[1] Since the execution of his master at the hands of the communist Việt Minh in his teenage years, Thích Quảng Độ had been involved in political activism, firstly against the anti-Buddhist policies of the Catholic President of South Vietnam Ngô Đình Diệm.
During the Vietnam War period, he also served as a university academic in Buddhism, translated sutras and wrote books, notably a nine-volume Buddhist encyclopedia, and two-volume dictionary between Vietnamese and Sino-Vietnamese.
Thích Quảng Độ was born Đặng Phúc Tuệ in Thanh Chau village[3] in Thái Bình Province in northern Vietnam,[4] and became a monk at age 14.
[6] He quoted in open letter to Communist Party Secretary-General Đỗ Mười in 1994 that "Then and there I vowed to do all that I could to combat fanaticism and intolerance and devote my life to the pursuit of justice through the Buddhist teachings of non-violence.
"[6][3] In the 1950s, Thích Quảng Độ travelled to India, Sri Lanka and other parts of Asia to further his Buddhist training and serve as an academic at various universities,[3] spending seven years abroad before returning to Saigon in South Vietnam to teach Buddhism.
[8] While a member of the leadership of the UBCV, Thích Quảng Độ became an activist, fighting against the anti-Buddhist policies of the Catholic President of South Vietnam Ngô Đình Diệm.
[3] He spent 20 months at the Phan Dang Luu Prison in solitary confinement in a cell approximately 2m2 in size with a hand-sized window,[9] before he was tried and released in December 1978.
[4] This led to condemnation by the likes of Nobel laureates the 14th Dalai Lama, José Ramos-Horta, Mairead Maguire and Francois Jacob, and the US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
[4] In October 2000, he led a delegation of monks to provide relief in An Giang Province in the Mekong Delta but they were detained by police, before being forced to return to Saigon after being accused of threatening national security.
[4] Upon succeeding Thich Huyen Quang, Thích Quảng Độ stated that 'The best way to honour our late Patriarch is by putting his words into practice in our daily lives.
[6] The exiled Vietnamese dissident blogger Điếu Cày stated that his death was 'a great loss for the UBCV as well as the movement for freedom and democracy in Vietnam.
[13] In 2006, Thích Quảng Độ was awarded the Thorolf Rafto Memorial Prize, in recognition of "personal courage and perseverance through three decades of peaceful opposition against the communist regime in Vietnam, and as a symbol for the growing democracy movement".