For his pacifist struggles during the Vietnam War, he was nominated by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr to be the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for 1967. A political refugee since 1972, he is today (2002) the charismatic head of the Order of Inter-Being (a group of lay people who are dedicated practicionors and accept the 14 Mindfulness Trainings), as well as a monastic community that cherishes the full consciousness of being . He teaches mindfulness in the Plum Village Buddhist Center in Dordogne, France. He was born in Vietnam in 1926, and left home as a teenager to become a Zen monk. He founded the Van Hanh Buddhist University in Vietnam. In 1969, Thich Nhat Hanh led the Vietnamese Buddhist Peace Delegation to the Paris Peace Talks and remained there until the peace accords were signed in 1973. Since 1966, he has lived in exile in France. In 1982 he founded Plum Village, a meditation community in the south of France. A founder of "Engaged Buddhism", he is known for his works which discuss both Christianity and Buddhism.
