The Sokushinbutsu were Japanese Buddhist monks who successfully mummified themselves by progressively limiting their diet, and ingesting poisonous substances. Due to their sparce distribution over northern and central Japan, the exact number of remnant Sokushinbutsu mummies is unknown, but it is believed to be between 16 and 24. Self-mummification has not been legal in Japan for over a century, so no Sokushinbutsu have existed since the early 1900s.

Background:
The Sokushinbutsu technique of suicide and self-mummification was developed by a man called Kuukai over one millennium ago. Kuukai was the Buddhist monk who founded the Shingon sect, the first school of Buddhist thought to endorse physically self-destructive behavior as a method of enlightenment. He practiced and trained at Mount Kooya in the Wakayama Prefecture, in central Japan.

Kuukai's method of self-mummification came into use as his philosophies became more popular. Until the advent of the Shingon school, suicide might have been considered contrary to Buddhist philosophy, as it might demonstrate a passion against the material world, where indifference was generally considered to be the superlative Buddhist's attitude. Kuukai, however, professed slow, self-induced torture to be an effective way of divorcing onself from material life without actively rejecting it, and that the terminal quality of the Sokushinbutsu technique made it particularly spiritual. Although it probably was not the intention of Kuukai himself, it also came to be, ironically enough, that the Sokushinbutsu mummies were exemplified as religious relics, which for some justified the practice all by itself.

Sokushinbutsu tended to be elderly Shingon monks (although there were Zen Buddhists who became Sokushinbutsu, as well), for whom the mummification technique was designed, and those who were successful at preserving themselves were raised to the status of Buddha, and put on public display.

The Technique:
The process of Sokushinbutsu suicide and self-mummification took in excess of 3000 days (over 8 years) and consisted of four stages. The first and second stages were particularly concerned with eliminating all fatty tissue from the body. This is essential to self-mummification because fat decomposes very readily, and preserving fat for a long period of time is almost impossible. The first stage was a 1000 day diet of nuts and seeds, which, at expiration, turned to another 1000 day diet of Pine tree roots and bark (the second stage). This new diet not only accelerated the elimination of fatty tissue, but also contained less moisture than the nuts and seeds, so that after death, the monk's body would be dehydrated, and therefore decompose very slowly. The third 1000 day stage was the addition of a tea made from Urushi tree sap to the monk's diet of roots and bark. Urushi tree sap is toxic, and has been used for centuries to lacquer wooden bowls and furniture. It would induce vomiting, sweating, and frequent urination, further dehydrating the monk, and the poison from the sap would accrue in his organs, so that after his death insects and maggots could not infest his corpse.

The monk would be living his otherwise normal life during the first 3000 days of this process, training and teaching every day. He would stop this for the fourth stage, however, as it entailed entombing himself with just a bell and a tube that ran to the outside to provided him with fresh air. In the tomb, the monk would not eat or drink, just sit in a lotus position, and ring the bell once every day to indicate to his fellow monks that he was still alive. When the bell no longer rang, the tomb was opened, and if the preservation was perfect (the monk was still sitting in his lotus position) his body was removed from the tomb, and put on display. Those who failed to preserve themselves were sealed into their tombs.

Although it was not included in Kuukai's instructions on self-mummification, it is speculated that one of the factors that affected whether or not a mummification was successful was the water that the concerned monk drank. Many Japanese mineral springs, such as those on Mt. Yudono in Yamagata Prefecture, contained high levels of arsenic, but were consumed because they were believed to be medicinal. It is possible that those monks who consumed water with high arsenic levels were better preserved than those who did not.

References:

http://www.jref.com/culture/japanese_buddhist_mummies.shtml
http://www.geocities.com/gabigreve2000/mummiesinjapan.html
http://www.kirchersociety.org/blog/2007/06/27/sokushinbutsu-the-self-mummified-monks-of-japan/

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