Source: The Charlotte Observer

http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/nation/7567339.htm

On December 30, 2003 The Charlotte Observer reported, "A Vietnamese monk, who had written his final wishes on a paper scroll, doused himself with gasoline and then burned himself to death as he kneeled in front of a Buddhist statue at a temple in east Charlotte Wednesday. Followers said Thich Chan Hy, 74, committed an act of self-immolation, a form of protest that first gained worldwide attention in Vietnam. During the Vietnam War, a monk set himself on fire on a Saigon street to object to the oppression of Buddhism by the South Vietnamese government. The 1963 image became an antiwar symbol. Charlotte-Mecklenburg police and officials at Lien Hoa, the temple off The Plaza, said that Wednesday morning's incident was the first of its kind in the city."