Monks welcomed in Pittsboro on walk for peace, bringing tears, flowers and hope
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- Nineteen monks reached Pittsboro on day 88 of a 2,200-mile Walk for Peace.
- Hundreds lined U.S. 64, offered flowers, prayers and tearful gratitude to walkers.
- Local officials provided escorts; volunteers cleared roadside trash and offered aid.
They walked briskly in single file, smiling down the highway as the trucks whizzed past, waving to children and dogs along the roadside, handing out flowers to the pilgrims who waited on the shoulder — many of them weeping.
Nineteen Buddhist monks strode down U.S. 64 to Pittsboro Thursday — some shod in Hoka sneakers, some wearing only thick socks — having already logged 88 days and 1,187 miles on their interstate Walk for Peace. By Saturday, they were expected to reach the Capitol in downtown Raleigh, inviting all to an icy celebration of unity.
The cars stretched for miles ahead of them along the Pittsboro highway, lined with people offering bouquets as gifts, spreading rose petals on the asphalt to soften the monks’ path. They graciously accepted the flowers but passed them out to hands further down the line.
Then, when the monks reached exit 378, they stopped alongside a woman waiting in a wheelchair, looping a peace bracelet around her wrist and chanting aloud while she broke down crying, moved beyond speech. All around her, people marveled out loud at the hope they felt.
“It’s all everybody in Pittsboro is talking about,” said Evan Newcity, a recent college graduate looking for new direction. “All too rarely these days does anybody do things for the sake of ideals. I just think we could use more of that. We could use more righteousness and ideals. People have become so jaded and atomized. Something that brings out miles of cars? We could use more of that.”
2,220 miles
Pittsboro marked roughly the three-quarter mark on the monks 2,200-mile trek from Texas, all aimed at raising awareness of peace, kindness and compassion. They moved into Apex Friday and Raleigh over the weekend, meeting for a peace gathering at the Capitol at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, just as the weather turned to snow and ice, relying on extra-warm layers but warning their schedule may shift with the freezing wind.
Their trip continues to gain momentum as they push to the northeast, so much that a Chatham County sheriff’s escort blocked both eastbound lanes of U.S. 64 — a short-term slowdown considering the monks’ brisk pace.
Robin Boudwin waited for them along the highway though the monks are set to pass her Apex home, but she feels unusually connected considering her cousin went to see them in Charlotte, her mother and brother saw them pass through Jackson, Miss., and her father drove to see them walk through East Texas.
“It was all word-of-mouth then,” Boudwin said of the Texas leg. “There were only 20 people watching. My dad gave them apples, bananas and oranges. I see it as a thread through my family, like it connects us.”
‘I think it’s amazing’
While they waited for the monks’ arrival, a pair of watchers collected trash along the side of the highway, stuffing it into bags. Soon a third person joined them, then a fourth.
When they approached in a long line, a few admirers knelt before them on the pavement. One man presented a painting of them he fashioned from news photographs. They carried signs that read “Thank you” and “Sadhu,” a Pali word that translates loosely to “amen.”
A few, inevitably, sold T-shirts.
“I think it’s amazing,” said Melanie Perrachon from Siler City. “I listened to some of them speak last night about mindfulness, and how we’re doing too much. The idea of loving yourself. If more people would be like that, the world would be a better place. It gives you a lot of hope.”
And with that, the monks kept walking, having lit the path behind.
Where are the Buddhist monks in NC?
- Track the monks by using the official Walk for Peace live tracking map at dhammacetiya.com/walk-for-peace/live-map/, which shows their route and their approximate daily progress.
- Other updates can be found on their social media at facebook.com/walkforpeaceusa.
This story was originally published January 22, 2026 at 5:08 PM.