The Burning Monk, Malcolm Browne, 1963

The Burning Monk, Malcolm Browne, 1963

In June 1963, Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc burned himself to death at a busy intersection in Saigon to show that, to fight all forms of oppression on equal terms, Buddhism needed martyrs. The act became a sign of the volatility of his nation. Captured by AP photographer Malcolm Browne, the image became an iconic visual of the turbulent 1960s, earning him a Pulitzer Prize.