Thich Nhat Hanh

Thich Nhat Hanh (born 1926) is an expatriate Vietnamese Buddhist monk, peace activist, and prolific author in English. (Thich, meaning "Venerable", is a title, though often mistaken for part of his name; his title and full name are pronounced Tick-Naught-Han.)

He was born in Vietnam, and left home as a teenager to become a Zen monk. He founded the Van Hanh Buddhist University in Vietnam.

For his pacifist activism during the Vietnam War, he was nominated by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for the 1967 Nobel Peace Prize. (Despite King's high praise, the committee decided, that year as in the previous one, not to make any award. King's revealing the nomination for publication was a violation of tradition and the explicit "strong request" at least as of 2003) of the prize committee.)

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Revised 4/29/2004