Thích Quảng Đức
Vietnamese monks had burned themselves to death before Quảng Đức. Buddhists had been doing it for centuries to honor Gautama Buddha. In 1948, a monk in Harbin, China burned himself to death. He was protesting how Mao Zedong and Chinese communists treated Buddhists. His heart did not burn, in the same way that Quảng Đức's heart did not burn.