By Doug La Rocque
With visitors from as far away as Maine, Ontario, Tennessee and South Dakota, more than 100 people gathered at the site of the Pagoda on Grafton’s Crandall Road last Saturday to mark the anniversary of its opening in the fall of 1993.[private] According to the Pagoda’s literature, it is the direct result of a Japanese nun, Jun san’s, involvement with Native People and in particular the American Indian Movement. She organized peace walks in the United States and abroad around a variety of interrelated causes, including indigenous rights, ending U.S. wars and militarism, shutting down nuclear power plants, and cultivating a simple, sustainable life in harmony with the earth.
Hank Hazelton owned the plot of land in Grafton where the Pagoda now sits, and donated it to Nipponzan Myohoji in the hopes a peace pagoda would rise there.
Construction of the Pagoda began in 1985, and was built entirely with donated labor, funds and materials. Its completion took tens of thousands of hours. Pagodas used to be built with solid interiors, but Grafton’s has open space that is purposely left unused. All activities take place outside of the Pagoda.
There is currently one other Peace Pagoda in the United States in Leverett, Massachusetts, just north of Amherst. A third is under construction in the Smoky Mountains of Eastern Tennessee. The Pagoda is open daily from sunrise to sunset.[/private]