tlvx

Thích Quảng Đức, self-immolation, Saigon, South Vietnam, 11 June 1963.

Malcolm Browne’s photograph. David Halberstam on the event:

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.

i’ve been incredibly moved by this event lately. the willingness to sacrifice self for a greater cause, and to choose to no longer participate in a world that didn’t meet his criteria for freedom, are traits that aren’t understood by most, and present in very few people. while he burned, policemen, monks, nuns, and passersby prostrated themselves before him, and people claimed to see a weeping buddha’s image in the sunset. i’m amazed by the calm brutality + by the love motivating his act.