KPC’s Peace Park is a destination for prayer, meditation and the experience of peace.
KPC Peace Park offers a place for everyone. Please consider a gift to support this sanctuary
“This was just what I needed,” whispered the grateful gray-haired visitor who had just completed a 90-minute hike with her family in KPC’s Peace Park in Maryland.
“It’s so relaxing,” commented another young man after his high school buddy introduced him to the park.
“We love bringing our dog and kids here,” remarked a young dad whose kindergartner excitedly grabbed his mom’s hand to head up the trail while an infant snuggled against his dad’s chest. “Being in nature calms us all down and helps us connect with our better nature, and with each other. We always go away happy.”
“There is a place for everyone here,” says visionary KPC Spiritual Director and Founder Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo, who created the Palyul Peace Park in 1989 as a sacred sanctuary, a place of refuge for anyone in need. “All are welcome.”
This is no ordinary park.
With colorful prayer flags marking the entry steps, the Peace Park now welcomes visitors with a magnificent statue of Guru Rinpoche, or Padmasambhava, the Buddha who brought Buddhism from India to Tibet in the 8th century. At every turn on the many miles of hiking trails, a visitor can find something that inspires.
Its sacred Stupas, meditation gardens, and rustic woodland trails provide a respite from an often challenging world. Wind chimes offer soothing tones, fluttering prayers promote peace for the planet in both Tibetan and English, benches scattered throughout the park invite one to “sit a spell,” and small surprises delight the senses through the seasons. The Peace Park serves as a sanctuary – a place where people can be nourished by nature, holy images, and active exercise.
“I made my prayers for our new puppies,” confided one ten-year-old, seen offering sweet- smelling juniper incense at the Long-Life Stupa nestled in the far northwest corner of the park. “I want to come back,” beamed her twelve-year-old brother. He’d enjoyed clearing the bridges of wet leaves to make the path easier for others and was soon asking his parents when he could join the teams of volunteers who care for the park’s trails and bridges.
“This feels like home,” marvels a Nepali American woman who often brings her elderly parents to make the short walk to the Migyur Dorje Stupa to circumambulate and say mantra. Their offerings of incense and flowers are made on behalf of family members far away and are dedicated to all beings.
The Peace Park is both a gift to the community and a gift sustained by the community. Through your generosity, this place of healing and hope is made freely available from dawn to dusk, 365 days a year. The stupas offer their blessings unceasingly to all who see or hear of them. Won’t you please consider a gift to KPC to support this sacred place? Your support benefits those who visit, and of course, your generosity creates the causes for your own happiness.
Your support makes it possible for many more people to continue to access these jewels. As 2022 comes to a close, KPC is asking you –friends and supporters – to reach out and give. Your gift – of whatever size – will make a difference.
Please enjoy this video showing activities during the 1990 consecration of the Stupa Park land. The Lamas present were Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo, Ven. Yangthang Rinpoche, Ven. Gyatrul Rinpoche, along with Lamas from Gyatrul Rinpoche’s centers in California and Oregon. The video was created by Scott Globus and produced by VimalaVideo.org.
