Rough Guide to Vietnam - Jan Dodd [64]
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Ho Chi Minh City and around | The City | Ben Thanh Market and around |
The self-immolation of Thich Quang Duc
In the early morning of June 11, 1963, a column of Buddhist monks left the Xa Loi Pagoda and processed to the intersection of Cach Mang Thang Tam and Nguyen Dinh Chieu. There, Thich Quang Duc, a 66-year-old monk from Hué, sat down in the lotus position and meditated as fellow monks doused him in petrol, and then set light to him in protest at the repression of Buddhists by President Diem, who was a Catholic. As flames engulfed the impassive monk and passers-by prostrated themselves before him, the cameras of the Western press corps rolled, and by the next morning the grisly event had grabbed the world’s headlines. More self-immolations followed, and Diem’s heavy-handed responses at Xa Loi – some four hundred monks and nuns were arrested and others cast from the top of the tower – led to massed popular demonstrations against the government. Diem, it was clear, had become a liability. On November 2, he and his brother were assassinated after taking refuge in Cho Lon’s Cha Tam Church (see "Binh Tay Market and around"), the victims of a military coup.
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Ho Chi Minh City and around | The City | Ben Thanh Market and around |
South of Ben Thanh
A short stroll from Ben Thanh Market down Pho Duc Chinh, in a grand colonial mansion, Ho Chi Minh City’s Fine Art Museum (Tues–Sun 9am–5pm; 10,000đ) is worth a visit to view some of the country’s best Cham and Oc Eo relics on the third floor. The first floor hosts temporary exhibitions, while the courtyard out back is given over to commerce in the form of art works on sale by various city galleries. If you’re in the market for a piece of Vietnamese art, it’s worth checking these places out as standards are high and some prices are affordable. Revolutionary art dominates the second floor, relying heavily on hackneyed images of soldiers, war zones and Uncle Ho, though a few offerings capture the anguish and turmoil of the conflicts. Things get better on the third floor where there’s an impressive collection of Oc Eo and Cham statues, gilt Buddhas and other antiquities.
Across the road from the museum, Le Cong Kieu is lined with antique shops selling Oriental and colonial bric-a-brac. Memorabilia reflecting Vietnam’s more recent history are available at the army surplus stalls at the back of Dan Sinh Market, behind the Phung Son Tu Pagoda on Yersin; here you can pick up khaki gear, Viet Cong pith helmets, old compasses and Zippo lighters embossed with saucy pearls of wisdom coined by GIs.
Ho Chi Minh City and around | The City |
Along Le Duan Boulevard to the Botanical Gardens
Above Notre Dame Cathedral, Le Duan Boulevard runs between the Botanical Gardens and the grounds of the Reunification Palace. Known as Norodom Boulevard to the French, who lined it with tamarind trees to imitate a Gallic thoroughfare, it soon became a residential and diplomatic enclave with a crop of fine pastel-hued colonial villas to boot. Its present name doffs a cap to Le Duan, the secretary-general of the Lao Dong, or Workers Party, from 1959. Turn northeast from the top of Dong Khoi and the sense of harmony created by Le Duan’s graceful colonial piles ends abruptly with a number of brand-new edifices.
One of these, the nondescript building that is the US Consulate, was built right on top of the site of the infamous former American Embassy, where a commemorative plaque is now the only reminder of its existence and significance in the American War. Two events immortalized the former building on this site, in operation from 1967 to 1975 and left standing half-derelict