Buddhists Lead Day-Long Peace Pilgrimage in NYC’s Five Boroughs
Editor’s note: We will be adding additional details and photos once they’ve been received from the organizers. We previously covered the 9/11 Table of Silence project, which is a Buddhist ceremony featuring monks participating in the prayer ritual and ceremony. We also covered the Tibetan Museum’s singing bowl meditation event. Several years ago, Rep. Malliotakis traveled to India to meet the Dalai lama, whose incredible film The Wisdom Of Happiness we reviewed. We also published a discussion on what a bodhisattva is. This is a core concept in Buddhism, that one can choose to continue to reincarnate on earth in order to assist humanity in becoming free and in a constant state of bliss and happiness. Dharma Publishing is working to preserve the ancient writings and teachings of Tibetan Buddhists.
Inspired by the Theravada Buddhist Monks’ 2,300-mile Walk for Peace, and embodying Thich Nhat Hanh’s edict: The next Buddha may take the form of a community
Join Staten Island Buddhist monks, people of the Buddhist, Unitarian, indigenous, and many other faiths for a walk to remember the interdependence of all living things, including all human beings:
Day of Remembering Our Interdependence
Sunday, 12 July 2026, 8AM-8PM
New York City’s five boroughs: Start on Staten Island or in the Bronx
8-9AM – Two simultaneous starting points. Participants join either one:
– Staten Island, The Staten Island September 11th Memorial / Postcards, a permanent sculpture designed by Masayuki Sono (North Shore Waterfront Esplanade Park).
– The Bronx, Banana Kelly Double Dutch (Intervale Ave. and Kelly St.), an homage to the people of the Bronx by sculptors John Ahearn and Rigoberto Torres.
11AM-12PM – Manhattan, African Burial Ground National Monument (Duane and Elk Sts.). With blessings from Ramapo Munsee Lenape elder Grandmother Clara Soaring Hawk, along with Owl Steven Dennison Smith.
2-3PM – Brooklyn, Metropolitan Detention Center (80 29th St.), where people arrested/abducted by ICE are being held. With practice led by Kaira Jewel Lingo, Adam Bucko, Rev. Juan Carlos Ruiz, and Tenzin Mingyur Paldron.
5-7PM – Queens, Socrates Sculpture Park (32-01 Vernon Blvd.). Culminating gathering with songs, poetry, and food. With music by Sylvain Leroux and practice offerings from Rev. Doyeon Park and Rev. James A. Lynch.
On Sunday, 12 July 2026, Buddhist practitioners will lead a day-long practice and peace walk across New York City’s five boroughs, alongside indigenous, multi-faith leaders, teachers, and community organizations. On the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the United States and as a response to domestic and global crises—wars, genocide, climate crisis, anti-immigrant policies, authoritarianism, etc.—the pilgrimage highlights interdependence and mutual belonging.
The organizing team states, “We resist supremacy and violence of all forms by insisting on love for one another and a deep sense of belonging for each and every being. We resist by insisting on our inter-being, on non-separation. May our choices and actions on this day and on all days come from this insistence. May we respond to the crises of these times from this insistence.”
All are welcome to join the entire pilgrimage or parts of it. Peace walks on the same day are also happening in Austin, TX, and New Orleans, LA. Full list of collaborators is on the pilgrimage’s website: www.mahasanghanyc.com.
Members of the organizing team. Image Credit – Mahasangha NYC
A continuous, collaborative statement to live on beyond July 12th. Image Credit – Mahasangha NYC
Cards will be offered to those witnessing the pilgrimage, as a gesture of gratitude, to help plant and water seeds of interdependence. Image Credit – Mahasangha NYC
Banner Image: A continuous, collaborative statement to live on beyond July 12th. Image Credit – Mahasangha NYC
Interfaith Center of New York & New York State Council of Churches
The Interfaith Center of New York (ICNY) is a secular non-profit organization with a mission to “overcome prejudice, violence, and misunderstanding by activating the power of the city’s grassroots religious and civic leaders and their communities.” Over the course of 25 years, ICNY has built the most religiously-diverse and civically-engaged network of grassroots and immigrant religious leaders across the five boroughs of Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island and The Bronx. These include Muslim, Sikh, Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, Afro Caribbean, and Native American New Yorkers who have either attended one or more of our social justice retreats, participated in our religious diversity education programs for social workers, teachers, lawyers, and NYPD officers, or joined multi-faith advocacy work on immigration and religious freedom. ICNY’s decades of organizing and educating in New York City’s grassroots religious communities have gained us trust, the basis for all our successes, which recently includes increasing turn-out for the 2020 US Census and galvanizing faith-community humanitarian response to the COVID-19. New York State Council of Churches is comprised of eight partner Denominations which are detailed on our Member Denominations page. Each denomination sends representation to our Executive Committee and provides financial support. Other denominations which are members of the National Council of Churches may also have representation to the Council