The Khmer monks revealed the secret of embalming the body

Venerable Ly Long Cong Danh, head of Cai Ban pagoda, said that he had never seen his esoteric mummification fail.

The secret of embalming the remains of Khmer monks

The temples of Khmer people in Go Quao and Kien Giang districts still retain the custom of embalming monks' corpses . This is a way of expressing the respect of the disciples with the deceased. They did not use chemicals , nor did they take care during the process of keeping the body , but the bodies of the monks were still intact, not decomposed. The chronology of each mummy can be several tens, even several hundred years.

The special thing, not only the mummy's shape is kept intact but the internal organs are still preserved absolutely , 'just like a new person died yesterday'.

Intact mummy to '8 parts'

According to Venerable Ly Long Danh Cong - abbot of Cai Ban pagoda (Thuy Thuy commune, Go Quao district, Kien Giang province), mummification is conducted only for monks, ordinary people want to embalm or not okay, no matter what. However, not every monk was chosen to embalm.'The person chosen to embalm must be the monks of the higher monk, who have the virtue of virtue, are respected by everyone, and have many disciples handed down. However, this must also be agreed by the master. If the monk's last will is not embalming, then the disciples will not be able to do it , 'said Venerable Ly Long Cong Danh.

Venerable Ly Long Danh Cong - Abbot of Cai Ban Pagoda.

Therefore, so far, very few monks have been embalmed after being passed away. The history of Cai Ban Pagoda recorded, there were three great monks who were saved by the embalmed disciples for a long time before being taken to cremation. At some temples in Go Quao such as Ca Nhung, Rach Tia, Soc Ven, Thanh Gia ., there was also a monk who was embalmed after being passed away but no records showed that the embalming failed. All the bodies of the monks who had been marinated for a long time were still intact.

Currently, at Cai Ban pagoda, the body of Venerable Danh Doi remains in the mummified body 7 years ago . Venerable Venerable Danh's body is placed in a large coffin right in the middle of the main hall for people to worship daily.

'From the day of the impregnation, the bureaucracy for teachers so far, the status quo remains the same. His body never gave off a stench, or anything else that showed his body was decomposed. I was the one who directly participated in preparing mummification for my teacher. The coffin is made of wood that weighs up to dozens of people who cannot carry it. Although only using a dream to close the boards, they are so closed that they don't even see a single drop flowing out, the piece of cloth wrapped around the body is carefully selected because only a small mistake is a matter. embalming will fail . ', a disciple of Venerable Danh Doi affirmed.

As many times witnessed firsthand the embalmed monks, Venerable Ly Long Cong Danh affirmed that he had never seen his esoteric mummification fail. On the history of the embalming art of the monks in Go Quao district, Venerable Ly Long Cong Danh could not know when this appeared, only knowing that by the teacher's words, this work had come from the shop. hundred years ago. The Cai Ban temple that Dai Duc is presiding with has a history formed from the early years of the XXIV century, at the same time, there was a mummification for the monks.

Venerable Ly Long Cong Danh shared, with several decades of experience being passed on to the embalming technique by his master, he was repeatedly invited to go around for the abbots to go to the temple, then when the ceremony was held. They cremated and invited him to come directly to the last rites before putting them in the crematorium.'Only in March 2014, I directly bathed Venerable Hieng Sep - the elder of Soc Ven Pagoda. After nearly 30 years of mummification, his body was still intact, at the time of opening, there was a fragrant smell in his coat, his body was absolutely odorless , 'Venerable Ly Long Cong Danh said.

This great virtue also adds that the entire internal organ of Venerable Hieng Sep is still intact. Not only that, the outer skin of the Venerable still retains the same nuance similar to the original, nails or hair has long expression compared to the time of death. Venerable said: 'How the tortoise spots on the face of Venerable Hieng Sep when I lived, when I opened it on the skin, there were also streaks like that, not blurred or covered. Moles are still there without disappearing. Each nail, toenail or hair is still intact without being destroyed. The abdomen, the cheek, just closed, and the eyes closed as if sleeping. In comparison, it can be said that the Venerable body can live 10 parts, after nearly 30 years of embalming, the body of the Venerable is still 8 parts'.

After a period of embalming, most of the monks in Go Quao and Kien Giang districts were taken to cremation by disciples , then put ashes in a jar, bringing them to the stupa in the temple to worship separately to show their sincerity. glasses. Every time a monk was brought to cremation, the air was as crowded as the festival. Buddhist monks and Buddhists everywhere seek to pray for up to several thousand people. The ceremony lasts 3 days and 3 nights in a row, packed inside and out. The most important ritual in this ceremony was the last time he took the body of the monk to take a bath and brought it into the pre-designed holocaust in the temple.

Venerable Ly Long Cong Danh said: 'Not everyone can directly open the casket to bring the body of the monk to bathe. Only 3 people were chosen, it was a prestigious monk in the church, the one who directly carried the funeral for the monk in the past and finally a close disciple of the monk when he was still alive. All three people must agree, agree to perform each movement gently, carefully and responsibly, because only a small negligence can harm the monk's body - this is what dark.

Each layer of cloth on the person must be carefully removed, especially the last cloth attached to the skin, the unloader must be very skillful, because the cloth can stick to the skin, if not careful The kidneys will follow the skin. The period of taking water to bathe the body was finally extremely difficult, to use the hand to wash the body with water and to absolutely not use the cloth or anything to rub it on. After washing, use a soft, dry cloth to absorb each place on the body so that the water can be absorbed. The body will be clean and will wear a monk's robes for the mummy and then put it in another vest, then bring it to the furnace to burn it . '

Revealing the secret of ' one of a kind'

The Venerable also shared that: 'The way of being' I learned 'said nothing about taking organs inside the body. Everything remains the same to carry out mummification, but after spending decades, the internal organs still do not decompose. It just shrunk, dry and clung to the bone. This is also the difference, strange that I can not explain. Our approach is much simpler than some mummification methods in the world that I know, but the level of effectiveness is not as much as if not more than many places. It may be because everyday monks who are vegetarian and recite the Buddha's mind, keep their mind calm, their bodies are difficult to dissipate. Wrapping a tight cloth does not allow air to enter can also be part of the cause, but to know exactly, scientists need specific research. '

According to Venerable Ly Long Cong Danh, every monk who was "devoured" by a disciple also experienced the rituals of conducting ceremonies like many others. Only thing, before impregnating the mind, this monk's body will be bathed with clean water, then proceed to 'steaming '. Here, steaming must be done with special steam. Take the burned incense burner to the side of the burning candle, then take the brass (pot) upside down. For a certain period of time, when the brass was hot, people would flip it up, pouring water into it. The heat of the brass when it comes to water creates smoke and steam. They took that smoke and steam to storm the body, like that, until the whole body had smoke and it made the skin turn new.

Next, use tea and coffee to scrub all over your body . Each mummification depends on the size of each body, it requires 20 - 40kg of green tea and 20-40kg of coffee. This is a difficult step because the person must rub hard and evenly, so that tea and coffee are sticking all over the body. Everything is finished, taken from 150 - 200m cloth wrapped all over the body (in the past, people used curtain cloth, nowadays often use raw cloth or sewing clothes for monks). Wrapping the fabric must ensure that it is tight, evenly throughout the body, each round must hold tightly to each other without gaps, so that the air does not penetrate.

The final step is to use tight rubber bands on the outside . These rubber bands do not need to tighten like a cloth when wrapped without just tightening to ensure a tightness throughout the body. Everything is complete, the stage of "burial" - embalming - also ends, the disciples can fully rest assured recite, put his master in the coffin to close, save on the ocean for a while long without fear of decomposition. 'Although mummification is simple, it must be done with caution because only a small mistake can lead to failure. Teacher said that every step must be done carefully, the mind of a mind for the deceased and the thousands of living people praying outside. Before conducting a mummification for a certain monk, I had to cut all my 10 fingernails in order to do it, the nail tips were not brushed against the body, cloth, rubber, but created a hole that made the air If you fall in, it will fail .

In addition, the wood material used for the coffin for the monks to be embalmed does not require a great deal . If it is a kind of jade wood, it is good, if not, whatever it is, usually the pagodas in Go Quao district - Kien Giang use the wood to make incense to make a coffin. Only thing, the making of clothes for monks who are embalmed also has its own rules, the faces of the mandarins must be a unified body, not patched. The link between the city, above, below . of the coat absolutely must not use chemical materials or any other type but only made of the dream of the wood made on the shirt, so that when fitted together, the intersection points must be so tight that even pouring water does not leak a single drop that qualifies. Each shirt like that, the monks have to do the whole week to complete.

The only difference is that the coffin is designed with a ventilation tube that places a 'chicken gut' from inside to outside to release air . Explaining for this, Venerable Ly Long Cong Danh said: 'People who go away from their bodies often give off gases, most of which are poisonous gases. If this toxic gas is caught in a coffin that cannot be released, it will affect the body, so it is necessary to make the catheter for air to flow out. There are two ways to make a catheter, the first is to raise the catheter to the sky, the second is to make the catheter slide down to the ground '.

The Cultural Office of Go Quao District - Kien Giang also noted that there have been dozens of monks in the area who have been embalmed for a while before being taken to cremation . At first, fearing that this affected environmental issues, some scientific delegations also came to learn, however, absolutely did not see any signs that the mummy had bad impacts on the environment. . Because this is a beautiful symbolic act for teacher-student love, people are also supported and follow a very strict process, so it can be considered as a special culture of the region, should be told there are plans.