Who is Thich Minh Tue and why does he matter?
Le Anh Tu, better known as Thich Minh Tue, is a 43-year-old Vietnamese man who became an internet hit last month when several influencers began documenting his barefoot pilgrimage across Vietnam on TikTok and other social media platforms. He amassed legions of supporters who were drawn to his simple lifestyle and humble attitude.
Tue sports a shaved head, patched robe and a rice cooker as an alms bowl – but isn’t officially a monk because he’s not recognized by the state-sanctioned Vietnam Buddhist Sangha, or community. In fact, he doesn’t claim to be a monk – only a man trying to live out Buddha’s teachings.
But the attention he was getting appeared to worry the authorities, and on June 2, law enforcement officials raided his camp in the middle of the night, detaining him and several of his followers, prompting an international call for his release.
After disappearing from public view for several days, police published a video of him on June 10 receiving a new national ID card and saying he had stopped his pilgrimage due to safety concerns caused by the crowds that followed him. The video allayed concerns after an interview with him days earlier on a state-run news program had raised suspicions about his well-being, and that he was speaking under duress.
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Is Tue recognized as a monk by the state?
Tue practices a form of Buddhism that requires followers to own only three sets of clothes, to subsist by collecting alms house to house, and to live a low-impact life in outdoor places like forests, mountains, or even in graveyards.
He began his religious journey six years ago and has since made several pilgrimages on foot between Vietnam’s southeastern city of Nha Trang and the northern border with China, but it was only after his latest trip was covered on social media that he drew widespread attention.
While he is not recognized as a monk by the official Vietnam Buddhist Sangha, supporters say they are drawn to Tue’s humble ways that stand in contrast to senior monks in Vietnam who encourage followers to give offerings while living in large pagodas and flaunting expensive watches and luxury cars.
How free are you to practice religion in Vietnam?
Freedom of religion is technically enshrined in Vietnam’s constitution but Tue does not belong to a Buddhist sect that is recognized by the state. Without recognition, religious groups are not allowed to organize in Vietnam – a policy some say demonstrates how protections for religion exist in name only.
Others suggest Vietnam’s government is not simply engaging in willful ignorance.
In its 2024 annual report, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, or USCIRF, said Vietnamese authorities “continue to monitor all religious activity closely, often harassing, detaining, or otherwise preventing unregistered faith communities from exercising their fundamental right to religious freedom.”
USCIRF recommended that the U.S. Department of State designate Vietnam a Country of Particular Concern because its government engages in or tolerates “particularly severe” violations of religious freedom.
What’s next for Tue?
Activists with ties to Tue have said that since the June 2 police raid on his pilgrimage camp, he has been “self-cultivating in private” under the monitoring of police in Gia Lai province, where he had registered his permanent residence before leaving his family to pursue his study of Buddhism.
While Tue said in the two videos that he stopped his pilgrimage because of traffic concerns, he never pledged to refrain from future religious treks. In the June 10 video, Tue says that he is healthy enough to return to his study of the Buddha’s teachings. For someone who had never sought the limelight to begin with, Tue will likely welcome the chance to pursue his faith in relative obscurity once more.
Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.