The ceremony on September 18 was attended by Le Thanh Hai, Secretary of the municipal Party Committee, Le Hoang Quan, Chairman of the HCM City People’s Committee, and representatives of Buddhist dignitaries and followers and relevant departments and sectors.

Construction of the monument, which is 6m tall and 4m in diameter, began in 2007 near the place where the monk set himself on fire at Cach Mang Thang Tam street . The monument cost VND23 billion.

Most Venerable 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 novice’s 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 to protest the persecution of Buddhists by the US-backed Ngo Dinh Diem administration.