When Ngo Dinh Diem was named the prime minister of South Vietnam in 1954, Diem imposed many repressive policies against Buddhists since he was Catholic. Thich Quang Duc tried to alleviate these policies by pleading with Diem to grant Buddhism the same rights as Catholicism, stop the unnecessary arrests of Buddhists, allow the Buddhists monks and nuns the right to practice and spread the religion, and punish those responsible for the deaths of the people in the Buddhist community.

After these requests were ignored by the Diem regime, Thich Quang Duc began to prepare himself for his self-immolation. Eyewitnesses saw that he was surprisingly calm, while he was being burned alive. David Halberstam, a reporter for the New York Times who was covering the war in Vietnam, said,

"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."

This action taken by Thich Quang Duc was seen as a political and religious act. It called attention to the discriminatory puppet government that was backed by the United States. It was a valiant act to expose these injustices and to give oneself for the better of the community. Thich Quang Duc was a bodhisattva or "an enlightened being," which meant one on the path to awakening who vows to forego complete enlightenment until he or she helps all other beings attain enlightenment.

Photos Courtesy of Vietnam Photos