The New England Peace Pagoda, also known as the Leverett Peace Pagoda, is an incredibly peaceful location in Leverett, Massachusetts.

A Peace Pagoda is a Buddhist stupa that serves as a focal point for people of all races and religious beliefs and as a tool to bring them together in the pursuit of global peace. Nichidatsu Fujii (1885-1985), a Japanese Buddhist monk and the founder of the Nipponzan-Myhji Buddhist Order, oversaw the construction of the majority (though not all) peace pagodas constructed since World War II. After meeting Mahatma Gandhi in 1931, Fujii was immensely moved and made the decision to dedicate the rest of his life to the cause of non-violence. He started building Peace Pagodas in 1947 as monuments to world peace. In the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where the atomic bombs killed over 150,000 people at the close of World War II—nearly all of them civilians—Peace Pagodas were constructed as a symbol of peace.

The order organized a number of peace marches in 1982 to New York City for the UN special session on disarmament. Western Massachusetts was a stop on one of the peace walks, and the region was suggested as a possible location for a peace pagoda. The New England Peace Pagoda in Leverett, Massachusetts, which was the country’s first peace pagoda, was finished in 1985. In 1993, the second US pagoda was constructed and another one followed shortly after. As of April 2022, there are three peace pagodas in the United States and a fourth is being planned. In total, eighty Peace Pagodas have been constructed in Europe, Asia, and the United States by the year 2000.

Today, the New England Peace Pagoda remains open to the public. It is free to visit and the property is open every day from sunrise to sunset. The stupa features amazing architectures and stunning ascents. Additionally, the grounds span 10-acres and feature beautiful gardens, statues, pavilions, ponds, and fountains along with plenty of benches and rocks to sit on. Many people love visiting this location for meditation and reflexing.