Vietnamese monk leaves Laos, enters Thailand

A Vietnamese Buddhist monk who became an internet sensation earlier this year has crossed from Laos into Thailand on his way to India on a pilgrimage by foot.

Thich Minh Tue, who gained fame in Vietnam after his ascetic lifestyle attracted a following as he walked across Vietnam, began a pilgrimage to Buddhist sites in India in late November.

He crossed from Vietnam into Laos on Dec. 12 and arrived in southern Laos’ Champassak province last week.

Tue, 43, lives as a monk though he does not belong to Vietnam’s state-approved Buddhist monastic order.

At about 10:30 am on Tuesday, he and five other mendicant monks left the Vang Tao border crossing in Laos and passed through the Chong Mek border crossing in Thailand after spending 19 days in Laos.

People knelt in front of the border crossing and scattered flowers and sprinkled water on the road as signs of respect for the monks.

At the Chong Mek border crossing in Thailand’s Ubon Ratchathani province, about 100 people, mainly small traders and tuk-tuk drivers from Thailand and Laos, gathered to welcome the monks. About 20 Vietnamese YouTubers were also there early to report the news.

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Accompanying the monks on the walking journey through Laos were two well-known Vietnamese YouTubers – Doan Van Bau and Le Kha Giap. They were joined by four Thai volunteers handling logistics and two police officers from Ubon Ratchathani province who were dispatched to ensure order.

Live video from YouTuber Doan Van Bau, who escorted the monks from Vietnam, shows Tue and monks Minh Tang, Minh Tri, Chon Tri, An Lac and Vo Sanh left Laos and entered Thailand without any problem when volunteers took care of the immigration procedures.

The viral monk

Tue became known to many people when he walked from the south to north Vietnam in May.

When arriving in the city of Hue in early June, Tue and a group of more than 70 people who followed him were suppressed and dispersed by the police during a midnight raid. They took Tue to his hometown in Gia Lai province to scan his fingerprints for citizenship identification.

On Nov. 25, Tue wrote a letter expressing his desire to travel to India and visit Buddhist relics, and asked for advice on directions and procedures.

Long pilgrimage

The group will walk 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) in two months in Thailand before entering Myanmar to continue their journey to India, Doan Van Bau said.

Tue and the other monks left from the Bo Y border crossing in Vietnam’s Gia Lai province on Dec. 12 and passed through the Lao provinces of Attapeu, Sekong and Champassak, before arriving at the Vang Tao border crossing.

Bau said one of the people accompanying the group will take care of procedural issues as they walk to Thailand’s Mae Sot province en route to Myanmar.

Radio Free Asia is an online news service affiliated with BenarNews.