Sokushinbutsu - voluntary mummification alive (5 photos)

It seems impossible that someone could mummify themselves. But this is exactly what Buddhist monks did in Japan from the 11th to the 19th centuries. Although the extreme process may seem crazy, adepts saw it as a way to achieve further enlightenment.





The monks deprived themselves of food and were eventually buried, while retaining signs of life. All this in pursuit of a higher state of being. Successful Sokushinbutsu monks are considered living Buddhas.



The most important physiological aspect of this process centers on diet. Japanese monks first stopped eating grains. For the first 1000 days they ate only nuts and berries, then switched to spruce needles, bark and resin. The monks washed down their diet with a poisonous decoction of the bark of the Urushi tree, which prevented the formation of bacterial colonies in the body. Some monks practiced drinking water containing arsenic. In fact, they were slowly killing themselves.

After intense fasting and meditation, the monks retired to a small tomb or chamber not much larger than their own bodies. The coffin was filled with charcoal and a bamboo rod was inserted into it to allow the monk to breathe.



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Sitting in the lotus position, the monk continued to meditate, ringing the bell to show others that he was still alive. Once the ringing stopped, it was assumed that the monk had died. The tomb was sealed and the corpse was left underground for another 1000 days.

At the end of the term, the monk was dug up. Often the body turned out to be rotting. In these cases, the monk's remains were unsuitable for veneration. The remains were exorcized and reburied. Thousands of days of terrible suffering and meditation would have been in vain.

If mummification was successful, the body was recognized as a relic. Mummified monks were considered Buddhas, so they were dressed in robes and placed in temples for viewing. Although it was impossible to preserve the eyes of mummies, it is believed that sokushinbutsu can look into the souls of the living and see right through a person.



Monks who tried to self-mummify themselves did not consider their death a suicide. They practiced sokushinbutsu to bring salvation to humanity, believing that they could protect people as long as their mummified bodies bound them to the Earth. Sokushinbutsu was eventually banned in Japan, but some of these Japanese mummy monks survive to this day. The remains of the monks are the highest reflection of a life of self-denial.