Sri Lankan police on Thursday blocked Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Minh Tue from continuing his barefoot journey around the South Asian island until he changes his visa, a witness told Radio Free Asia.
About 30 police descended on Tue and his group of 37 monks as they had finished eating and were preparing to depart from Narammala, a town about 40 miles (65 kilometers) northeast of the capital Colombo.
“They waved a document sent from Vietnam, stating that this group was not a group of real monks, so walking like this was against the laws of the host country,” Vietnamese filmmaker Nguyen Minh Chi, who witnessed the incident, recounted to RFA.
This came two days after a local monk, claiming to be from the Sri Lankan Buddhist Sangha, brandishing the same document, had attempted to bar the group from stopping at a Hindu temple.
Thich Minh Tue became an unlikely internet sensation last year in Vietnam, where his simple lifestyle has struck a chord. He undertook barefoot walks that went viral and well-wishers came out in droves.
Last December, he left Vietnam on a journey by foot to India, the birthplace of Buddhism. After crossing Laos, he entered Thailand with a plan to hike across conflict-wracked Myanmar, but ran into logistical and visa problems. He has since traveled to Malaysia, and a week ago arrived in Sri Lanka, a predominantly Buddhist nation. He still hopes to make it to India.
But his international wanderings have become progressively more troubled - seemingly reflecting the suspicion with which he’s regarded by authorities back home in communist Vietnam where religion is closely regulated.
The document sent from Vietnam and presented by the Sri Lankan police, according to Nguyen Minh Chi, is the letter signed by Thich Nhat Tu, a senior representative of the state-backed Vietnamese sangha - or Buddhist religious association - which came to light earlier this week.
The letter, a copy of which has been seen by RFA, accuses Thich Minh Tue of impersonating a Buddhist monk, attempting to establish a dissident sect, and posing threat to public order and national reputation.
According to Chi, the Sri Lankan police were polite and respectful. They asked the monks to change their visas from those for tourists to those for pilgrims, to suit the purpose of the trip.
The Vietnamese were then put on two different buses, one for monks and one for volunteers and YouTubers, and taken to a pagoda in the nearby town of Alawwa, Chi said.
The monks were told they will not be allowed to travel on foot until their visas are changed, he said.
