“If you put too much milk into coffee, it will become bac xiu,” Vietnamese monk Giac Minh Luat says in a TikTok clip, referring to a popular local beverage that uses condensed milk. “In love, if one side gives too much, it’s no longer love.”
Luat then picks up a lotus flower, calming music playing in the background. “Sacrifice is not a responsibility, my friends,” he concludes. The clip, posted in May this year, has been viewed 2.6 million times.
Luat is a 32-year-old Vietnamese monk who has built a following of 3.1 million on TikTok in just two years. Clips of his lectures on family and relationship issues, spoken in Gen Z slang and referencing social media trends, seem to have connected with young people beset with loneliness and angst.
“I myself didn’t expect [the channel] to become so popular,” Luat told Rest of World. He is helped by a group of disciples, whom he calls his “third eye.” They give Luat feedback on his videos before he posts them and monitor the comments section.
For more than a decade, YouTube was the preferred platform to share Buddhist teachings with a wider audience in Vietnam, Chelsea Nguyen, a Buddhist and independent researcher who studies Vietnamese society, told Rest of World. But hours-long clips full of religious terms didn’t attract younger audiences, she said.
In contrast, Luat delivers his message in one to three punchy sentences. “Don’t worry what other people think about you. They’re too busy worrying about what you think about them,” he says in a clip. He said he has found a way to connect with the younger generation regardless of their religion or social status because he sees himself as “a companion on [the viewers’] path to rediscovering the values of peace and morality, as opposed to being a religious preacher.”
Luat’s online popularity has translated into lectures in pagodas as well as university auditoriums, sometimes attracting as many as 6,000 people. He designs his speeches to be optimized for TikTok. Students who used to fidget, chat, or scroll on their phones during his in-person lectures are now more engaged as the monk plays with words and references popular culture in his preaching, he said.
Some have criticized Luat for being a “relationship monk,” saying that he plays therapist instead of preaching about religion.
“I always say that I don’t teach young people how to love, I just advise them that they need to be challenged in love,” said Luat, who is also pursuing a Ph.D. in psychology in Thailand.
For Luat, talking about love and relationships is a way to show young people how to deal with negativity. “Once negative thoughts overpower you, you can’t focus on more worthwhile and sustainable things like studying and family,” he said.