The Burning Monk 1963 Malcolm Browne Context People of the town were made aware that something important was going to happen on that day. A large group of Buddhist monks arrived at this busy street in Saigon, where one monk, Thich Quang Duc, emerged from the car that is seen in the photograph, placed a cushion on the road and assumed the traditional meditation pose. His colleagues then proceeded to pour 5 gallons of petrol over him. He recited a prayer whilst holding a string of wooden prayer beads, and thereafter struck a match and dropped it on himself. This picture was taken during the Buddhist crisis. The Buddhist crisis was an period of religious and political tension in South Vietnam from May to November in 1963. It was branded by a series of repressive acts by the South Vietnamese and a campaign of civil resistance that was led by Buddhist monks. The actual crisis was triggered because of the shooting of nine unarmed civilians who were protesting the …show more content…
The emotions felt by the people that were there that day would help to put into context how dramatic this act was and how the people actually felt about it. The sources all state that people were horrified to be watching something like this unfold, but one cannot see any evidence of this in the photograph. The photo also only gives light of one time frame, not all of the things that unfolded before and after the self-immolation of Thich Quang Duc. The Photograph is reliable in its context and the information attached to it as all of the websites that were visited say exactly the same thing in terms of facts and opinions. Malcolm Browne took more than one photo of the event. He photographed happenings before and after “The Burning Monk” was taken. This picture was the most widely recognized and evoked the most emotion out of the several that were