Thich Nhat Hanh

Drinking a cup of hot tea in the back room of the MacArthur Park band shell Saturday afternoon, Vietnamese activist Thich Nhat Hanh said he brought the "peace walk" to a neighborhood that needed healing. "This is a place where we can offer our peace. Where there is true suffering, there is misunderstanding," said Hanh, a Buddhist monk made world-famous by working to stop the Vietnam War; for that he was nominated by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. for a Nobel Peace Prize in 1967.

Thich Nhat Hanh is a renowned Vietnamese Zen Buddhist teacher who has written numerous books, created 800 meditation groups in two dozen countries, led retreats for U.S. political leaders and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. But when he arrived at Los Angeles International Airport in January for a three-month retreat, he said, he was pulled aside for an hour.

In a sun-splashed sanctuary of chaparral, lilac and oak groves, brown-robed Buddhists have gently transformed a land once used for weapons training by San Diego-area law enforcement. Followers of Vietnamese Zen teacher Thich Nhat Hanh have replaced the rattle of machine guns with the ringing of sacred bells. They have repainted and repaired bullet-scarred buildings.