HOUSTON, Texas — A local Buddhist monk seriously injured while on a walk for peace in Texas had to have one of his legs amputated as a result of a violent crash.
He says he doesn’t mind losing a limb if it would help spread the message of peace and love.
Channel 2’s Tom Jones traveled to Houston and spoke to the monk from his hospital bed before he was discharged.
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“I remember everything. That situation, I think I die already,” Phra Ajarnh Maha Dam Phommasan told Jones. “I heard the car brake and then it hit me.”
Maha Dam was one of several Buddhist monks walking near Dayton, Texas on Nov. 19. They were on a 2,300-mile journey for peace from Fort Worth, Texas to Washington, D.C.
Phommasan, a well-respected senior monk at the Wat Lao Buddha Khanti temple in Snellville, says the walk really left people inspired.
“When we walk on the roads, I saw people. They come to us with tears. But it’s a happy tears.”
Police say a truck hit their escort car, and that car slammed into Maha Dam. Doctors gave him the choice to go through several surgeries to save his leg or amputation.
Maha Dam chose amputation.
“No regret,” he said with a smile.
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He told Jones that losing a leg is the sacrifice he didn’t mind making if it helped to spread his message of peace, love, hope, compassion, harmony and kindness.
“Because everywhere you have a lot of conflict. You have to have peace is important,” Maha Dam said.
Maha Dam urges people to slow down when they see the monks. And he says do not take pictures and videos as they walk.
“Because when you drive. You’re recording video, it’s unsafe,” he said.
He will undergo rehabilitation in Texas and will return to the metro area on Sunday.
That’s when his temple plans to hold a celebration in his honor.
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