Why did Thích Quang Dú’c set himself on fire? The story behind the iconic image.

On June 11, 1963, passers-by at a busy intersection in Saigon, Vietnam witnessed a gruesome sight of a burning Mahayana monk. In advance, several media had been notified that something big would happen in the area. Most of the journalists ignored the message and therefore did not show up. Malcolm Browne, who worked as bureau chief for the Associated Press news agency in Saigon, did not.

The burning monk was Thích Quang Dú’c. Browne took out his camera and snapped the historic photos of the burning monk.

Vietnam year 1963

In 1963, Vietnam was divided in two. The communist leader Ho Chi Minh ruled in the north. His rival President Ngo Dinh Diem ruled in the south. In 1963, the Vietnam War was in earnest, but the United States had not yet become involved with full military strength. Nevertheless, the Americans acted as advisers to the South Vietnamese military and government.

In South Vietnam, where Saigon was the capital, President Ngo Dinh Diem had established a centralized government around him. Among his closest associates was his brother. who was both an opium addict and an admirer of Adolf Hitler.

Diem was tough and cracked down hard on political opposition and ethnic and religious minorities, and this is where Thích Quang Dú’c comes into the picture.

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Set himself on fire in protest

On the fateful day, Thích Quang Dú’c arrived at the crossing by car with two other monks. The monks got out of the car. One found a pillow which he placed on the road. Another brought out a petrol can from the trunk of the car. Dú’c sat down on the cushion in a traditional Buddhist lotus position before another monk poured the petrol over him. Dú’c then said a prayer before lighting a match which he dropped on himself.

Soon after, Malcolm Browne took the iconic photo.

Thích Quang Dú’c set himself on fire in protest against President Ngo Dinh Diem’s ​​repression of Buddhists. Diem and the rest of the South Vietnamese elite were Catholics. In May of the same year, the government had banned the flying of the Buddhist flag during the birthday of Buddah, the Buddhist holy figure. At the same time, South Vietnamese Catholics were encouraged to fly the flag to the Vatican in connection with President Diem’s ​​brother’s birthday.

As a result of the flag dispute, several Buddhists protested and marked the Buddha’s birthday with the Buddhist flag. Buddhists marched on the state broadcasting station. It ended bloody. Government forces opened fire on the Buddhists. Nine people were killed and the president blamed the communist insurgent group Viet Cong.

The killings spawned several protests, including from Thích Quang Dú’c who symbolized his opposition by setting himself on fire, which he did not survive. He lived to be 66 years old.

(The case continues below the picture).

– No news pictures in history have created so much emotion

– I don’t know exactly when he died because you couldn’t tell from his facial features or voice or anything. He never cried out in pain. His face seemed to remain quite calm until it was so blackened by the flames that you couldn’t see it anymore. Finally, the monks decided he was dead, and they brought up a coffin, an improvised wooden coffinin Malcolm Browne til Time i 2011.

Since Buddhist protests had been going on for some time, there were very few journalists who did not see any news value in the warning that something big was going to happen. Therefore, very few had turned up. Browne told Time that from what he perceived he was the only photographer present.

Browne’s image became world famous. For the first time, Vietnam became a word used by the population of the United States, a word they would become all too familiar with later in the 60s and beyond the 70s.

The then US President John F. Kennedy said the following about the monk and the famous picture:

– No news images in history have created as much emotion around the world as this.

Malcolm Browne won a Pulitzer Prize for the picture in 1964. In 1963, Ngo Dinh Diem became increasingly unpopular in South Vietnam. He eventually lost American support. On November 1, 1963, a coup was launched by officers from the South Vietnamese military. The coup cost Diem his life.

Malcolm Browne died in August 2012, aged 81.

Sources: Wikipedia, Store norske lexikon, Time, ABC Australia.