An Quang Pagoda

The An Quang Pagoda in District 10 of Ho Chi Minh City has been a major centre of Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhism since 1948 and houses the Institute of Dharma Propagation. During the early 1960s under President Diem, the pagoda became the nerve centre of Buddhist resistance against the Catholic government's persecution – monks here organised the protests that culminated in Thich Quang Duc's globally televised self-immolation in 1963. Today visitors enter a quiet courtyard with a golden Buddha statue, drifting incense smoke and the soft chanting of resident monks. The pagoda remains a pilgrimage site on Vesak and major Buddhist holidays.