Stories about "self-immolation"
Nguyen wins grant to study monk symbolic of Vietnam War era

Wednesday, April 21, 2010 4:27 pm

In June 1963, in Saigon, Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc set himself on fire to protest the government's discrimination against the nation's Buddhist majority. This horrific act launched a series of events resulting in the fall of the Ngo Dinh Diem regime, and Thich Quang Duc's self-immolation came to symbolize America's unpopular involvement in Vietnam. Trian Nguyen, who teaches art and Asian studies at Bates, has received a fellowship for his research into this iconic figure.