from France, the Netherlands, and other European countries, he hired a boat to bring food, water and medicine to refugees in the sea. Sympathetic fishermen who had rescued boat people would call up his team, and they shuttled the refugees to the French embassy in the middle of the night and helped them climb into the compound, before they were discovered by staff in the morning and handed over to the police where they were placed in the relative safety of detention. When the Singapore government discovered the clandestine network, the police surrounded its office and impounded the passports of both Nhất Hạnh and Chân Không, giving them 24 hours to leave the country. It was only with the intervention of the then-French ambassador to Singapore Jacques Gasseau that they were given 10 days to wind down their rescue operations. Nhất Hạnh was only allowed to return to Singapore in 2010 to lead a meditation retreat at the Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery. Plum Village In 1982, Nhất Hạnh and Chân Không established the Plum Village Monastery, a vihara in the Dordogne near Bordeaux in southern France. Plum Village is the largest Buddhist monastery in Europe and America, with over 200 monastics and over 10,000 visitors a year. The Plum Village Community of Engaged Buddhism (formerly the Unified Buddhist Church) and its sister organization in France, the Congrégation Bouddhique Zen Village des Pruniers, are the legally recognized governing bodies of Plum Village in France. Expanded practice centres By 2019, Nhất Hạnh had built a network of monasteries and retreat centres in several countries, including France, the U.S., Australia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Hong Kong. Additional practice centres and associated organizations Nhất Hạnh and the Order of Interbeing established in the US include Blue Cliff Monastery in Pine Bush, New York; the Community of Mindful Living in Berkeley, California; Parallax Press; Deer Park Monastery (Tu Viện Lộc Uyển), established in 2000 in Escondido, California; Magnolia Grove Monastery (Đạo Tràng Mộc Lan) in Batesville, Mississippi; and the European Institute of Applied Buddhism in Waldbröl, Germany. (The Maple Forest Monastery (Tu Viện Rừng Phong) and Green Mountain Dharma Center (Ðạo Tràng Thanh Sơn) in Vermont closed in 2007 and moved to the Blue Cliff Monastery in Pine Bush.) The monasteries, open to the public during much of the year, provide ongoing retreats for laypeople, while the Order of Interbeing holds retreats for