Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhist monk Thích Quang Duc in June 1963 set himself ablaze in the busy street of Saigon. He set himself ablaze in a bid to complain against the unjust laws against the Buddhists.
The Buddhists had been banned from flying the Buddhist flag during Vesak, the celebration of Gautama Buddha’s birthday. However, this order was defied by the Buddhists who went on to stage a March protest against the government. They headed towards government broadcasting stations waving their flags, the government forces guarding these premises opened fire on the protesters killing 9 of them.
On June 10 1963, U.S. correspondents from the United States had been told that an important event would occur the next morning on the roadside outside the Cambodian embassy. The majority of these journalists ignored the information so only a few journalists turned up the next morning.
The next morning, around 350 monks and nuns had formed in groups condemning the government at the laws meted against the Buddhists when Duc arrived. Duc alighted from the car alongside two other Monks, while one placed a pillow on the road, the other took out the gallon of petrol from the trunk of the car.
While the crowd of protesters formed a circle around Duc, he sat on the pillow taking the stance of the traditional Buddhist meditative lotus position. One of the monks then pounded the contents of the gallon over Duc who then turned a string of wooden prayer beads poured the contents of the five-gallon can over Duc’s head and then recited the words “Nam mô A di đà Phật” (homage to Amitabha Buddha), then stroked a match and dropped it on himself.
He immediately went up in flames and a Vietnamese monk continually said in English “A Buddhist priest burns himself to death. A Buddhist priest becomes a martyr” after about 10 minutes, Duc’s body fell back onto its back, completely a sacrifice. Immediately after the fire was reduced, a group of monks covered the smoking body with yellow robes.
Quang Duc’s last words before his self-sacrifice were documented in a letter he had left:
“Before closing my eyes and moving towards the vision of the Buddha, I respectfully plead to President Ngo Dinh Diem to take a mind of compassion towards the people of the nation and implement religious equality to maintain the strength of the homeland eternally. I call the venerable, reverends, members of the sangha and the lay Buddhists to organize in solidarity to make sacrifices to protect Buddhism”.
The monks then attempted putting the corpse into a wooden box, due to the fact his limbs could not fit in as it was not straightened, they had to carry him to a nearby temple.
The photograph had captured and caused a large outdoor of emotions around the world. The United States president John. F Kennedy mentioned, “No news picture in history has generated so much emotion around the world as that one” and soon e night the picture immediately became a historical visual of the trying 1960s.
