Peace Pada Yatra launched with fanfare

President Mahinda Rajapaksa launched the Sri Lanka Peace Pada Yatra with enthusiastic fanfare at the Kirivehera temple premises in Kataragama recently.

The President and Parliamentarian Namal Rajapaksa participated in the Pada Yatra for a couple of kilometres along with the Gyalwang Drukpa and a posse of 500 monks, nuns and other participants from India, Nepal, Bhutan and 16 other countries apart from Sri Lanka. Parliamentarians, Provincial and Local Council members including mayors and Urban Council chairmen in Sri Lanka will continue to join the Pada Yatra as it reaches their areas.

Spearheaded by Live to Love, a global humanitarian initiative, the Peace Pada Yatra or Foot Journey in Sri Lanka enjoys the full-fledged support of the organising committee comprising the Presidential Secretariat, National Youth Services Council, Tharunyata Hetak and Youth Social Federation.

The Pada Yatra will traverse from South to North, covering a distance of about 500 kilometres and visiting holy sites such as Sri Pada, Kandy, Matale, Dambulla, Sigiriya, Polonnaruwa and Anuradhapura before concluding at Jaffna on April 6.

The Gyalwang Drukpa, a recipient of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals Honour and of the NDTV-Toyota Green Hero Award in India, is leading the Pada Yatra which aims to promote peace and harmony, as well as an eco-friendly living.

The Gyalwang Drukpa said, "In order to promote peace in the world, we must first find peace within ourselves. In order to promote an eco-friendly way of living, we must first connect ourselves with nature. We live in a fast-moving world that focuses too much on material success and I believe we´ve become disconnected with our own environment. I feel that in modern times, a Pada Yatra or Foot Journey is one of the most effective methods to restore the ecological balance and the peaceful state of mind, through reconnecting with our experiential understanding of nature."

This is the sixth Pada Yatra that the Gyalwang Drukpa is undertaking and his first, outside of India. Since 2006, the Gyalwang Drukpa has taken hundreds of environmentally concerned participants on foot journeys through various parts of India - Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Ladakh, Manali, Sikkim and Darjeeling, each time the participants picked up more than one ton of non-biodegradable waste and educated the populace in the remote areas about the importance of keeping the environment clean and green for future generations.

Arjun Pandey, Head of Live to Love India, said, "After years of strife, peace is now settling in the region. The Pada Yatra is our tribute to the peace-loving nation and its people and to humanity around the world. We will continue to draw out the love and respect for humanity in our continuous effort to create an even better and everlasting world."

Live to Love, a global humanitarian initiative founded by the United Nations Millennium Development Goals Award-winning philanthropist, the Gyalwang Drukpa, focuses on five directions to improve the world: Education, Medical Services, Relief Aid, Heritage Preservation and Environmental Sustainability. It supports regional activities in Brazil, France, Germany, India, Malaysia, Mexico, Nepal, Peru, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Vietnam, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom and the United States. wallstreet-online