How does Japanese monk self-mummify?

Ancient Japanese monks used to self-mummify themselves through harsh cultivation and eating regimes.

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Over 1000 years ago, a Japanese monk named Kukai mummified himself in a temple on Mount Koya, Wakayama Prefecture. According to Epoch Times, the Sokushinbutsu mummy ritual will lead to death and complete body preservation.

Kukai (774-835) is a monk, civil servant, scholar, poet, and artist, and the founder of the Shingon esoteric sect (combining elements from Buddhism, Tao Shinto and Taoism). , and many other religions).

At the end of his life, Kukai went into deep meditation, not using food and water, leading to a voluntary death. Kukai is buried on Mount Koya in Wakayama Prefecture. After excavation, experts discovered the monk's body was like a sleeping person, his skin was unchanged and his hair grew longer.

Many monks have the ability to self-mummify their bodies.(Photo: Wolfgang Michel / Wikimedia Commons)

Since that time, the Sokushinbutsu mummy ritual began to grow. Some followers of the Shingon sect self-mummified, but did not consider it a suicide act but a form of enlightenment.

The self-mummification process goes through many strict and painful steps. In the first 1000 days, they had a special diet consisting of seeds and fruits, carrying out many physical activities to push fat away from the body.

They only eat bark and roots in the next 1000 days and start drinking poisonous tea made of Urushi resin, causing vomiting and quickly losing body fluids, at the end of the period. The poison acts as a preservative, limiting bacteria that can break down the body.

After about six years, monks locked themselves in a stone tomb just a little bigger than their bodies and went into meditation, in the "lotus" meditation posture until they died.

The small gas pipe will supply oxygen to the tomb, while the monk will ring the bell so everyone outside knows he is still alive. When the bell is gone, the oxygen pipe will be removed and the tomb is sealed for 1000 days.

After opening the tomb and confirming the successful embalming process, the monk will be venerated as a Buddha and worship in the temple. If the body is decomposed, they will be buried again.

Hundreds of monks are believed to have embalmed themselves, but only 28 succeeded. The self-mummification method lasted until about the 19th century.