We listened to the Walk for Peace monks in Fort Mill. Here’s what we learned
Venerable Bhikkhu Pannakara took the microphone set up beneath a canteen awning at the Anne Springs Close Greenway on Wednesday, and spoke to a cold but captivated crowd.
The Buddhist monk and Walk for Peace organizer offered a lunchtime message on maintaining peace and mindfulness to more than 1,000 listeners in Fort Mill, even while admitting the rain-soaked walk that got him there was difficult.
He also offered several updates or fun facts about his 2,300-mile walk.
Pannakara is one of nearly two dozen monks walking from Fort Worth, Texas, to Washington, D.C. in what has become a social media phenomenon. Here are some of the more interesting items Pannakara shared over lunch in Fort Mill:
- Walk for Peace was originally intended to be a roundtrip event. Pannakara was into the planning phase when a fellow monk had him look again at the 2,300-mile route, at which point Pannakara realized that distance was only one-way. So he decided to end the trip in the nation’s capitol.
- Pannakara started out using Google Maps to plan Walk for Peace. It wouldn’t let him use enough locations, so he switched to a mapping program. The walk will travel through nine state capitols.
- Aloka the Peace Dog, a companion to the monks on the walk, had surgery on Monday after a leg injury. The veterinarian said Aloka would be out for two weeks, but Pannakara expects it will be about one week before Aloka returns to the walk.
- The monks, often walking in meager footwear, are constantly asked if it bothers them walking in cold weather. “We’re walking in the winter,” Pannakara said. “It’s supposed to be cold.”
- The monks walked to the Greenway Canteen on a gravel road, despite staff and volunteers at the Greenway marking off a grassy path. Pannakara saw visitors on both sides of the gravel road and chose to walk it rather than forcing everyone to move.
- Monks ask that visitors to their daily lunch and evening stops don’t photograph or video them while they’re eating. Otherwise, folks are free to use their cameras while meeting the monks.
- Monks share lunch with visitors daily, and had items like fruit and soup on Wednesay. But the logistics can be tricky when crowds get large. “Just grab something quick,” Pannakara instructed the crowd. “It doesn’t have to be delicious.”
- Pannakara, who is becoming well known for addressing crowds like the one on Wednesday, credits those crowds with helping teach him English. His native language is Vietnamese.
- As if checking off a Fort Mill bingo card, the monks visited not only the Anne Springs Close Greenway on Wednesday, but also stopped in at The Peach Stand.
- Fort Mill High School, which sits right beside the walk route, allowed some students to see the monks pass by on U.S. 21. They couldn’t all come out because it would block the road, Pannakara said.
- Walk for Peace had to be designed to have the monks back in Texas for an international event they’re hosting May 2-10.
- Pannakara has a simple, “Forrest Gump”-ian response to what he’ll do once the monks make it to Washington. “I think I will talk to them,” he said of the crowds there, “and then go home.”
This story was originally published January 14, 2026 at 4:54 PM with the headline "We listened to the Walk for Peace monks in Fort Mill. Here’s what we learned."
