A group of Buddhist monks from a monastery in Thailand on a mission “walk for world peace” will leave Karachi for Turkey today evening as they visited some Pakistani cities to spread the message of peace. Entered Lahore through the Wagah border from India these Buddhist marchers were initially to go to Iran, but due to the Coronavirus threat, the Pakistan-Iran border has been closed down, so they are now going directly to Turkey via air, their next destination after Iran.
Draped in the traditional maroon robes of monks, these Buddhist preachers are on a mission to spread the message of Lord Buddha in the world.
In Pakistan, besides Lahore, these eight monks, who were invited by Thailand Embassy, also visited Sukkur, Hyderabad, Khuzdar and Karachi. However, Pakistani security authorities did not allow them to walk on the streets of any Pakistani city due to “security reasons.”
These innocent and poor Monks expressed their sadness with some local friends in Karachi saying: “Police vehicles were surrounding to our all sides everywhere and they did not allow us to walk on streets.”
Initiated first by a Thai monk Sutham Nateetong, who had walked over 5000 kilometres from Thailand to the United States to promote peace, the other Buddhist walkers joined him on his second leg of the “walk for world peace”. Drawn from different parts of Thailand these Monks started their journey from Myanmar and also visited Vietnam, Laos, Nepal and India.
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They crossed the Indian border by foot, but then they were put in vehicles by the Pakistani Embassy of Thailand.
In Karachi, the Thai Consulate General had arranged their stay in a private guest house in the Bath Island area. Some of the Monks incidentally met with a few Pakistani meditators, who practice Vipassana, a Buddhist meditation system from Maynmar teacher S. N. Goenka. The Karachi friends invited Thai Monks to some private gatherings. They also arranged their visit to the National Museum of Pakistan, where they, with great interest, found the relics of Buddhism periods in different galleries of the museum. They were delighted to see different size well-preserved Buddha sculptures in the museum.
They said they wanted to see Buddhist sites like Taxila and Swat in Pakistan but they did not get permission to go there.
They were also happy to see that many Pakistanis are practising meditations for their inner peace and overall peace of the world.
I fail to understand why when the Pakistan government is promoting tourism, especially religious tourism, then why they put such strict vigilance and restrictions and they did not allow them to walk on the streets. In Pakistan only Sikhs are the single blue-eyed religious minority for the security establishment, the followers of other religions are suspected.
A similar type of treatment was experienced by us when last week some Nepalese peace activists visited Karachi on account of the international peace march “Jai Jagat”. They also faced similar restrictions and the security agencies chased them everywhere. In Hyderabad, they were not allowed to visit the University of Sindh Jamshoro due to “security reasons.”
Although the Thai Buddhist Monks were happy to meet with Pakistani peace activists, they wish to visit again to see the Buddhist historical places in the Northern part of Pakistan.
