Participants in the event included dignitaries from the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha’s (VBS) Central Committee and its HCM City Chapter as well as numerous Buddhist monks, nuns and followers.

Addressing the event, the Most Venerable Thich Tri Quang, the Vice Chairman of the VBS Central Committee’s Executive Board and Head of the HCM City Chapter’s Executive Board, stressed that Bodhisattva Thich Quang Duc’s self-sacrifice was to keep the religion alive and ensure people’s happiness and the nation’s peace.

The VBS called on all Buddhist monks, nuns and followers to contribute to national development, helping maintain peace and national independence.

Bodhisattva Thich Quang Duc, whose real name was Lam Van Tuc, was born in 1897 in the central province of Khanh Hoa. At the age of 15, he took the samanera (a novices vows) and was ordained as a monk at the age of 20 under the dharma name Thich Quang Duc. In 1963, he was appointed Chairman of the Panel on the Ceremonial Rites of the Congregation of Vietnamese Monks.

On June 11, 1963, at the junction of Phan Dinh Phung street and Le Van Duyet Street in central Saigon (now Nguyen Dinh Chieu Street and Cach Mang Thang Tam Street), Thich Quang Duc burned himself to death in protest at the persecution of Buddhists by South Vietnam’s Ngo Dinh Diem puppet administration.

VNA