#7: Re: [E] Dewa sanzan, the three sacred mountains Author: sanji
Thanks Alessandro for this interesting post.
I thought I would add for information on those Buddhist mummies, which are quite a rarity in this world... In fact, when scientist started to study those mummies, they were very surprised to observed that they still had their internal organs in place, unlike Egyptian mummies whose organs are removed to preserve the rest of the body.
The process of self-mummification (即身仏, Sokushinbutsu) is said to have been pioneered by Kukai (774-835), the founder of the Shingon esoteric Buddhism whose headquarters are in Koya-san, and later developed by his followers in the three following steps:
- First, for a period of 1000 days, the priest follow a strict diet, surviving only on nuts and seeds; this lead to a body with a minimum of fluid in it, and no more body fat which tend to decompose quickly after death;
- Then, for 1000 other days, only roots and barks from pine trees are consumed, lowering further the weight of the priest who looks at that stage like a skeleton. At the end of this period, he is also drinking tea made from the sap of lacquer trees (called urushi in Japanese); this extract contains a diuretic poisonous substance which reduce the body fluid to the minimum amount;
- Finally, the priest takes place in stone room which will become his grave, with just some supply of air but neither food nor drink; he just rings a bell on a regular basis to let others know he is still alive; when the ringing stops, the tomb is first sealed, and then opened later to check whether the self-mummification was effective.
The biggest problem to succeed such operation is the need to ensure the body would not be destroyed after the death by maggots, for example. The consumption of poison is therefore needed. Some suggests that since some of the water found in Yamagata-ken near the temples contains an important quantity of arsenic, the accumulation of poison in the body during the years of privation allows the success of the procedure. Still, most priests who attempted self-mummification did not succeed, dying during the privation period or being unable to prevent decomposition of their body.
Nowadays, there are about 20 Buddhist mummies in Japan. Half of the mummies are located in Yamagata-ken.
You can find a list of them here, with addresses, price and a small description, all in Japanese. The latest priest to die that way did so in 1903 (仏海上人, Holy Bukkai in the Kannon Temple of Murakami, Niigata-ken).
Some readings:
Buddhist Mummies of Japan : excellent resource with many explanations.
Daruma Forum Articles : with information from many web sites, a very interesting resource in English.
Life of Kukai
A comprehensive article by Sylvain Guintard
(French version available here)
Hope you will find that informative. I have just included one small picture of a mummy, as some might find it a little... too hard to look at. You can find some on the above mentionned links.
sanji
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