Aug. 15, 1963 - A 71-year-old monk burned himself to death in Hue’s biggest pagoda early today, the second Buddhist protest suicide in 24 hours in South Vietnam. A middle-aged Buddhist nun took her life by self-immolation yesterday in Ninh Hoa, a coastal town south of Hue. The nun, Dieu Hien, was the first time a woman had committed suicide in this manner in the current protest campaign. The monk who died today was identified as Tieu Dieu. His fiery suicide was apparently organized by the Buddhist hierarchy was was similar to the suicide of monk Quang Duc — the first of the burnings. Tieu Dieu was the fifth person to burn to death in the mounting Buddhist campaign against the South Vietnamese Government of President Ngo Dinh Diem, a Catholic. A sixth Buddhist ended his life by taking poison. Tieu Dieu’s self-immolation in the courtyard of the Tu Dam Pagoda brought immediate martial law to Hue, which is 400 miles north of Saigon and is the ancient capital of Vietnam. Soon after the aged monk’s suicide, which took place around 4 a.m., several hundred Government troops (pictured) ringed the Tu Dam Pagoda, but did not try to enter. The charred body of the monk was held by Buddhists inside the pagoda. The burnings are an effort to focus world attention on Buddhist demands for civil rights that the Buddhists allege President Diem’s Government denies them.
