Nong bua, Thailand – resting after a long day of walking barefoot through the Thai countryside, the Vietnamese monk Thich Minh kills was seated on a carpet under a tree and spoke quietly about the lens – and logistics – of his 2,700 kilometers (1,600 miles) pilgrimage in India.
“I want to be grateful to Buddha, who showed me and the others the path of learning,” Minh told a radio journalist Free Asia who caught her and his entourage last week at the temple of Wat Udom Pattana in Nakhon Sawan province.
“I want to walk there to reimburse his gratitude and hope that all the people of the world will be happy and peaceful and learn according to the teachings of Buddha,” he said.
Thich Minh kills is a Buddhist monk who Captured cores In Vietnam last year, when he hired a barefoot hike across the country that met the disapproval of controlling the Communist authorities.
He has since become international. In December, he crossed Vietnam in Laos before entering Thailand.
Its objective is to achieve India, the birthplace of Buddhism.
Sporting a multicolored patch dress, rather than a typical saffron, the 43 -year -old man cuts an unpretentious silhouette while he walks through Thailand, accompanied by around 16 monks. He transports a rice pan like a bowl of alms.
But after two months of walking about 20 kilometers (12 miles) per day on the hot asphalt, obstacles accumulate. The hot season begins and the Smog of Burning of Cultures pollutes the gray sky.
In addition, his Thai visa exhausted in a week and a knee injury suffered by a monk around him slows down the walk of his group.
Myanmar Lrive
A larger dilemma faces the monk, which usually stops during the night in Buddhist temples that dot the Thai countryside, or if not, extends over a carpet in the middle of the mosquitoes and under the stars in a road field.
How can it go through Myanmar – seized by a civil war – in India?
Some of the supporters of the monks, as well as the dissidents of the Myanmar who are well informed about the problems of their country, say that he would not succeed in this country.
Wednesday, he and his entourage were about 330 kilometers (200 miles) of Mae Sot, the border crossing from western Thai to Myanmar and 600 kilometers (375 miles) to the border crossing from the North to Mae Sai .
Minh kills – “Thich” indicates that he is a monk – said that he intended to avoid the passage to cross MAE SOT closer, citing fights in the region between the rebels and the Myanmar army , which seized the power in a coup in 2021 and was involved in a multi -brand -rront of the civil war since.
Instead, he said that he was leaning over towards a crossing in Mae Sai, in the extreme north of Thailand, in the state of Shan of Myanmar.
But a large part of the Myanmar is plagued by conflicts and it is not clear if kills and his entourage would be safe even if they take the alternative route, which implies a major detour.
Opponents argue that he would be refused entry into Myanmar, or, if it is authorized, it would only be a matter of time before he encounters a kind of obstacle.
Moe Kyaw, militant of labor rights and myanmar veteran, living in Thailand, said that he would assess the monk’s chance of crossing myanmar at 1%.
“There would be too many challenges. I just don’t think it’s possible, “he told RFA.
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Another Myanmar expert, human rights activist David Mathieson said that he doubted the Myanmar army would authorize Minh kills both because of the “completely chaotic security landscape” and because ‘He could attract crowds, whose unpopular junta would be suspicious.
“I don’t think Sakasa really wants to take the risk that people come to see it,” said Mathieson, referring to the junta. “They probably do not want to take the risk of making him hurt or his disciples by an air strike or by a drone or a terrestrial mine.”
But if Minh kills should bypass myanmar, how would he complete his pilgrimage?
Aumône des Villagers
Last year, Minh’s ascetic behavior touched a string sensitive to Vietnam where publications on social networks Barefoot walks went viral and the sympathizers came out en masse.
The Buddhist sanctioned by the state of Vietnam, Sangha, did not officially recognize him as a monk, but he nevertheless obtained generalized admiration and support.
At one point, the Vietnamese authorities, suspicious of its popularity, announced that it had “voluntarily withdrawn”. But that doesn’t seem to be the case.
Although it is much less known in Thailand, the villagers go out to greet it and offer the alms of vegetarian food in the morning. Along the way, people give the group Water and the police paying homage to them.
Vietnamese reporting on their social networks and supporters of foreign Vietnamese gather around their “teacher” when they have the opportunity.
Minh Tue told RFA that Buddhist lessons inspired him to practice “Dhutanga” or austerity, during his trip to India.
While he marries Buddhist philosophy, Vietnam authorities are wary of any political motive.
His name appeared as part of an opposition party based in the United States called Viet Tan which aims to pass the country from communism to a liberal democracy, said a Thai security officer watching the monk’s trip.
The RFA attempts to reach the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand to clarify if the killing visa could be extended has remained unanswered.
Doan Van BauA former Vietnamese security officer who said he was affected by his government to protect Minh kills and be “chief of the delegation”, walked with him for a few weeks, but is no longer with the group apparently after a dispute With the monks.
Bau helped Minh kill and two other monks to obtain visas for Bangladesh and India and he urged them to completely avoid myanmar and fly, said members of the entourage.
Minh kills said he didn’t know how many monks around him would follow him in Myanmar, if he chose this option.
He also raised the possibility of completely bypassing the Myanmar by flying towards Sri Lanka, then in India, tracing the route upside down along which Buddhism arrived for the first time in Thailand.
“If the route crossing Myanmar is practical, then I will walk from Thailand to Myanmar,” he said. “If Sri Lanka is better, then I take this road.”
The uncertainty about the route has triggered some friction among the members of the entourage, adding to a feeling of anxiety.
But that does not seem to affect Minh kills.
“What will be,” he told RFA. “Whatever the favorable side, I will walk there.”
Translated by Vietnamese FRI and RFA BIRMAN. Published by Joshua Lipes, Mat Pennington and Malcolm Foster.