Burning Monk Thích Quảng Đức

The Burning Monk Thích Quảng Đức The Protest for Equal Rights in Vietnam

One of the places that is a must see is the sight in which the Buddhist monks were protesting the persecution of their religion. This was one of the first viral photographs that went around the world.

The story goes….

The current ruler of Vietnam during 1963 was Ngô Đình Diệm made a policy that allowed the Catholics to have unequal rights over the other religions. Ngô Đình Diệm was secretly a roman catholic and allowed them to circumvent the laws and allowed unequal rights to the Catholics. Some of which allowed the Roman Catholics to be in more prominent governmental positions as well with faster advancements within the military. 70% to 90% of the population at the time were Buddhists. Ngô Đình Diệm once told a high ranking official that was a Buddhist descendent "Put your Catholic officers in sensitive places. They can be trusted." Ngô Đình Diệm also dedicated that the country to the Virgin Mary in 1959. Also part of the unequal religious rights included that no religious flags to be flown outside all the while the Roman Catholic flag (the white and gold) was regularly flown at public events in the south of Vietnam.

In the city of Huế on Vesak, the birthday of Gautama Buddha a recent band on flying the Buddhist flag all the while the Roman Catholic church was able fly the Vatican flag at a ceremony for the Archbishop  Ngo Dinh Thuc of Hue, Diem's elder brother. On Vesak a large group of Buddhist protestors flying the Buddhist flag marched on the government broadcasting station. Which lead to the death of nine peoples’ death.  Ngô Đình Diệm denounced the shooting stating that Viet Con for the deaths of the protestors. Buddhist protests increased for religious equality.

Thích Quảng Đức was a Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhist monk that pleaded with Ngô Đình Diệm for religious equality informed his colleagues to inform the press that tomorrow morning at the corner of Phan Đình Phùng Boulevard (now Nguyễn Đình Chiểu Street) and Lê Văn Duyệt Street (now Cách Mạng Tháng Tám Street) something important was to happen. The press did not take this notice with much importance that only a few of them showed up one of which was Malcolm Browne, the Saigon bureau chief for the Associated Press. Starting not too far away at a nearby temple 350 monks made a precession down to the street corner, where Thích Quảng Đức got out of the car and sat on a pillow in the middle of the street. Then one of his colleagues retrieved 5 gallons of gasoline out of the trunk of the car and proceeded to empty the can over Thích Quảng Đức’s head. Thích Quảng Đức sat in the lotus position while preparing for his voyage to meet Buddha. While rotating prayer beads Thích QuảngĐức recited the words Nam mô A di đà Phật ("homage to Amitābha Buddha") before striking a match and dropping it on himself.

Thích Quảng Đức’s robes and flesh burned for over ten minutes till his charred body fell over. The cries and whaling of the on lookers of monks, nuns and the local public was the only thing that could be heard. Thích Quảng Đức did not move a muscle while the flames engulfed him his arms and legs freezing into the same position that they were in. The monks could not even move Thích Quảng Đức’s arms and legs to fit him into the casket after the ordeal was finished.

The pictures that were taken made the front page around the world and had a huge impact on the continuation of the religious equal rights in Vietnam. I have included the pictures that Malcolm Browne took on June 11, 1963.

Today at the same corner there is a beautiful park that is the tribute to Thích Quảng Đức. The gardens have lotus plants at the base that arises to the spectacular statue of Thích Quảng Đức that has a circular back drop that encircles the statue from the days of persecution. 

The June 11, 1963 Photographs taken by Malcom Browne:

Those were just some of the images during this event. Today a very nice Park emerges from one of the corners in which this happened. The park is adornded with a huge bronze statue of Thích Quảng Đức. Behind is a Bronze mural guilded with the many images that symbolize that period of time. I have included a few of the new park pictures. The park is surrounded by many lotus flowers on either side of the corners of the park that will bloom year round.

Many people come here to prey at the park in front of this beautiful satute, I have included a flat picture of the mural behind Thích Quảng Đức statue, Please keep in mind that this mural is formed in a circle around the Thích Quảng Đức satatue. I have combined multiple pictures to flatten the mural to one image that can be seen all together. The mural is just as impressive as the Thích Quảng Đức statue itself. 

If your visiting Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam this is a must see place that has plenty of history of and for the people that live here. 

A few days after I had taken the above pictures, I did not realize that they were having a celebration for him and added many flower arrangements for the celebration. 

Living & Traveling Abroad

Living abroad can be a scary and fun time all at the same time. This blog will be some of the experiences that I have had while living overseas. I will give you both the good and the bad. There will be days that are very productive and then there are some days that it is a total learning experience. The first thing that I have come to miss is my washing machine and dryer. I have limited clothes right now and they seem to be the wrong color, black is not very effective at allowing the heat of the summer sun to go through very well. So about every other day or every day I will wash my shorts and T-shirts in the sink and then hang them up to dry in either the bathroom or the main hotel room for now. Going from South Carolina to Ho Chi Minh City is almost like just visiting the southern tip of Florida. The heat is about 80 to 88 degrees Fahrenheit with almost unbearable humidity as well. This can be very hard to get use to the heat of this each day even when you are born and raised in the south of USA. Your clothes just seem to stick to you from the sweat and does not seem to dry out till the sun goes down. The heat just seems different here than in the states but it could just be all in my head and that it is summer and I have not had a hot and humid summer in quiet some time.

The first thing that I will add to my collection of cloths is some light weight button up shirts that will allow the passage of air through. Then I will add a few shorts here and there when needed. T-shirts just seem to cling to your body and trap the heat in even more so than that of a dress like button up shirt. Since I am a larger than the native people I will have to go see a tailor to have them made for me.

Looking for an apartment has been fun too just a few places I have looked at already and can see that the living style is very different than that what I am use too. The houses here in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) are smaller than that of the states but they really are about what I am use to the actual living space that I used in the house that I did live. Most of the rooms that I have looked at are one bedroom studio type apartments. There is one place that is really nice but it would come with a roommate and she is very nice young professional expat as well. Her current roommate is going state side and I would take over and live in the master bedroom. I met with the girls and had a very nice time and they gave some great advice as well. That place has tons of potential to show off my photographs huge walls. There is a down stairs and that includes a living room/dining room/ kitchen combo. The main living space is very nice and has I would say 15 foot ceilings at least. Then then up stairs is the ceiling of the kitchen and dining room. The upstairs is not for a tall person but the lady that stays up there is not that tall anyways. The upstairs has a small library place that is nice for like a small get away from the down stairs. The master bedroom is at the back of the kitchen and has its own bathroom with a shower. The master bath has a large shower. The addition of AC and a modern touch is what this place has. Unfortunately this was not the place that I got which is okay.

The place that I did get is still nice; it is on the 5th floor of an expat building it seems so far. The place is mainly a room with a bathroom and a balcony as well. The room has all what I need in it a bed and closet, TV, Wi-Fi and good water. The balcony contains the kitchen as well which is outside the main room. I can see that is a positive here the smells and cooking stay outside and do not enter the apartment. The apartment seems quiet when I was there around 2 pm and the city traffic is not so close.

Different types of living are going to be a new experience. The living standards are different here and it is the minimalist type not so much on large places and such. The Americas seem to need and wants drive them to buying large expensive homes, that just seems to not happen there that I can see as of yet. I can see that there are some very nice places that are hidden behind gates and very nice well developed plants. I do not know if these are hotels or single residences yet but only time will tell.

I will move into a temp apartment tomorrow that is in the same building just on a lower floor. The temp apartment will not be as nice as the one that I have rented but for a few days it will do very nicely. It is at least cheaper than the hotels that I have been staying at for now.

There are tons of hotels here in HCMC the two that I have stayed at are the Ramana Siagon Hotel in District 3 and the Beautiful Siagon 3 Hotel in District 1. Each place has its advantages and disadvantages. The Ramana had a very nice place with a free breakfast if you had the right room which I did not so I had to pay for breakfast each morning. The breakfast there was abundant and had both Asian and Western food to eat. The price on the breakfast was a bit pricy but if you ate enough to fill up for lunch as well then it was reasonable. This is what I did since I did not know a lot about the area still. The dinners were very simple still crackers and cheese and water from the convenient store. The Wi-Fi at the Ramana was very good enough to download a few movies since the TV is limited on the English speaking stations here in HCMC.

The Beautiful Siagon 3 is in District 1 about 2 Km from the Ramana. A few of the differences in the two are that the Beautiful Saigon 3 is on an alley not on the main street like the Ramana. The Beautiful Siagon 3 hotel upgraded my room free of charge which not that bad of a room with a view of the Alleyway. The breakfast here at the Beautiful Siagon 3 is free with the room and is downstairs a little below the street level. The breakfast here is Al–A-Cart and the selection is not too bad a little bit for everybody. So far here at Beautiful Siagon 3 I have had Phở (is a Vietnamese noodle soup consisting of broth, linguine-shaped rice noodles called bánh phở, a few herbs, and meat, primarily served with either beef, chicken, or pork.) This soup is very good here and is a little bit different at each place you eat. The cost of the Phở was cheap around $2 USD with tip. Then one night I had some great chicken curry Indian style. There seems to be three styles to this Thai, Vietnamese and Indian. Both the Thai and Indian styles are spicy and the Vietnamese is not.

Eating off the main street seems to be the way to save a little money and still eat good food. Yes, some of the places that you see are not up to the USA standards of cleanliness but this is Vietnam not the USA. My suggestion is that you try and stay away from the street vendors and eat at normal sit down restaurants. If you are eating Phở then the street vendors can be okay to grab from since it is made with boiling water and the meat is sliced thin and it is cooked almost immediately when placed in the boiling water.

One of the sure things you will come across while staying in HCMC is the individual street sales people. These can be very persistent type of people. Normally they are selling nick nacks, bracelets, fans (by the way can be a good buy for the first sales person.) Then there are the guys that sell sun glasses and different type of lighters. The nick nacks tend to be on the high side of the marketable items and can be brought down if you haggle with them long enough. The haggling with them seems to make it worth the effort and it seems that some of them kind of like the haggling process. I think a few are just looking for the easy mark that pays the first suggested price that the sales person asks.

The sun glasses I don’t know if they are what they say they are ie Raybans, Oakly, and other name brands. They even then claim that the sun glasses are polarized and look to be that they have the film on the glasses but I don’t think this is so. For the price that they are selling them at I can’t see that they are even good fakes but the process of polarizing has to cost more than a single $1 USD. Yes, you read that right they are selling the glasses for a Single buck (21,000 dong.) I could be totally wrong on this but when things that seem too good that they normally are. You do need a pair of good polarized sun glasses here in Vietnam. The sun is very harsh during the middle of the day that most people hunker down in some type of shade where ever they can find some.

A down side here in HCMC is that the number of TV stations that are in English. Well I know that I am even lucky that there are at least a few stations that are even in English. The one good thing about the channels are that these are the movie channels. HBO, Cinemax, and Stars Movies are the main English channels here that I watch. There is Disney, The Cartoon Network and a few news stations and sports stations as well. Mainly I watch the movie channels.