Sri Chinmoy and U Thant 29th February 1972, UN Headquarters New York
The U Thant Peace Award was established by Sri Chinmoy: The Peace Meditation at the United Nations in honour of the third Secretary-General of the United Nations, who was a deeply contemplative world-server. At the invitation of U Thant, in 1970 Sri Chinmoy began conducting at United Nations Headquarters the twice-weekly Peace Meditations, which continue to this day.
To perpetuate U Thant's sacred memory, the Award is presented to individuals or organisations who exemplify the lofty spiritual ideals of the Secretary-General in their distinguished service to the cause of world peace.
Among the luminaries who have kindly accepted the U Thant Peace Award from Sri Chinmoy are His Holiness Pope John Paul II and five Nobel Laureates: President Mikhail Gorbachev, President Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama, as well as former United Nations Secretaries-General Javier Perez de Cuellar and Kurt Waldheim, and Daw Aye Aye Thant, U Thant's daughter and President of the U Thant Institute.
Recipients of the U Thant Award
(this is a non-comprehensive list)
Zennon Rossides – Ambassador of Cyprus to the UN, October 7 1982
Jorge Illueca, President of Panama, President of the 38th Session of the UN General Assembly, December 3, 1983 Dec 03
United Nations Development Programme, March 19th 1985, received on behalf of UNDP by Uner Kidar, Director of Division of External Relations and Governing Council Secretariat. Bradford Morse, UNDP administrator, gave a statement on 21 March 1985.
Dr. Russel (Amritananda) Barber, WNBC-TV Religion Editor, Emmy Award winner – November 6, 1986
Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan. Head of the Sufie Order in the West, April 5th 1991
Guido De Marco, President of the 45th session of UN General Assembly, Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of Malta, September 28 1991
Siddhartha Shankar Ray, Ambassador of India to the United States, August 8 1993
C. Subramaniam. President of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, September 12 1993
James P. Grant, UN Children's Fund (Unicef) Executive Director, September 20 1994
Mother Teresa, Nobel Peace Laureate, October 1 1994
Mikhail Gorbachev, President of the Soviet Union from 1985-91, Nobel Peace Laureate, October 16 1994
Laxmi Mail Singhvi, High commissioner for India to the United Kingdom - May 13 1995
Rafael Hernandez Colon, Governor of Puerto Rico (1972-76, 1984-92) – September 8 19958
Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Head of the Anglican Church in South Africa, Archbishop of Cape Town, Nobel Peace Laureate; December 20 1995
Nelson Mandela, President of South Africa, Nobel Peace Laureate, January 29 1996
Maurice Strong, Senior Advisor to the President of the World Bank, Secretary-General of the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (Rio Earth Summit), May 2 1996
C.V. Narasimhan, Under-Secretary-General of the UN 1956-78, Chef de Cabinet to three Secretaries-General, September 10 1996
Ananda Guruge, Former Ambassador of Sri Lanka to UNESCO, France and the US, Senior Special Advisor to UNESCO’s Culture of Peace Programme 1995-99 – January 3 1997
Vladimir Petrovsky, Under Secretary General and Director-General of the UN Office in Geneva, March 17 1997
Sudhahota Carl Lewis, legendary Olympic athlete, May 7 1997
His Holiness the Dalai Lama, May 28 1997
O.K. Gujral, Prime Minister of India, September 21 1997
Dada J.P. Vaswani, Spiritual Head of the Sadhu Vaswani Mission, April 5 1998
Pope John Paul II, May 17 1998
Claiborne DeBorda Pell, US Senator, Rhode Island, November 15 1998
King Tuanku Ja'afar of Malaysia, December 30 1998
Mahathir Mohammed, Prime Minister of Malaysia, January 4 1999
Girija Prasad Koirala, Prime Minister of Nepal, February 1 1999
Krishna Prasad Bhajtaraj. Prime Minister of Nepal 1999, September 29 1999
Ted Turner, Founder of CNN, Time Warner Vice Chairman and Chairman of the UN foundation, October 6 1999
Anwarul Karim Chowdhury, Ambassador of Bangladesh to the UN, November 23 1999
Svenn Kristiansen, Deputy Mayor of Oslo, March 27 2000
Humayun Rasheed Choudhury, President of the 41st Session of the UN General Assembly, Foreign Minister of Bangladesh, Speaker of the Bangladesh Parliament, May 08 2000
Gary Ackerman, United States Congressman from New York, June 15 2000
Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, founder and publisher of Hinduism Today magazine and international Hindu leader, August 25 2000
Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Prime Minister of India, January 13 2001
The Very Reverend James Parks Morton, President, The Interfaith Center of New York, and Dean Emeritus, The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, July 31 2001
