I visited this famous Vietnam War photo site; this is what I learned
The famous Vietnam War era photograph of the Burning Monk.
The Burning Monk.
One of the most iconic images of the Vietnam War.
I visited that very intersection in Ho Chi Minh City sixty years later.
Living in Vietnam
From 2018-2023, I first came to Vietnam as a digital nomad working on online businesses and, later, worked the last few years in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) in sourcing and manufacturing.
Though I grew up in America as a child of Vietnamese immigrants, I didn’t fully understand my heritage nor of the Vietnam War.
Like everyone else, I would see snippets of the war photographs in Time and National Geographic magazine as well as learn about certain Vietnam War events as newscasts flashed old footage every time April 30, the anniversary of the fall of Saigon, came around.
One image that always stood in my mind was the image of a burning monk, in a lotus position and completely at peace, as he went up in flames.
There was an antique car in the background.
The monk’s facial expression of tolerating the unbearable heat and pain, and later, his charred body knocked to the ground, left a profound memory.
What was the story about?
The Burning Monk
The man is Thich Quang Duc, a Mahayana Buddhist monk who was protesting the mistreatment of Buddhists by South Vietnamese president, Ngo Dinh Diem, a staunch Catholic.
During the 1960s, as Diem came to power, together with his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu, ruled South Vietnam with cruelty, corruption, and nepotism.
Diem would fill his cabinet and military generals with loyal Catholics who would reign terror on the majority Buddhist population.
Fed up with how their people were being mistreated, the Buddhists started to protest in the streets.
The event
On June 11, 1963, led by an Austin Westminster sedan 350 monks, dressed in robes, walked in procession to a busy intersection in downtown Saigon.
Two monks opened the car doors where Thich Quang Duc appeared, while the other monk put a cushion on the ground.
As Thich sat on the pillow, the one monk took out a five-gallon tank from the car and doused him with jet fuel.
Sitting in the common meditative lotus position, Thich struck a match and lit his fuel-drenched body.
He quickly went up in flames.
The photograph
The day before, on rumors that “something big” was going to happen south of the Cambodian embassy, Saigon bureau chief Associated Press Malcome Browne came prepared with his camera.
Thich’s self-immolation sent shockwaves around the world and put US pressure on the Diem regime to implement the Buddhist’s five-point manifesto.
Referring to the photo, US President John F. Kennedy was reported to have said, "No news picture in history has generated so much emotion around the world as that one."
Browne’s photograph, Burning Monk, won the 1963 World Press Photo of the Year.
The plan
After coming across Tim Doling’s book, History of Saigon, I learned about the details of the November 11, 1963 event. I wrote down the exact address and made preparations to see the site.
The act occurred at the intersection of present-day Nguyen Dinh Chieu and Cach Mang Thang Tam Street, a busy crossroad not far from the Ho Chi Minh City city-center.
Scanning Google Maps, from my apartment it looked to be about a 10 minute motorbike ride to the location.
What I saw that day
Along the way, the neighborhood is made up of a collection of commercial storefronts, apartments, restaurants and cafes.
As the Grab driver dropped me off at the corner intersection, a sea of moto scooters constantly whizzed by.
On one corner of the intersection, my eye caught a tall, pagoda-like statue decorated with a front gate.
In the History of Saigon, Doling describes this as the old Thich Quang Duc memorial.
Right across the busy road lies the modern memorial portraying Thich Quang Duc, just like in the famous photo, in a lotus position made out of an oversized and heavy looking bronze statue.
Flames are swirling around him.
Small trees and plants are neatly laid out on the steps leading up the statue, surrounding and protecting him from Ho Chi Minh City’s notorious traffic noise.
As cars and moto scooters passed by on both sides of the city block memorial, I stared at the statue trying to make sense of the events that occurred sixty years before.
Reflection
The Burning Monk came to symbolize the chaoticness and cruelty of an unjust war, questioning the US’s involvement in Vietnam.
Just like Thich Quang Duc’s match, the image revealed the injustices and everything wrong with the Vietnam War and was the catalyst for the anti-war movement, bringing an end to the war.
I am grateful to have visited the very site where history was made.
Wikipedia: Thich Quang Duc.
History of Saigon-Cho Lon by Tim Doling.
