Thích Quảng Đức
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| Thích Quảng Đức | |
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 Thích Quảng Ðức photographed during his self-immolation. According to David Halberstam, "As he burned he never moved a muscle, never uttered a sound". |
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 Today, his car is parked at Huế's Thien Mu Pagoda. |
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| Vietnamese name | |
| Quốc Ngữ | Thích Quảng Ðức |
Thích Quảng Ðức , born Lâm Văn Tức in 1897, was a Vietnamese Buddhist monk who burned himself to death at a busy Saigon intersection on June 11, 1963. His act of self-immolation, which was repeated by others, was witnessed by David Halberstam, a New York Times reporter, who wrote:
| I was to see that sight again, but once was enough. Flames were coming from a human being; his body was slowly withering and shriveling up, his head blackening and charring. In the air was the smell of burning human flesh; human beings burn surprisingly quickly. Behind me I could hear the sobbing of the Vietnamese who were now gathering. I was too shocked to cry, too confused to take notes or ask questions, too bewildered to even think.... As he burned he never moved a muscle, never uttered a sound, his outward composure in sharp contrast to the wailing people around him. |
Thích Quảng Ðức was protesting against the way the administration of the President Ngô Đình Diệm was oppressing the Buddhist religion. More generally, his act was intended as a symbolic attempt to represent the way in which all Vietnamese were killing themselves by fighting against each other.[citation needed]
The act itself occurred at the intersection of Phan Đình Phùng street and Lê Văn Duyệt street. (After 1975, the street names were changed to Nguyễn Đình Chiểu and Cách Mạng Tháng Tám.) His monastery was just outside of Huế in central Vietnam. The light blue Austin in which he drove to Saigon to perform the act can still be seen there (along with a picture showing his self-immolation, with his car in the background).
After his death, his body was cremated. During the cremation, his shrunken heart still remained intact.[1] It was thenceforth considered holy and placed in the care of the Reserve Bank of Vietnam.
Madame Nhu, the first lady of Vietnam at the time, commented with regard to this that she would "clap hands at seeing another monk barbecue show". This supposedly resulted in her receiving the alias of "Dragon Lady".
The American rock music group Rage Against the Machine used the above photo of his act as the cover art for their 1992 self-titled debut album. The picture is also featured in the cover of the 1989 album Faces, Forms & Illusions by the Canadian group Delerium.
According to A Death in November by Ellen J. Hammer, when ambassador Buu Hoi returned home in order to persuade his mother, senior monk Dieu Khong, not to self-immolate, he received a letter from Ven. Thich Tinh Khiet and Ven. Thich Tam Chau who lamented that "Buddhism had been used for political purpose," and events in the days before the attacks on pagodas lost religious goals.
The letter of complaint - echoed by fellow buddhists Ven. Thich Tinh Khiet and Ven. Thich Tam Chau - was likely in reference to influential buddhist leaders such as Ven. Trich Tri Quang, who according to Hammer and Marguerite Higgins [in her book Our Vietnam Nightmare] - claimed that Tri Quang took advantage of buddhist devouts by encouraging acts of self-immolation to excite public opinion against his political adversary Ngo Dinh Diem.
As Higgins once reaccounted in Our Vietnam Nightmare, Ven. Thich Tri Quang invited her to Xa Loi pagoda and publicly spoke to her that, "We can not negotiate with North Vietnam until we topple Diem-Nhu [ Ngo Dinh Nhu is Ngo Dinh Diem's younger brother and chief political advisor]."
Ven. Thich Tri Quang, taken into account that his Buddhist group could not topple Diem alone, relied heavily upon the U.S. for support (he successfully sought asylum at the U.S. embassy with the permission of President John F. Kennedy) and as Marguerite Higgins assessed: "Ven. Thich Tri Quang wanted to take the head of Mr. Diem and put it not on a silver plate but wrapped it inside an American flag."
Also included in Our Vietnam Nightmare was Marguerite Higgins's first person anecdote about how she informed President Kennedy of Ven. Thich Tri Quang's intentions [to topple Diem-Nhu at whatever cost, even if it meant encouraging self-immolations] after she came back from Saigon. Kennedy, in spite of such newfound revelations, did not question his allegiances to Tri Quang.
[edit] References
- Self-Immolation of Thích Quảng Ðức, Rollie Hicks
- Buddhist monastery dedicated to Thích Quảng Ðức
- More photographs, including images of his heart
- Higgins, Marguerite (1965). Our Vietnam Nightmare. New York: Harper Row.
- Hammer, Ellen J. (1988). A Death in November: America in Vietnam, 1963. Oxford University Press.
[edit] External links
- Reporting America at war - The Buddhist Protests of 1963 by Malcolm W. Brown on PBS
- A satellite image of the Saigon intersection where Thích Quảng Đức performed his self-immolation. (Phan Đình Phùng street runs NE-SW and Lê Văn Duyệt street runs NW-SE.)
