks passed a bouquet he had received to a woman in the crowd. She was visibly touched by his gesture and paid it forward by sharing individual buds with those around her.
Unbeknownst to the monk, that woman was MariKay Abuzuaiter, the mayor of Greensboro. Minutes later, she would issue a proclamation declaring Jan. 18, 2026, Walk for Peace Day in Greensboro in honor of the monks’ “wisdom, passion and mindfulness.”
Monkin’ Ain’t Easy
After the mayor issued her proclamation, Bhikkhu Pannakara stood to address the crowd, spotlights catching his orange wrap as it glittered with the pins given to him along the walk. He stepped to the microphone, as his solemn Buddhist brothers sat in a line behind him, and began by addressing the obvious:
“I never thought we’d walk for peace and end up at a fancy resort.”
Although the monks had declined the offer of private rooms and would be sleeping on the floor in a communal space at the resort, the optics of these simple people arriving at a castle on a hill to rest from their journey was just one of the many visuals illustrating the dichotomy of this event.
Hundreds of raised phones recorded videos of the speech as Pannakara beseeched the public to live in the moment, stop chasing the world, and take time to breathe. “You’ll never get this moment back,” he said. Using his cheeky reference to our society’s connection to our phones, he added, “Record it in your minds, not with your lovers (or cell phones).”
Pannakara led a meditation practice and encouraged breathing with awareness, but participation was difficult. Even in this group gathered for peace, distractions were everywhere: security announcements, babies crying, dogs barking, audible phone conversations. His words about the importance of mindfulness impacted the UNCG students in our group, even as the event underscored society’s roadblocks to mindfulness and meditation.
Peace in Our Times
“The sheer numbers of attendees were powerful,” said Damani Davis-McLendon when Krive’s class met the next day to reflect on their experience at the Walk for Peace. The Mindfulness, Resilience and Meaning students speculated about how much attention the monks would receive by the time they arrived in Washington, and what that means in today’s politically divided landscape.
When the monks began this journey on Oct. 26, 2025 at Huong Dao Vipassan Bhavana Center, they emphasized that their journey was neither a political protest nor a religious parade to build donations for the center’s $150 million expansion. It was simply an opportunity to bring blessings of peace to lost souls in uncertain times.
Greensboro’s response to their arrival proved that those blessings are welcome. Folks of all ages, backgrounds and viewpoints followed a live map through heavy traffic to catch a glimpse of the monks’ peaceful and kind countenances. Since October, each town they cross seems to draw larger crowds, but the Greensboro stop on MLK Day was particularly poignant in a city known for its role in the advancement of civil rights. One imagines the Greensboro Four would have been proud of the UNCG students who came out in the cold for the Walk for Peace. Dr. King would have also approved of how they honored his birthday. After all, it was he who said “We must keep moving. If you can’t fly, run; if you can’t run, walk; if you can’t walk, crawl; but by all means keep moving.”
Story by Becky Deakins, University Communications.
Photography Sean Norona, University Communications.
