Masters · Theravāda · United States
Bhikkhu Paññākāra: The Monk Who Walked 2,300 Miles for Peace
A Vietnamese-born engineer turned Theravāda monk led a column of monks — and a rescue dog named Aloka — on foot from Texas to Washington, D.C., through the winter of 2025–26. His Walk for Peace drew crowds and millions of followers. He will be in Gelephu for Project 108 from 1 to 4 November 2026.
In Gelephu · 1–4 November 2026
Updated 1 October 2026 · 4 min read
Bhikkhu Paññākāra — in Vietnamese, Sư Tuệ Nhân — was born in 1981 in Đắk Lắk province in Vietnam’s Central Highlands, the youngest of ten children. His family emigrated to the United States in 1997. He studied information technology at the University of Texas at Arlington and worked as an engineer before leaving that life to become a monk.
He was ordained at the Hương Đạo temple in Fort Worth, Texas, and received full ordination in 2010. He follows the Theravāda tradition — the Buddhism of Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia, which traces itself most directly to the early Pali teachings. Today he is vice president and deputy abbot of the Hương Đạo Vipassana Bhavana Center in Fort Worth.
Walking as practice
Walking is old in Buddhism. The Buddha walked the Gangetic plain for decades, and walking meditation remains a daily discipline in Theravāda monasteries. In 2022–23 Paññākāra led about a hundred monks on a 112-day pilgrimage of more than 3,400 kilometres through India and Nepal, to the places of the Buddha’s life. On that journey a stray dog attached himself to the monks. They named him Aloka — Pali for light.
The Walk for Peace
On 26 October 2025 Paññākāra set out from Fort Worth with a group of monks from temples across the United States and from Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar and Laos — and with Aloka. They walked east through Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia: about 2,300 miles. In November a truck struck their escort vehicle near Dayton, Texas, injuring two monks, one gravely; the walk went on.
On 10 February 2026, after 108 days on the road, the monks crossed into Washington, D.C., and gathered at the National Cathedral, followed by a visit to Capitol Hill and an address at the Lincoln Memorial. Crowds met them along the route, and millions followed online. His message was consistently simple: peace begins within oneself.
He has no personal social-media accounts; the walk’s official channels carry its news. In April 2026 a further walk crossed Sri Lanka from Dambulla to Colombo.
In Bhutan
Bhikkhu Paññākāra will be in Gelephu from 1 to 4 November 2026 for the raising and consecration of the 108 Jangchub Chortens — a monk whose best-known journey lasted 108 days, coming to a line of 108 chortens. The prayers and rituals in Gelephu are led by His Holiness the Je Khenpo, Bhutan’s Chief Abbot. The full list of masters is in Project 108 Masters.