Buddhist mummies, also called flesh body
bodhisattva
In Buddhism, a bodhisattva is a person who has attained, or is striving towards, '' bodhi'' ('awakening', 'enlightenment') or Buddhahood. Often, the term specifically refers to a person who forgoes or delays personal nirvana or ''bodhi'' in ...
s, full body
sariras, or living buddhas (
Sokushinbutsu
is a type of Buddhist mummy. In Japan the term refers to the practice of Buddhist monks observing asceticism to the point of death and entering mummification while alive. Although mummified monks are seen in a number of Buddhist countries, espe ...
) refer to the bodies of Buddhist monks and nuns that remain incorrupt, without any traces of deliberate mummification by another party. Many were destroyed or lost to history. In 2015, the
Hungarian Natural History Museum
The Hungarian Natural History Museum () in Budapest, dating back to 1802, houses the largest natural history collections of Hungary and the region.
History of the museum
Foundation
In 1802, Count Ferenc Széchényi offered his library and h ...
exhibited a Buddhist mummy hidden inside a statue of
Buddha
Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha (),*
*
*
was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist legends, he was ...
, during its first tour outside China.
Methods
Self-mummification is a common method in China. Examples of Monks who practiced this include Tao Wing (道榮) or Yuet Kai (月溪). Some practitioners have covered their own bodies with clay or salt.
According to
Victor H. Mair
Victor Henry Mair (; born March 25, 1943) is an American Sinology, sinologist currently serving as a professor of Chinese language, Chinese at the University of Pennsylvania. Among other accomplishments, Mair has edited the standard ''Columbia His ...
in the
Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel, known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery, is an American cable channel that is best known for its ongoing reality television shows and promotion of pseudoscience.
It init ...
series ''The Mystery of the Tibetan Mummy'', the self-mummification of a Tibetan monk, who died ''ca.'' 1475 and whose body was retrieved relatively incorrupt in the 1990s, was achieved by the sophisticated practices of meditation, coupled with prolonged starvation and slow self-suffocation using a special belt that connected the neck with his knees in a lotus position.
Some
Shingon monks in Japan practiced
Sokushinbutsu
is a type of Buddhist mummy. In Japan the term refers to the practice of Buddhist monks observing asceticism to the point of death and entering mummification while alive. Although mummified monks are seen in a number of Buddhist countries, espe ...
(即身仏), which
caused their own death by adhering to a wood-eating diet consisting of salt, nuts, seeds, roots, pine bark, and
urushi
''Toxicodendron vernicifluum'' (formerly ''Rhus verniciflua''), also known by the common name Chinese lacquer tree, is an Asian tree species of genus '' Toxicodendron'' native to China and the Indian subcontinent, and cultivated in regions o ...
tea. They were then buried alive in a pine-wood box with the only opening being a tube for air, meditating in lotus position and occasionally ringing a bell to signal they were alive. When the bell stopped ringing, the box would be dug up and treated as a
buddha
Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha (),*
*
*
was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist legends, he was ...
, granting favor provided it was preserved.
Japan banned unburying in 1879, and assisted suicide—including religious suicide—is now illegal.
See also
*
Mummy
A mummy is a dead human or an animal whose soft tissues and Organ (biology), organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to Chemical substance, chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air, so that the ...
*
List of mummies
This is a list of Mummy, mummies – corpses whose skin and organs have been preserved intentionally, or incidentally.
This list does not include the following:
* Bog bodies for which there is a List of bog bodies, separate list
*List of Egyptia ...
*
Incorruptibility
Incorruptibility is a Catholic and Orthodox belief that divine intervention allows some human bodies (specifically saints and beati) to completely or partially avoid the normal process of decomposition after death as a sign of their holiness.
I ...
*
Sokushinbutsu
is a type of Buddhist mummy. In Japan the term refers to the practice of Buddhist monks observing asceticism to the point of death and entering mummification while alive. Although mummified monks are seen in a number of Buddhist countries, espe ...
References
Sources
*内藤正敏 (1999/5/10). ''ミイラ信仰の研究''.（京都）法蔵館.
*日本ミイラ研究グループ (1993). ''日本・中国ミイラ信仰の研究''. 平凡社.
External links
Justin Ritzinger and Marcus Bingenheimer (2006), ''Whole-body relics in Chinese Buddhism – Previous Research and Historical Overview''Stefania Travagnin (2006), ''SHI CIHANG 航慈釋 THE FIRST CASE OF MUMMIFIED BUDDHIST IN TAIWAN''Marcus Bingenheimer (2006), ''Roushen pusa and Corpus Integrum – Whole Body Relics in Buddhism and Christianity.''Douglas Gildow and Marcus Bingenheimer, ''Buddhist Mummification in Taiwan: Two Case Studies''{{Mummies
Buddhist pilgrimages
Mummies
Buddhist relics