Thich Nhat Hanh aged 16 in Huế, Vietnam

Photo taken around 1942, soon after he received novice ordination to enter the monkhood.

Aged 25, shortly after receiving the Bhikshu precepts in 1951.

Thich Nhat Hanh as a young Dharma Teacher (back row, right) with his students, 1950s.

He taught at the new Ấn Quang Buddhist Institute in Saigon.

Teaching children to read and write using a song about the Bodhisattva of Great Compassion, early 1960s.

Together with his friends and colleagues, Thich Nhat Hanh developed a social work program for rural development and founded the School of Youth for Social Service.

In 1966, as a young leader in the growing Buddhist peace movement.

He had recently founded Van Hanh University, La Boi Press, the School of Youth for Social Service, and the new Order of Interbeing (based on the traditional bodhisattva precepts). At this time, he was Editor-in-Chief of the leading Buddhist magazine, publishing over 50,000 copies every week.

Thich Nhat Hanh travelled to the US to call for peace in 1966.

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With Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., at a joint press conference about the war in Vietnam in Chicago, 31 May 1966.

Speaking out for peace c.1966

Vietnamese refugees aboard the Roland, a ship chartered by Thich Nhat Hanh and his colleagues to rescue people from the seas off Singapore in 1976.

Thich Nhat Hanh in Paris in the 1970s.

Exiled for daring to go abroad to call for peace in 1966, he led the Buddhist Peace Delegation at the Paris Peace Talks.

Gardening at Les Patates Douces (“Sweet Potatoes”) near Paris in the 1970s.

Thich Nhat Hanh and his colleagues and students retreated to the small farmstead in 1975. After the Paris Peace Talks ended with the Paris Peace Accords, Thich Nhat Hanh was denied the chance to return to Vietnam.

Thich Nhat Hanh (right) at a Peace March in New York City, 17 June 1982.

In south-west France, early 1980s.

Thich Nhat Hanh and his students found land in south-west France, where they established Plum Village mindfulness practice center in 1982.

Relaxing with his community in Plum Village, south-west France (late 1980s or early 1990s).

Meditation Hall in Plum Village, France, 1990.

Thich Nhat Hanh created meditation halls in the old farm buildings, and began to teach the first generation of meditation practitioners in the West.

Presiding over a “lamp transmission” ceremony to ordain Dharma Teachers, in Plum Village, 1990.

Thich Nhat Hanh began to ordain his first monastic disciples only in 1988, after 35 years of teaching.

In Plum Village, c.2004

At Từ Hiếu Temple in Huế, Vietnam, 2005.

In 2005 Thich Nhat Hanh was finally allowed to return to Vietnam after 39 years of exile. Here he is entering the gate at his “root temple” for the first time since he left in May 1966.

Leading a traditional almsround procession in Huế, Vietnam in 2005.

Planting a bodhi tree in India, 2008.

Vulture Peak, India, 2008.

Transmitting the precepts in the open air on Vulture Peak, one of the Buddha’s sacred sites.

Leading a walking meditation, c.2009

Thich Nhat Hanh inviting the bell to sound, Plum Village, 2009.

Thich Nhat Hanh arriving in Indonesia, 2010.

Malaysia, September 2010.

Thich Nhat Hanh’s European Institute for Applied Buddhism in Waldbröl, Germany, opened in 2008.

Thich Nhat Hanh reviewing one of his newly-published books in 2011.

He has written over 100 books of poetry, fiction, sutra translations, Engaged Buddhism practices and meditation handbooks.

Formal lunch with his growing community of monks, 2011

Trafalgar Square, London. March 31, 2012.

Thich Nhat Hanh led sitting meditation for over 3,000 people in the heart of the British capital.

Hong Kong Coliseum, 2013

Thich Nhat Hanh addressed an audience of over 10,000.

Chant of compassion, Hong Kong 2013.

Thich Nhat Hanh’s community invoke the name of the Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of Great Compassion.

Thich Nhat Hanh listening to his students in Hong Kong, 2013.

Broadway, New York City, 2013.

At an exhibition of his calligraphies at ABC Home.

With Jim Kim, President of the World Bank, Washington D.C., September 2013.

Thich Nhat Hanh teaching children in Plum Village, Summer 2014.

Receiving an honorary doctorate from Hong Kong University, May 2014.

In 2012 Thich Nhat Hanh created a training program for teachers, to bring secular “applied ethics” into the classroom.

Teaching during a mindfulness retreat for several hundred people in 2014.

Thich Nhat Hanh’s message focusses on how to nourish joy and happiness, and how to handle pain and sorrow.

Leading walking meditation with his community in Plum Village, June 2014.

Celebrating his 92nd birthday in Thailand, October 2018.

Following a major stroke in November 2014, Thich Nhat Hanh moved to Thailand to join his young disciples from Vietnam at his new Thai Plum Village meditation center.

Returning to Từ Hiếu Temple in Huế, Vietnam, 28 October 2018.

He decided to return to his root temple to spend his remaining days.

Early Years

Born in central Vietnam in 1926, Thich Nhat Hanh entered Tu Hieu Temple, in Hue city, as a novice monk at the age of sixteen. As a young bhikshu (monk) in the early 1950s he was actively engaged in the movement to renew Vietnamese Buddhism. He was one of the first bhikshus to study a secular subject at university in Saigon, and one of the first six monks to ride a bicycle.

Social activism during war in Vietnam

When war came to Vietnam, monks and nuns were confronted with the question of whether to adhere to the contemplative life and stay meditating in the monasteries, or to help those around them suffering under the bombings and turmoil of war. Thich Nhat Hanh was one of those who chose to do both, and in doing so founded the Engaged Buddhism movement, coining the term in his book Vietnam: Lotus in a Sea of Fire. His life has since been dedicated to the work of inner transformation for the benefit of individuals and society.In 1961, Thich Nhat Hanh travelled to the United States on a scholarship to study Comparative Religion at Princeton Theological Seminary and the following year went on to teach and research Buddhism at Columbia University. In Vietnam in the early 1960s, Thich Nhat Hanh founded the School of Youth and Social Service, a grassroots relief organization of 10,000 volunteers based on the Buddhist principles of non-violence and compassionate action.As a scholar, teacher, and engaged activist in the 1960s, Thich Nhat Hanh also founded the Van Hanh Buddhist University in Saigon, La Boi publishing House, and an influential peace activist magazine. In 1966 he established the Order of Interbeing, a new order based on the traditional Buddhist Bodhisattva precepts.On May 1st, 1966 at Tu Hieu Temple, Thich Nhat Hanh received the ‘lamp transmission’ from Master Chan That.

Exile from Vietnam

A few months later he traveled once more to the U.S. and Europe to make the case for peace and to call for an end to hostilities in Vietnam. It was during this 1966 trip that he first met Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967. As a result of this mission both North and South Vietnam denied him the right to return to Vietnam, and he began a long exile of 39 years.Thich Nhat Hanh continued to travel widely, spreading the message of peace and brotherhood, lobbying Western leaders to end the Vietnam War, and leading the Buddhist delegation to the Paris Peace Talks in 1969.

Founding Plum Village in France

He also continued to teach, lecture and write on the art of mindfulness and ‘living peace,’ and in the early 1970s was a lecturer and researcher in Buddhism at the University of Sorbonne, Paris. In 1975 he established the Sweet Potato community near Pa...