Thích Quảng Đức

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Quảng Đức
Thich Quang Duc.png
Religion Mahayana Buddhism
Other names Bồ Tát Thích Quảng Đức
(Bodhisattva Thích Quảng Đức)
Born 1897
Hội Khánh, French Indochina
Died 11 June 1963(1963-06-11) (aged 65–66)
Saigon, South Vietnam
Senior posting
Based in South Vietnam
Title Buddhist monk
Period in office 1917–1963
Religious career
Ordination 1917
Post Chairman of the Panel on Ceremonial Rites of the Congregation of Vietnamese Monks
Abbot of the Phước Hòa pagoda

Thích Quảng Đức (1897—11 June 1963, born Lâm Văn Túc), was a Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhist monk who burned himself to death at a busy Saigon road intersection on 11 June 1963.[1] Quang Duc was protesting the persecution of Buddhists by the South Vietnamese government led by Ngô Đình Diệm. Photographs of his self-immolation were circulated widely across the world and brought attention to the policies of the Diệm government. John F. Kennedy said in reference to a photograph of Đức on fire, "No news picture in history has generated so much emotion around the world as that one."[2] Malcolm Browne won a Pulitzer Prize for his photograph of the monk's death.[3][4]

Quảng Đức's act increased international pressure on Diệm and led him to announce reforms with the intention of mollifying the Buddhists. However, the promised reforms were not implemented, leading to a deterioration in the dispute. With protests continuing, the ARVN Special Forces loyal to Diệm's brother, Ngô Đình Nhu, launched nationwide raids on Buddhist pagodas, seizing Quảng Đức's heart and causing deaths and widespread damage. Several Buddhist monks followed Quảng Đức's example, also immolating themselves. Eventually, an Army coup toppled Diệm, who was assassinated on 2 November 1963.


Accounts of the life of Quảng Đức are derived from information disseminated by Buddhist organizations. He was born in the village of Hội Khánh, in Vạn Ninh District of Khánh Hòa Province in central Vietnam as Lâm Văn Túc, one of seven children of Lâm Hữu Ứng and his wife, Nguyễn Thị Nương. At the age of seven, he left to study Buddhism under Hòa thượng Thích Hoằng Thâm, who was his maternal uncle and spiritual master. Thích Hoằng Thâm raised him as a son and Lâm Văn Túc changed his name to Nguyễn Văn Khiết. At age 15, he took the samanera (novice) vows and was ordained as a monk at age 20 under the dharma name Thích Quảng Đức. The Vietnamese name Thích () is from "Thích Ca" or "Thích Già" (釋迦), means "of the Shakya clan."[5] After ordination, he traveled to a mountain near Ninh Hòa, vowing to live the life of a solitary Buddhism-practicing hermit for three years. He returned in later life to open the Thien Loc pagoda at his mountain retreat.[6][7]


After his return from Cambodia, he oversaw the construction of a further 17 new temples during his time in the south. The last of the 31 new temples that he was responsible for constructing was the Quan The Am pagoda in the Phú Nhuận District of Gia Định Province on the outskirts of Saigon.[8] The street on which the temple stands was later renamed Quảng Đức Street by Communists in 1975. After the temple-building phase, Đức was appointed to serve as the Chairman of the Panel on Ceremonial Rites of the Congregation of Vietnamese Monks, and as abbot of the Phuoc Hoa pagoda, which was the initial location of the Association for Buddhist Studies of Vietnam (ABSV).[8] When the office of the ABSV was relocated to the Xá Lợi Pagoda, the main pagoda of Saigon, Đức resigned.[6]


Religious background[edit]

A memorial to Quảng Đức located on the site of his death




Buddhist discontent erupted following a ban in early May on flying the Buddhist flag in Huế on Vesak, the birthday of Gautama Buddha. Just days before, Catholics had been encouraged to fly the Vatican flag at a celebration for Archbishop Ngô Đình Thục of Huế, Diệm's elder brother. A large crowd of Buddhists protested the ban, defying the government by flying Buddhist flags on the Buddhist holy day of Vesak and marching on the government broadcasting station. Government forces fired into the crowd of protesters, killing nine people. Diệm's refusal to take responsibility — he blamed the Viet Cong for the deaths — led to further Buddhist protests and calls for religious equality.[23] As Diem remained unwilling to comply with Buddhist demands, the frequency of protests increased.

Thích Quảng Đức had formed a suicide pact with a colleague in North Vietnam who subsequently carried out his pledge in protest of North Vietnamese mistreatment of Buddhists. Once the South Vietnamese Buddhist crisis began, Đức was urged by several fellow monks and the leaders of the Buddhist protests to fulfill his part of the pact.[24]

Day of the act[edit]

Journalist Malcolm Browne's photograph of Quảng Đức during his self-immolation; a similar photograph won the 1963 World Press Photo of the Year.[25]

On 10 June 1963, U.S. correspondents were informed that "something important" would happen the following morning on the road outside the Cambodian embassy in Saigon.[26] Most of the reporters disregarded the message, since the Buddhist crisis had at that point been going on for more than a month, and the next day only a few journalists turned up, including David Halberstam of The New York Times and Malcolm Browne, the Saigon bureau chief for the Associated Press.[26] Đức arrived as part of a procession that had begun at a nearby pagoda. Around 350 monks and nuns marched in two phalanxes, preceded by an Austin Westminster sedan, carrying banners printed in both English and Vietnamese. They denounced the Diệm government and its policy towards Buddhists, demanding that it fulfill its promises of religious equality.[26] Another monk offered himself, but Đức's seniority prevailed.[3]

The act occurred at the intersection[b] of Phan Đình Phùng Boulevard (now Nguyễn Đình Chiểu Street) and Lê Văn Duyệt Street (now Cách Mạng Tháng Tám Street) a few blocks Southwest of the Presidential Palace (now the Reunification Palace). Đức emerged from the car along with two other monks. One placed a cushion on the road while the second opened the trunk and took out a five-gallon petrol can. As the marchers formed a circle around him, Đức calmly sat down in the traditional Buddhist meditative lotus position on the cushion. A colleague emptied the contents of the petrol container over Đức's head. Đức rotated a string of wooden prayer beads and recited the words Nam mô A Di Đà Phật ("Homage to Amitābha Buddha") before the colleague struck a match and dropped it on the petrol trail leading to Đức. Flames consumed his robes and flesh, and black oily smoke emanated from his burning body.[26][27]

Đức's last words before his self-immolation were documented in a letter he had left:


David Halberstam wrote:


The car in which Quảng Đức traveled to his self-immolation; Huế, Thiên Mụ Pagoda.

The spectators were mostly stunned into silence, but some wailed and several began praying. Many of the monks and nuns, as well as some shocked passersby, prostrated themselves before the burning monk. Even some of the policemen, who had orders to control the gathered crowd, prostrated before him.[3]

In English and Vietnamese, a monk repeated into a microphone, "A Buddhist priest burns himself to death. A Buddhist priest becomes a martyr." After approximately ten minutes, Đức's body was fully immolated and it eventually toppled backwards onto its back. Once the fire subsided, a group of monks covered the smoking corpse with yellow robes, picked it up and tried to fit it into a coffin, but the limbs could not be straightened and one of the arms protruded from the wooden box as he was carried to the nearby Xá Lợi Pagoda in central Saigon. Outside the pagoda, students unfurled bilingual banners which read: "A Buddhist priest burns himself for our five requests."[26]

By 1:30 pm, around one thousand monks had congregated inside to hold a meeting while outside a large crowd of pro-Buddhist students had formed a human barrier around it. The meeting soon ended and all but a hundred monks slowly left the compound. Nearly one thousand monks, accompanied by laypeople, returned to the cremation site. The police lingered nearby. At around 6:00 pm, thirty nuns and six monks were arrested for holding a prayer meeting on the street outside Xá Lợi. The police encircled the pagoda, blocking public passage and giving observers the impression that an armed siege was imminent by donning riot gear.[29]

Funeral and aftermath[edit]

After the self-immolation, the U.S. put more pressure on Diệm to re-open negotiations on the faltering agreement. Diệm had scheduled an emergency cabinet meeting at 11:30 on 11 June to discuss the Buddhist crisis which he believed to be winding down. Following Đức's death, Diệm canceled the meeting and met individually with his ministers. Acting U.S. Ambassador to South Vietnam William Trueheart warned Nguyễn Đình Thuận, Diệm's Secretary of State, of the desperate need for an agreement, saying that the situation was "dangerously near breaking point" and expected Diệm would meet the Buddhists' five-point manifesto. United States Secretary of State Dean Rusk warned the Saigon embassy that the White House would publicly announce that it would no longer "associate itself" with the regime if this did not occur.[30] The Joint Communiqué and concessions to the Buddhists were signed on 16 June.[31]

15 June was set as the date for the funeral, and on that day 4,000 people gathered outside the Xá Lợi pagoda, only for the ceremony to be postponed. On 19 June, his remains were carried out of Xá Lợi to a cemetery 16 kilometers (9.9 mi) south of the city for a re-cremation and funeral ceremony. Following the signing of the Joint Communiqué, attendance was limited by agreement between Buddhist leaders and police to approximately 500 monks.[31]

Intact heart and symbolism[edit]

The heart relic of Quảng Đức

The body was re-cremated during the funeral, but Đức's heart remained intact and did not burn.[3] It was considered to be holy and placed in a glass chalice at Xá Lợi Pagoda.[4] The intact heart relic[3] is regarded as a symbol of compassion. Đức has subsequently been revered by Vietnamese Buddhists as a bodhisattva (Bồ Tát), and accordingly is often referred to in Vietnamese as Bồ Tát Thích Quảng Đức.[6][32] On 21 August, the ARVN Special Forces of Nhu attacked Xá Lợi and other Buddhist pagodas across Vietnam. The secret police intended to confiscate Đức's ashes, but two monks had escaped with the urn, jumping over the back fence and finding safety at the U.S. Operations Mission next door.[33] Nhu's men managed to confiscate Đức's charred heart.[34]

The location chosen for the self-immolation, in front of the Cambodian embassy, raised questions as to whether it was coincidence or a symbolic choice. Trueheart and embassy official Charles Flowerree felt that the location was selected to show solidarity with the Cambodian government of Prince Norodom Sihanouk. South Vietnam and Cambodia had strained relations: in a speech on 22 May, Sihanouk had accused Diệm of mistreating Vietnamese and ethnic minority Khmer Buddhists. The pro-Diệm Times of Vietnam published an article on 9 June which claimed that Cambodian monks had been encouraging the Buddhist crisis, asserting it was part of a Cambodian plot to extend its neutralist foreign policy into South Vietnam. Flowerree noted that Diệm was "ready and eager to see a fine Cambodian hand in all the organized Buddhist actions".[35]

Diệm reaction[edit]

Ngo Dinh Diem


The Army of the Republic of Vietnam responded to the appeal, putting on a show of solidarity behind Diệm to isolate dissident officers. Thirty high-ranking officers headed by General Lê Văn Tỵ declared their resolve to carry out all missions entrusted to the army for the defense of the constitution and the Republic. The declaration was a veneer which masked a developing plot to oust Diệm.[36] Some of the signatories were to become personally involved in Diệm's overthrow and death in November. Generals Dương Văn Minh and Trần Văn Đôn, the presidential military advisor and the chief of the army who were to lead the coup, were overseas.[36]

Madame Nhu, a Catholic convert from Buddhism and the wife of Diệm's younger brother and chief adviser Ngô Đình Nhu, who was regarded as the First Lady of South Vietnam at the time (as Diệm was a bachelor), said she would "clap hands at seeing another monk barbecue show".[37] Later that month, Diệm's government charged that Đức had been drugged before being forced to commit suicide.[38] The regime also accused Browne of bribing Đức to burn himself.[39]

Political and media impact[edit]


Historian Seth Jacobs asserted that Đức had "reduced America's Diệm experiment to ashes as well" and that "no amount of pleading could retrieve Diệm's reputation" once Browne's images had become ingrained into the psyche of the world public.[41] Ellen Hammer described the event as having "evoked dark images of persecution and horror corresponding to a profoundly Asian reality that passed the understanding of Westerners."[42] John Mecklin, an official from the U.S. embassy, noted that the photograph "had a shock effect of incalculable value to the Buddhist cause, becoming a symbol of the state of things in Vietnam."[40] William Colby, then chief of the Central Intelligence Agency's Far East Division, opined that Diệm "handled the Buddhist crisis fairly badly and allowed it to grow. But I really don't think there was much they could have done about it once that bonze burned himself."[40]

Rage Against the Machine album cover.


In Europe, the photographs were sold on the streets as postcards during the 1960s, and communist China distributed millions of copies of the photograph throughout Asia and Africa as evidence of what it called "US imperialism".[39] One of Browne's photographs remains affixed to the sedan in which Đức was riding and is part of a tourist attraction in Huế.[39] For Browne and the Associated Press (AP), the pictures were a marketing success. Ray Herndon, the United Press International (UPI) correspondent who had forgotten to take his camera on the day, was harshly criticized in private by his employer. UPI estimated that 5,000 readers in Sydney, then a city of around 1.5–2 million, had switched to AP news sources.[43]


Browne's award-winning photograph of Đức's death has been reproduced in popular media for decades, and the incident has been used as a touchstone reference in many films and television programs.

A still photograph of Đức's self-immolation taken by Browne was used for the cover of American rap metal band Rage Against the Machine's debut album which came out in 1992, as well as the cover of their single "Killing in the Name".

Precedents and influence[edit]


statue in a small park
The Venerable Thich Quảng Đức Monument at the intersection where Quảng Đức performed his self-immolation, Phan Đình Phùng (now Nguyễn Đình Chiểu) Street and Lê Văn Duyệt (now Cach Mạng Thang Tam) Street (10°46′31″N 106°41′13″E﻿ / ﻿10.775159°N 106.686864°E﻿ / 10.775159; 106.686864)

After Đức, five more Buddhist monks self-immolated up until late October 1963 as the Buddhist protests in Vietnam escalated.[46] On 1 November, the Army of the Republic of Vietnam overthrew Diệm in a coup. Diệm and Nhu were assassinated the next day.[47] Monks have followed Đức's example since for other reasons.[48]


In an apparently non-political case of imitation of Quảng Đức, the young son of an American officer based at the U.S. Embassy in Saigon doused himself with gasoline and set himself on fire. He was seriously burned before the fire was extinguished and later could only offer the explanation that "I wanted to see what it was like."[50]

See also[edit]



• b)^ In the satellite image (10°46′31″N 106°41′13″E﻿ / ﻿10.775159°N 106.686864°E﻿ / 10.775159; 106.686864) of the Saigon intersection where Quảng Đức performed his self-immolation, Phan Đình Phùng (now Nguyễn Đình Chiểu) Street runs NE-SW and Lê Văn Duyệt (now Cách Mạng Tháng Tám) Street runs NW–SE. On the western corner of the intersection stands a memorial to Quảng Đức. For many years a Petrolimex fuel station stood on the northern corner, but this was replaced with a memorial park for Quảng Đức.


  1. ^ "Monk Suicide by Fire in Anti-Diem Protest," New York Times, 11 June 1963, 6.; David Halberstam, "Diem Asks Peace in Religion Crisis," New York Times 12 June 1963. 3.; Marilyn B. Young, The Vietnam Wars: 1945-1990, New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1990. 95-96.
  2. ^ Zi Jun Toong, "Overthrown by the Press: The US Media's Role in the Fall of Diem," Australasian Journal of American Studies 27 (July 2008), 56-72.
  3. ^ a b c d e Karnow 1997, p. 297
  4. ^ a b Jacobs 2006, p. 148
  6. ^ a b c d Thích Nguyên Tạng 2005.
  10. ^ Unattributed 1963a
  12. ^ Ellsberg 1963, pp. 729–733
  13. ^ Tucker 2000, p. 291
  15. ^ Harrison 1963b, p. 9
  16. ^ Warner 1963, p. 210
  17. ^ Fall 1963, p. 199
  18. ^ Buttinger 1967, p. 993.
  19. ^ Karnow 1997, p. 294
  20. ^ a b Jacobs 2006, p. 91
  21. ^ Buttinger 1967, p. 933.
  22. ^ Harrison 1963a, pp. 5–6
  23. ^ Jacobs 2006, pp. 140–50
  24. ^ Shaw, Geoffrey (2015). The Lost Mandate of Heaven: The American Betrayal of Ngo Dinh Diem, President of Vietnam. San Francisco, California, USA: Ignatius Press. p. 216. ISBN 978-1-58617-935-9. 
  25. ^ Browne 1963
  26. ^ a b c d e Jacobs 2006, p. 147
  27. ^ Jones 2003, p. 268
  28. ^ Halberstam 1965, p. 211
  29. ^ a b Jones 2003, p. 270
  30. ^ Jones 2003, p. 272.
  31. ^ a b Hammer 1987, p. 149.
  32. ^ Huỳnh Minh 2006, p. 266
  33. ^ Jones 2003, pp. 307–308
  34. ^ Unattributed 1963b
  35. ^ Jones 2003, p. 271.
  36. ^ a b Hammer 1987, p. 147
  37. ^ Langguth 2002, p. 216
  38. ^ Jones 2003, p. 284
  39. ^ a b c Prochnau 1995, p. 309.
  40. ^ a b c Jones 2003, p. 269
  41. ^ a b Jacobs 2006, p. 149
  42. ^ a b Hammer 1987, p. 145
  43. ^ Prochnau 1995, p. 316
  44. ^ a b Prochnau 1995, p. 320
  45. ^ Hammer 1987, p. 146
  46. ^ Jacobs 2006, pp. 152, 168, 171.
  47. ^ Jacobs 2006, pp. 173–180
  48. ^ Hammer 1987, p. 318
  49. ^ Zinn 2003, p. 486.
  50. ^ Prochnau 1995, p. 310


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