Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh was honored last week in New Delhi with the first-ever Gandhi Mandela Peace Prize. The award was given on 11 July to the Ahimsa Trust Sangha and members of Thich Nhat Hanh’s Order of Interbeing, as the teacher, affectionately known as “Thay” to his students, remains at his root temple in Hue, Vietnam. Family members of both Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela were present at the ceremony.

The Gandhi Mandela Peace Initiative was organized by Dr. Annurag Batra of the Believe Foundation, based in India, Tarina Patel of the Dr. Ramanbhai Patel Foundation of South Africa, and Kartikeya Sharma of the Sunday Guardian Foundation, and is slated to be an annual event with the vision of celebrating 150 years of Gandhi’s and 100 years of Mandela’s inspirational lives. Awards were given to people in various sectors of society to acknowledge their notable contributions to humanity. The initiative is in its first year and started off with three days of events in New Delhi on 11 July, Mumbai on 12 July, and Ahmedabad on 13 July.

The Gandhi Mandela Peace Initiative Awards Jury 2019 included Arif Mohammed Khan, a public intellectual, filmmaker Savita Hiremath, actor Tarina Patel, Dr. Annurag Batra, a publisher, the author Bhuvan Lall, and the journalist Manoharan Moses. The guest of honor at the event was Dr. Karan Singh, a veteran politician and noted scholar who had hosted Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh on his last visit to India in 2008.