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A Peace Pagoda is a Buddhist stupa designed to provide a focus for people of all races and creeds, and to help unite them in their search for world peace. Most (though not all) have been built under the guidance of Nichidatsu Fujii (1885–1985), a Buddhist monk from Japan and founder of the Nipponzan-Myōhōji Buddhist Order. Fujii was greatly inspired by his meeting with Mahatma Gandhi in 1931 and decided to devote his life to promoting non-violence. In 1947, he began constructing Peace Pagodas as shrines to World peace.[1]
The first Peace Pagodas were built as a symbol of peace in the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki where the atomic bombs took the lives of over 150,000 people, almost all of whom were civilian, at the end of World War II. By 2000, eighty Peace Pagodas had been built around the world in Europe, Asia, and the United States.
The Peace Pagoda was awarded the Courage of Conscience award June 5, 1998 in Sherborn, Massachusetts.[2]
In 1969 at Rajgir, near the site where the Buddha is believed to have preached the Lotus Sutra. The event coincided with the 100th anniversary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi. The site also includes a Nipponzan Myohoji temple.[3]
The shanthi stupas in India were established by Fuji Guru, a close friend of Mahatma Gandhi, for World Peace. The Nipponzan Myōhōji Buddhist temple at Charlimont in Darjeeling is one of them. Work on the Stupa began in 1972 and it was dedicated on 1 November 1992.
A Shanti stupa in New Delhi was inaugurated on 14th. November 2007 by monks and nuns of Nipponzan-Myōhōji, the Dalai Lama and the Lt. Governor of Delhi. It is situated in Millennium Indraprastha Park, North-East of Humayun's Tomb, adjacent to Delhi Ring Road. A traditional Japanese garden has been constructed in the area around the stupa. The garden is a joint project by the Fujii Guruji Vishwa Shanti Stupa Committee and the Delhi Development Authority.
The Shanti Stupa in Ladakh (Jammu and Kashmir) was built by Nipponzan-Myōhōji monks, headed by Head monk Nakamura, with the help of local people. The Shanti Stupa holds the relics of the Buddha at its base, enshrined by the 14th Dalai Lama himself[4] It is situated at a hilltop in Changspa village providing a bird's eye view of Leh town and the surrounding mountain peaks. The 14th and current Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso inaugurated the Shanti Stupa in August 1985.[5]
The stupa at Vaishali was inaugurated 23 October 1996.[6] Vaishali is an important place in the life of the Buddha.
Work on the first Peace Pagoda began in 1947 at Hanaokayama with basic hand tools. It took seven years to build, being completed in 1954.
This Peace Pagoda (Stupa) was built by Nipponzan-Myōhōji monks in 1959 halfway up Mount Moiwa. It was built to commemorate peace after World War II and can be seen from almost anywhere in Sapporo. It contains some of the ashes of the Buddha that were presented to the Emperor of Japan by Prime Minister Nehru in 1954. Later, another part of these were presented to Mikhail Gorbachev by the famous Nipponzan-Myōhōji monk, Junsei Terasawa.
The Peace Pagoda was built in 1966 to commemorate the lives lost in the A-bomb blast, and contains gifts of Buddha's ashes from the then Prime Minister of India and Mongolian Buddhists.
Built in 1984, the pagoda at Narita-shi in Chiba Prefecture is 58 m high and situated on a small hill.
Lumbini Stupa peace pagoda in Nepal was dedicated in November 2001 at the birthplace of the Buddha.
The Stupa is built on the site where Venerable Masters Bowoo (d. 1565) and Jiahn (d. 1729) died. They gave their lives for Buddhism. The Stupa is the centre of many activities for the propagation of world peace and the unification of Korea. One such activity is the Lotus Sutra writing movement, and on August 15 each year people come and place hand-written copies of the Lotus Sutra into the Pagoda. This stupa is not associated with Nipponzan-Myōhōji.
Balanced on a narrow ridge high above Phewa Tal, the brilliant-white World Peace Pagoda in Pokhara QTVR is a massive Buddhist stupa which was constructed by Buddhist monks from the Japanese Nipponzan Myōhōji organisation. Besides being an impressive sight in itself, the shrine is a vantage point which offers spectacular views of the Annapurna range and Pokhara city. There are three paths up to the pagoda and several small cafes once you arrive.
The peace pagoda in Ampara is the 'Celtiya' on the Inginiyagala Road.[7]
The stupa here is on the headland between Unawatuna and Galle.[8]
Created by the Kingdom of Nepal for the 1988 World Exposition, Brisbane's World Expo '88, the Brisbane Nepal Peace Pagoda is now a permanent commemorative structure of the Expo. It is located at the transformed Expo site, South Bank Parklands.
The three-story Pagoda was constructed of Nepalese Terai timbers and assembled on the Expo site for the Expo. It was relocated to its new riverfront location at the conclusion of the Expo for the opening of the Parklands in 1992. It now features commemorative displays of the Expo and is a place for quiet and reflection. It features a Peace Bell, and there is a Peace Post in the Pagoda garden. This stupa is not associated with Nipponzan-Myōhōji.
The Nipponzan Myohoji order led by Rev. Gyosei Masunaga have been active here for 25 years.[9]
On 26 June 1998, the Dhamma-Talaka Peace Pagoda was dedicated in the Ladywood district of Birmingham. The Burmese monk and scholar, Aggamahapandita Rewata Dhamma (1929-2004), was the prime mover behind the building of the pagoda and the new Buddhist Centre that developed on the same grounds.
The Milton Keynes Peace Pagoda () was completed in 1980 at the northern edge of Willen lake in Willen, Milton Keynes. This was the first Peace Pagoda in the western world.[10] There is a Nipponzan-Myōhōji Order temple and monastery nearby ().
The London Peace Pagoda () was completed[11] in 1985 on the south side of the River Thames in Battersea Park, London. Permission to build it was the last legislative act of the Greater London Council.
On 24 May 1998, the Reverend Morishita[12] dedicated a stupa () at Comiso (Contrada Canicarao, 100) in Sicily, near the NATO base there.
A stupa has been constructed at the St Norbert Arts Centre [1] in St. Norbert (Winnipeg, Manitoba), Canada.
The Asociación Cultural Tibetana A.C. ("Garuda") is constructing a stupa at Los Álamos, Valle de Bravo, Mexico State under the patronage of Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche.[13]
The Peace Pagoda in San Francisco () is a five-tiered concrete stupa in Nihonmachi (Japantown) between Post and Geary Streets at Buchanan. It is part of the Japan Center complex which opened in 1968. It was designed by Japanese architect Yoshiro Taniguchi and presented to San Francisco by the people of Osaka, Japan. This stupa is not associated with Nipponzan-Myōhōji.
The New England Peace Pagoda () is the first Nipponzan-Myōhōji Peace Pagoda to be built in the US and was completed in 1986. The Franklin County Technical School brought students from their electrical, plumbing, and carpentry shops to assist in building the temple.
The Grafton Peace Pagoda in Petersburgh, New York () was dedicated in 1993. The site includes a temple, gardens, pond and the pagoda. Each year on September 11, a group of marchers begin a walk at the Grafton Peace Pagoda Site and end in New York City two weeks later.
