Editing U Thant (section)

== Death and legacy ==
{{See also | U Thant funeral crisis}}
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 |quote  = U Thant has put the world deeply in his debt.
 |source = —John F. Kennedy, October 1962{{Sfn|Dorn & Pauk|2009|p=261}}
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Thant died of lung cancer at the [[NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital]] in New York on 25 November 1974.<ref name="NYTObit" /> By then, Burma was ruled by a [[military junta]], which refused him any honours. Burmese president [[Ne Win]] was supposedly envious of Thant's international stature and the respect that was accorded him by the Burmese populace. 

However, Thant's grandson, [[Thant Myint-U]], wrote in the book ''The River of Lost Footsteps: Histories of Burma'' that intense animosity between Thant and Ne Win went back only to 1969, when Ne Win believed Thant was conniving with Nu after Nu denounced Ne Win at a press corps meeting at the UN headquarters. Ne Win told his men to consider Thant as an enemy of the state, despite Thant denouncing Nu's action as inappropriate.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Thant Myint-U |title=The River of Lost Footsteps: Histories of Burma |date=2006 |publisher=[[Farrar, Straus and Giroux]] |pages=311}}</ref>

Ne ordered for Thant to be buried without any official involvement or ceremony.

[[File:Tomb of U Thant.jpg|thumb|left|[[Kandawmin Garden Mausolea|Thant's tomb]], Shwedagon Pagoda Road, Rangoon]]
From the United Nations headquarters in New York where he was laid in state, Thant's body was flown back to [[Rangoon]], but no guard of honour or high-ranking officials were on hand at the airport when the coffin arrived except for U Aung Tun, deputy minister of education, who was subsequently dismissed from office.<ref>''Asian almanac, Volume 13.'' (1975). s.n. p. 6809.</ref> On the day of Thant's funeral on 5 December 1974, tens of thousands of people lined the streets of Rangoon to pay their last respects. Thant's coffin was displayed at Rangoon's Kyaikasan race course for a few hours before the scheduled burial. The coffin of Thant was then snatched by a group of students just before it was scheduled to leave for burial in an ordinary Rangoon cemetery at [[Kyandaw Cemetery|Kyandaw]]. The student demonstrators buried Thant on the former grounds of the Rangoon University Students Union (RUSU), which Ne Win had dynamited and [[1962 Rangoon University Protests|destroyed on 8 July 1962.]]<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/dec/06/guardianobituaries |location=London |work=[[The Guardian]] |first=Martin |last=Smith |title=General Ne Win |date=6 December 2002 |access-date=18 December 2016 |archive-date=18 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170118073618/https://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/dec/06/guardianobituaries |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[U Thant Funeral Crisis|During the period of 5–11 December]], the student demonstrators also built a temporary mausoleum for Thant on the grounds of the RUSU and gave anti-government speeches. In early morning on 12 December 1974, government troops stormed the campus, killed some of the students guarding the makeshift mausoleum, removed Thant's coffin, and reburied it in [[Kandawmin Garden Mausolea]] near the [[Shwedagon Pagoda]], where it has continued to lie.<ref name=at>Soe-win, Henry (17 June 2008). [http://www.asiantribune.com/?q=node/11810 Peace Eludes U Thant] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180318120939/http://www.asiantribune.com/?q=node%2F11810 |date=18 March 2018 }}. ''[[Asian Tribune]]''.</ref> Upon hearing of the storming of the [[Rangoon University]] campus and the forcible removal of Thant's coffin, many people rioted in the streets of Rangoon. [[Martial law]] was declared in Rangoon and the surrounding metropolitan areas. What has come to be known as the U Thant crisis, the student-led protests over the shabby treatment of Thant by the Ne Win government, was crushed by the Burmese government.<ref name=at/>

In April 2012, UN Secretary-General [[Ban Ki-moon]] paid his respects at U Thant's mausoleum during a visit to Yangon.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/un_photo/48317811397/ | title=SG Travel | date=29 April 2012 }}</ref>

U Thant is held in esteem in [[Malaysia]], as he helped to endorse the formation of the country in 1963.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://cilisos.my/the-real-reason-malaysia-day-is-16-days-after-merdeka-day-is-cos-of-the-un/ | title=Malaysia Day was supposed to be the same day as Merdeka. But the UN delayed it. Why? | date=16 September 2022|access-date=3 April 2024|author=Kyle Iman|work=Cili Sos}}</ref> A niche, prime neighbourhood in [[Kuala Lumpur]], [[Taman U-Thant]] is developed in 1960s is named after him.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://theedgemalaysia.com/article/streetscapes-niche-prime-neighbourhood-taman-uthant | title=Streetscapes: Niche, prime neighbourhood of Taman U-Thant | date=19 July 2021|access-date=3 April 2024|author=Chung Ying Yi|work=The Edge Malaysia}}</ref>