Why on earth would a living
human being even consider mummifying him or herself?
To become a Buddha and be revered and worshipped as a form
of living god, or Sokushinbutsu of course
The procedure of self-mummification is exactly
what it sounds like (and much more torturous!)
For three years
the Buddhist monks or priests who performed this ritual
would eat a special diet consisting only of nuts and
seeds, while taking part in a regimen of rigorous
physical activity that stripped them of their body
fat.
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They then ate only
bark and roots for another three years and began drinking
a poisonous tea made from the sap of the Urushi tree,
normally used to lacquer bowls. This caused vomiting
and a rapid loss of bodily fluids, and most importantly,
it killed off any maggots that might cause the body
to decay after death. |
Finally, a self-mummifying monk would lock
himself in a stone tomb barely larger than his body, where
he would not move from the lotus position. His only connection
to the outside world was an air tube and a bell. Each day
he rang a bell to let those outside know that he was still
alive.
When the bell stopped ringing,
the tube was removed and the tomb sealed.
Once exhumed, the mummy is
placed in a shrine to be worshipped.
For he has become Sokushinbutsu, a living god, but a dead
human being.
Makes no sense to me at all.
It is believed that that many
hundreds of monks tried, but only between 16 and 24 such
mummifications have been discovered to date.
The practice is not advocated or
practised today by any Buddhist sect.
