A Peace Pagoda is a Buddhist stupa: a monument to inspire peace, 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, peace pagodas built since World War II 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 was inaugurated at Kumamoto in 1954.
Peace Pagodas were built as a symbol of peace in Japanese cities, including Hiroshima and Nagasaki where 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 Nipponzan-Myōhōji monks of the New England Peace Pagoda were awarded the Courage of Conscience award on 5 June 1998 in Sherborn, Massachusetts.[2]
- ^ "Nichidatsu Fujii: 1885 to 1985 Buddhist Monk, Teacher, Founder of the Nipponzan Myohoji Buddhist Order". Archived from the original on 24 June 2006. Retrieved 16 June 2017.
- ^ "Courage of Conscience Award Recipients". Peace Abby. Archived from the original on 9 January 2015.