The Journey: 2017 to the present

Chapter 1 — The Silent Years (2017–2023)

Le Anh Tu was born in 1981 in Ha Tinh province; his family moved to Gia Lai in 1994. According to his father, speaking to Dân trí in May 2024, he did military service, studied at a forestry vocational school and worked for a private surveying company, then in 2015 asked his parents for permission to leave home to practise. He chose independent practice, living on alms.

According to Vietnam's Government Committee for Religious Affairs, between 2017 and 2023 he practised on his own, went on alms rounds and walked the length of Vietnam three times, drawing little attention. No press record documents the individual walks.

Chapter 2 — The 2024 Phenomenon

His fourth walk, in 2024, ran from Khanh Hoa north to Cao Bang – Ha Giang and back. On the way back, videos of a barefoot man who addressed everyone humbly and refused money spread online: RFA reported on May 15, 2024 that individual YouTube videos drew from a hundred thousand to over a million views. By early June, VOA reported thousands of people seeking him out or walking with him each day, and Znews reported hundreds of livestreamers following him.

On May 16, 2024 the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha stated in an official letter that he is not a Buddhist monastic — consistent with his own description of himself as a citizen learning to practise the Buddha's teachings. On May 30 a follower died of heatstroke, and on June 2 two women following the group collapsed from the heat. On June 3, 2024, the Government Committee for Religious Affairs announced that he had voluntarily stopped walking; a monk walking with him gave RFA a different account of that night, which has not been independently verified.

Chapter 3 — Back in Gia Lai (June–December 2024)

He returned to Gia Lai province and received a citizen ID card on June 8, 2024. In July he resumed public alms rounds, which drew large crowds, and suspended them by a notice dated November 17, 2024. A handwritten letter dated November 8, signed "Minh Tuệ" and released by his family, asked people not to film or photograph him and post it online, and asked the authorities to act against those who do; some observers questioned its authenticity. A notice of November 25 said his passport had been obtained with help; its issue date is not publicly documented.

Chapter 4 — Walking to the Buddha's Land (December 2024 – present)

On December 12, 2024, he and five fellow practitioners crossed the Bo Y international border gate into Laos, beginning a pilgrimage toward the four holy sites of Buddhism in India and Nepal. Laos took about 19 days and Thailand about 65. The planned overland route through Myanmar ended in Thailand: on March 4, 2025 the group could not cross at Mae Sot, which was then open only to Thai and Myanmar nationals (RFA), and its Thai stay could not be extended. The group turned south instead: about 27 days down peninsular Malaysia, about a week on Batam in Indonesia, a day of transit through Singapore, then about two weeks in Sri Lanka, where police asked it to stop walking — travelling by ferry and by air where no road existed.

The group reached India on April 25, 2025, and from April 26 venerated Bodh Gaya, the place of the Buddha's awakening, staying in India about five months. On September 25, 2025 it crossed at Sonauli into Nepal and reached Lumbini, the Buddha's birthplace, the next day. No source yet confirms visits to Sarnath or Kushinagar. In 2026, community trackers record a trip to the Vietnamese Embassy in New Delhi (February) and a flight to Kathmandu (June); as of September 2026 the group of 37 is staying in Lumbini. No next leg has been announced.

This site records each verified milestone with a minimum of two independent sources, does not publish the group's real-time location (both unverifiable and unsafe), and takes no position on disputes surrounding the journey's logistics. The itinerary and arrival dates circulating on social media do not come from the group; treat them as unverified.