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Thich Nhat Hanh, Preacher of Mindfulness, Has Come Home to Vietnam

Thich Nhat Hanh receiving visitors at Tu Hieu Temple in Hue, Vietnam, in March.CreditLinh Pham for The New York Times

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Thich Nhat Hanh receiving visitors at Tu Hieu Temple in Hue, Vietnam, in March.CreditCreditLinh Pham for The New York Times

By Richard C. Paddock

• May 16, 2019

HUE, Vietnam — Long denied the right to return to his native Vietnam, the Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh lived abroad for more than five decades, campaigning against war and teaching the practice of mindfulness.

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called him a friend and recommended him for the 1967 Nobel Peace Prize. Years later, leaders of major tech companies embraced the Zen master’s teachings. Oprah Winfrey interviewed him. President Barack Obama quoted him during his 2016 visit to Vietnam.

Now 92 and suffering the effects of a major stroke, Mr. Nhat Hanh has quietly returned home to the city of Hue in central Vietnam to live out his final days at the monastery where he became a novice monk at 16.

“It was the South Vietnamese government that exiled him,” said Sister True Dedication, a monastic disciple of Mr. Nhat Hanh and a former BBC journalist. “It was his wish for a long time to come back.”