The hippie who found happiness as a monk

An ex-junkie found his direction in life when he met the Dalai Lama 10 years ago.

Wandering monk: Nanadhaja Bhikku walks barefooted in Fang, a district in northern part of Chiang Mai province, northern Thailand, two years ago.

LOOKING into Venerable Nanadhaja Bhikku’s kindly eyes, it is hard to imagine him as a junkie who got embroiled in gang fights. But Nanadhaja was, by his own admission, a bad boy who fled his homeland as a teenager to escape the wrath of rival gangs.