Thich Minh Tue was an obscure acetic who believed he’d left the fabric world behind, however the world was not completed with him. Due to TikTok, Fb, and different social media platforms, Minh Tue was catapulted into the highlight within the spring of 2024 and have become the speak of Vietnam.
Heated debates erupted on-line: Was he actually a monk? Did it matter if he was a monk, given his steadfast dedication to his non secular path? Why venerate him? Compared to the state-sanctioned, allegedly-corrupt monks who dwell in opulence in ornate temples, why not venerate him? These questions swirling round Thich Minh Tue are on the coronary heart of what Vietnamese society is grappling with at this time, secularly and spiritually.
Minh Tue was born in 1981 in Ha Tinh province in Central Vietnam. His delivery identify was Le Anh Tue, and he was the second youngster in a household of 4 kids. After ending highschool, he accomplished his three-year navy service. Then he studied forestry and labored as a land surveyor. In 2015, he renounced the fabric world, changing into a monk and taking the dharma identify Minh Tue. Quickly, although, he left the monastery, carrying nothing however a rice cooker for gathering alms. He walked barefoot for years on scorching asphalt, the soles of his toes turning charcoal black.
When Minh Tue’s fame grew, so did the gang that adopted him. Some younger males shaved their heads, wore Buddhist robes, and took up alms-seeking in his footsteps, whereas others meticulously documented his each motion on-line. Minh Tue tried to dissuade them—he needed to be left alone to stroll his non secular path—however to no avail. His growing visibility made him a goal of state authorities.
Whereas the Unified Buddhist Sangha of Vietnam—banned by the federal government however working abroad with world affect—acknowledges Minh Tue and praises him as possessing the virtues befitting a Buddhist monk, the state-sanctioned Vietnam Buddhist Sangha doesn’t. Considered one of its monks, Thich Chan Quang, head of the Chan Quang Pagoda and of the finance committee for a state-backed Buddhist group, denounced Thich Minh Tue in a sermon posted on-line, calling him a “thug who wears ragged apparel and holds a rice cooker.” The backlash was so intense that Quang’s sermon was taken offline.
Thich Minh Tue’s rising affect got here at a time when Vietnam’s materialistic aspirations have been dealing with deep scrutiny. Technically a communist nation, Vietnam allowed non-public capitalism after the Chilly Battle, and over three many years later, money-making has turn out to be the brand new ideology. Billboards, digital adverts, and commercials flood the senses, hawking beer, vehicles, condos, and the newest devices. Even lodge elevators bombard guests with digital screens urging them to put money into actual property, purchase designer furnishings, or dine at Michelin-recognized eating places. And why not contemplate beauty surgical procedure for a brand new nostril or eyelids to appear to be a Korean pop star? In a manner, Vietnam has turn out to be a thriving market writ massive.
But, amid the towering billboards, luxurious high-rises, and nonstop client promoting, non secular craving hasn’t disappeared. If something, the general public fascination with Minh Tue suggests an underlying discontent—a eager for one thing past materials wealth. Materialism, in any case, doesn’t give a rustic a way of course. And up to date monetary scandals, such because the conviction of actual property tycoon Truong My Lan for orchestrating Vietnam’s largest-ever banking fraud, have solely deepened public cynicism about unchecked greed and corruption.
But when Lan was harmful to the ruling elite as a result of her corruption uncovered the underbelly of a money-obsessed nation—implicating high-ranking Communist Occasion members alongside the best way—Minh Tue and his followers pose a distinct type of menace. They reveal a collective starvation for the return of spirituality, a nationwide function past wealth accumulation.
This isn’t the primary time Vietnam has been stirred by a Buddhist chief whose presence challenged the ruling institution. Thich Nhat Hanh, the world-renowned Zen grasp, confronted the same destiny many years earlier. Within the Nineteen Sixties, he labored to modernize and unify Vietnamese Buddhism, founding Van Hanh Buddhist College in Saigon, which provided programs in Buddhist research and Vietnamese tradition. However when he traveled overseas to advocate for peace through the Vietnam Battle, the South Vietnamese authorities accused him of being an antiwar activist and barred him from returning. Pressured into exile, he went on to show Zen globally, penning over 130 books and changing into some of the influential Buddhist lecturers of contemporary occasions. Vietnam’s loss grew to become the world’s achieve.
A long time later, when Thich Nhat Hanh was lastly allowed to return to his homeland, it was solely beneath strict supervision. After struggling a large stroke, he returned one final time to spend his remaining years in his native metropolis of Hue. His teachings on mindfulness, compassion, and the center path stay deeply related in Vietnam at this time, the place figures like Thich Minh Tue embody the battle between materialism and spirituality.
Thich Minh Tue’s story additionally evokes the reminiscence of one other Vietnamese monk who made historical past by way of an act of radical self-sacrifice. In 1963, Thich Quang Duc, a senior monk, shocked the world when he set himself on fireplace at a busy Saigon intersection in protest towards the persecution of Buddhists by the South Vietnamese authorities. (The time period “self-immolation” entered the English lexicon after his fiery protest.) His picture, captured in a now-iconic {photograph}, grew to become a searing testomony to the ability of non secular resistance. Whereas Minh Tue’s path is one in all silent wandering reasonably than dramatic protest, each monks function reminders that Buddhism in Vietnam has lengthy been intertwined with struggles for justice and ethical integrity.
Minh Tue’s journey has continued to satisfy resistance. One night time in April 2024, as he and his followers rested in an open-air camp, police raided the positioning. Quickly after, he appeared on nationwide tv, stating that he would finish his pilgrimage because of the social disturbances it prompted. He introduced his intention to return to his household house, but was later seen wandering by way of close by neighborhoods earlier than disappearing altogether in July.
Then, on the tail-end of 2024, the ascetic reemerged—this time with an much more astonishing objective. Based on latest experiences, he and a small group of followers are strolling from Vietnam to India, the Buddha’s birthplace. As of this writing, he has crossed Laos, is making his manner by way of Thailand into Myanmar and past. His journey, nonetheless, is just not with out controversy, as one in all his journey companions is a government-hired handler, monitoring his actions and public statements whereas proscribing sure questions from native press.
In Vietnam, the tales of Thich Minh Tue and Thich Nhat Hanh, although separated by time, echo one another in profound methods. Each monks embody the non secular starvation of a nation caught between materials ambition and deeper existential questions. If wealth has turn out to be the dominant ideology in Vietnam, it has additionally left many looking for that means past its trappings. Thich Minh Tue’s barefoot journey and Thich Nhat Hanh’s lifelong teachings each level to a deeper fact: that the non secular path, although typically obstructed, stays important.
A beloved Vietnamese people track in regards to the lotus flower, typically sung by rural kids, captures this pressure:
Within the pond, nothing is extra stunning than the lotus
Inexperienced leaves, white flowers, and yellow pistils
Yellow pistils, white flowers, inexperienced leaves
Near the mud however not tainted by the odor of mud
No surprise, then, that in Buddhism, the lotus—on which the Buddha sits—is such a potent and complicated image. As Thich Nhat Hanh typically mentioned: “No mud, no lotus.” With out the mud’s sustenance, the lotus couldn’t develop. But with out rising above the mud and opening totally to the daylight, it may by no means actually bloom.
The Buddha as soon as spoke of the center path, having realized—after almost ravenous himself in his seek for enlightenment—that neither excessive asceticism nor indulgence would result in liberation. Solely after accepting an providing of milk rice did he regain the power to proceed his journey.
Maybe for a lot of, the center path means holding two truths: Sustaining oneself is a necessity, however not being consumed by greed and phantasm can be a necessity. Regardless of life’s struggles and distractions, the problem is to stroll one’s non secular path whereas at all times aiming, just like the lotus, towards the sunshine.