In January 2023, Venerable Panekhao, a Buddhist master and teacher, visited Honolulu, hosted by the Zhou Enlai Peace Institute and many friends.
He visited with Maya Soetoro, Suzanne Vares-Lum at the East-West Center, Chuck and Lency Spezzano at Psychology of Vision, the Lao-Buddhist Society in Sacred Falls, Ramsay Taum, a respected kumu in the Hawaiian tradition, and Nara Sihavong, a young business leader in the Lao community of Hawaii and Laos.
He spent time with Zhou Xiaofang and Michael North, co-founders of the Zhou Enlai Peace Institute, discussing future collaborations. in 2018, he attended the 120th Anniversary of the birth of Zhou Enlai, in Huaian, Jiangsu Province, China, and was a special guest of the National Memorial.
Venerable Penekhao is a “forest monk,” meaning he is skilled at living in simplicity in any time and place. He leads a monastery in Brest, France, and is accompanied on his mission by Bernard Guillerm, a French businessman, by a young French monk, Ven.Mathieu; he was welcomed back to Hawaii by Venerable Fred.
He is an admirer and student of Zhou Enlai, the first Premier of modern China, known as China’s peacemaker.
The essence of his teaching to all, over these two weeks, was “It’s perfect. So simple.”
