6. Buddhist Monk’s Protest
via blogspot.com
Not many people are willing to give their lives protesting for something they believe in. They might fight for a cause, but to willingly lay down your life for it is a very rare occurrence indeed. That, however, is precisely what Buddhist monk Quang Duc did in 1963. Duc was protesting the South Vietnamese president’s policy of religious intolerance. The president, Ngo Dinh Diem, was a Catholic who apparently had no use for Buddhism, the major religion in South Vietnam, or any other belief. He refused to stop the oppression even under pressure from his ally the U.S. Duc set himself on fire (called self-immolation) in the middle of a busy street in Saigon. Other monks would soon follow suit as the president refused to bend. In fact, Diem’s own sister called the immolations “barbecues” and offered to buy matches for the burnings. That’s the kind of people Duc was protesting. Diem himself was assassinated later that year. What a shocker.
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