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Aloka, the dog who walked beside Vietnamese monk Ven. Paññākāra and his fellow monks, won the hearts of Sri Lankans when the Walk for Peace passed through the island last April, and many still remember him fondly. Now posts have been circulating on social media claiming that Aloka had died, along with condolence messages and photographs of a dead dog being carried for burial. Here are the posts that carried the claim.
Social Media Posts:
The post carried a message wishing Aloka the bliss of Nibbana. It combined a photograph of Ven. Paññākāra with Aloka, a photograph of monks carrying a dead dog for burial, and several images of the dog lying motionless.
A short video made from clips of Aloka was also posted, with the caption “May your path to Nibbana be swift, Aloka.”
Many people asked whether these posts were accurate, so we investigated.
Fact-Check:
No news outlet or official account has reported Aloka’s death
Aloka won attention far beyond Sri Lanka, in every country the Walk for Peace passed through. Had he died, Sri Lankan and international media would have reported it. Our search found no media outlet that reported Aloka’s death.
To confirm this, we checked the official Walk for Peace website and its official Facebook page. Neither carried any announcement or notice of Aloka’s death. The official Aloka the Peace Dog Facebook and Instagram accounts carried no official announcement or update confirming his death either.
The Aloka the Peace Dog Facebook page still used photographs of Aloka as its profile picture and cover photo, and it had recently posted new photographs of him.
This shows there is no truth in the posts claiming that Aloka died.
The dead dog in the photographs is Sổ, not Aloka
Our further checks found that on September 26, a mainstream Sri Lankan news website reported, with a photograph, that Sổ (So), a companion of Aloka who travelled with the monks on the Walk for Peace, had died. Read the report here | Archived Link.
A reverse image search of the photograph in that report and the photographs in the posts claiming Aloka died suggests that they came from a September 26 Threads post by a monk named Shen Yu, who shared photographs of Sổ.
According to the website of Shen Yu, a monk who took part in the Walk for Peace in the United States, Aloka and Sổ voluntarily walked long distances with the monks during the 2022 Walk for Peace pilgrimage in India. In his note with the photographs, he said Sổ had stopped joining the Walk for Peace, had died, and had been buried with dignity by the monks. However, the September 26 post did not give the exact date of Sổ’s death and did not say that he had died recently.
Sổ died in 2023, not recently
To find out when Sổ died, we continued our checks and found a video posted on the official Walk for Peace Facebook page on July 22. It showed Ven. Paññākāra, other monks and Aloka himself at the grave where Sổ was buried, performing religious rites in his memory.
According to the post, Ven. Paññākāra and his group visited Sổ’s resting place during their tour of India in June this year. It said that Ven. Paññākāra and Aloka first met Sổ during the 2022–2023 “Following the Buddha’s Footsteps” pilgrimage, when Aloka and Sổ walked with the monks. Sổ walked between India and Nepal five times, covering thousands of kilometers, and two other dogs, Sukho and Karuṇā, also took part. The post clearly stated that Sổ died in 2023 at the Royal Wat Thai Buddhagaya temple, after the pilgrimage ended.
The posts claiming that Aloka died, and the suggestion that Sổ died recently, are therefore false.
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Conclusion:
The posts circulating on social media claiming that Aloka, the dog who accompanied Ven. Paññākāra and the monks on the Walk for Peace, had died are false. Our investigation confirmed that the photographs in these posts show Sổ (So), the dog who walked with Aloka on the 2022–2023 “Following the Buddha’s Footsteps” pilgrimage and died in 2023.
Monk Shen Yu shared photographs of Sổ on Threads on September 26, but his post gave no date of death and did not say that Sổ had died recently. Reports by some news websites that Sổ died recently are therefore misleading. The official Walk for Peace Facebook page showed that Sổ died in 2023, and neither the Walk for Peace nor the Aloka the Peace Dog accounts announced any death of Aloka.
Title: Did Aloka, the Walk for Peace Dog, Die? No, Viral Photos Show Sổ
Fact Check By: Sagarika Chathumali
Result: False
