dankott

clipped by: Spiritualmonkey
clipper’s remarks: Thankfully, the Zen Lexi & I study doesn’t go in for automummification. We just sit facing the wall for 10 minutes a day.

Clip Source: atlasobscura.com

Scattered throughout Northern Japan are over two dozen mummified Japanese monks known as Sokushinbutsu. Followers of Shugendu, an ancient form of Buddhism, the monks died in the ultimate act of self-denial.

For three years the priests 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. 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

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.

Those monks who had succeeded in mummifying themselves were raised to the status of Buddha