SOKUSHINBUTSU: THE LIVING MUMMIFIED MONK - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

The Sokushinbutsu is a practice in which a Buddhist monk becomes a mummy. Over 1000 years ago, this practice was developed by a Japanese monk named Kukai. His intention was to achieve an act of discipline and religious dedication of the greatest intensity. Carried out over several years, sokushinbutsu allowed the preservation of the body, and elevated its practitioner to a status close to that of Buddha.

Kukai created a sect known as Shingon, which included elements of religions such as Buddhism and Taoism. His main goal was to achieve enlightenment through deprivation and discipline. It is said that at the end of his life, the monk stopped eating and drinking, which led to a voluntary death; and according to legend, his body was preserved in perfect condition.

Luang Phor Daeng Clown, mummified monk at Wat Khunaram temple, Ko Samui, southern Thailand. Per Meistrup

From this example, different Buddhist sects developed the sokushinbutsu process itself. Although thousands of monks are believed to have attempted to self-dominate throughout history, only 28 cases are known in which this goal was achieved.

The monks who practiced voluntary mummification did not see this act as suicide, but as a way to achieve a state of absolute enlightenment. Those who did were revered by their peers and followers, and their bodies were routinely displayed in temples and other places of worship.

The process of

Hui Neng mummy, in Shaoguan, Guangdong, China

But what exactly was automification? As you can imagine, it was an extremely painful process, requiring very strong discipline, and taking almost a decade to complete. In addition, it was very difficult to achieve the desired result; but even so, many Buddhist monks tried it throughout the centuries that it was in force.

In the first step of sokushinbutsu, the monk had to eat exclusively fruit, berries, seeds, and nuts for 1,000 days. During this time, in addition, he was subjected to very rigorous physical training, with the aim of reducing his body fat indexes to the maximum.

However, this was only the beginning of the process. For the next 1,000 days, the monk's diet became even more restrictive: from then on he could only feed on bark and roots. At the end of this period, your body would be composed of almost only skin and bones.

After approximately six years of preparation, the monk who was attempting self-domination drank a poisonous tea made from the sap of the Urushi tree. This drink caused him vomiting and loss of body fluids.

At the same time, it also killed all bacteria that might have decomposed the body after death, and prevented the remains from being attacked by worms.

Buried alive

In this state, being little more than a walking corpse, the monk entered a stone tomb not much larger than his own body, where he had to meditate motionless in the lotus position until his death. The tomb was sealed on the outside, and a slit was left through which the monk could breathe.

Every day, the man introduced into the tomb rang a small bell to let his companions outside know that he was still alive. When the bell stopped ringing, they removed the tube and sealed the stone completely, allowing another 1,000 days to complete the ritual.

After this last period, the tomb was opened to check if the monk had managed to mummify himself. If the body was properly preserved, it was considered to have achieved Buddha status, and the mummy was placed inside a temple in order to be venerated.

On the contrary, if the corpse was found to be decomposing, the monk who had practiced sokushinbutsu was respected for his perseverance, but did not acquire any special status after his death.

Dutch study: a recent case of sokushinbutsu

Image: ancient-origins.net

What would you do if you discovered that inside a statue in the history museum of your city is the preserved body of a man? As strange as this question may seem, this is exactly the situation that researchers at the Drents museum in the Netherlands have encountered.

A study on a statue representing a Chinese Buddha, carried out by the Meander Medical Center in the Netherlands, revealed that inside it was the mummified corpse of a man between 30 and 50 years old.

After further investigation of the relic, including a special endoscopy, it has been confirmed that the body belonged to Master Liuquan of the China School of Meditation.

As if that weren't enough, the researchers also uncovered evidence that the man had been "mummified while alive" using sokushinbutsu. This practice was quite common among different Buddhist sects, but until now no example had been found of the practice in which the body ended up resting inside a statue.

In addition, the discovery is also unique because the special endoscopy that was performed on the body revealed that inside it were ancient papers covered with ancient Chinese characters.

The monk locked in the statue

According to the investigators who discovered the corpse inside the Buddha statue kept in the Drents museum, its origin would be a "victim" of this sokushinbutsu process. However, what seemed a bit more difficult to discover is how the body ended up inside a sculpture.

The papers found inside the mummy, in the place where the thoracic organs should have been found, revealed that the remains had been locked inside the statue with the aim of preserving them for all eternity. After making the find, a research team tried to discover more information about the mummy, for which they followed a complex process.

The study related to the remains of Master Liuquan was supervised by Eri Bruijin, an expert specializing in Buddhist art and culture. However, due to the peculiarity of the case, he had the help of Ben Heggelman, a radiologist, Reinoud Vermeijeden, a gastrologist. Together, they performed a multitude of tests on the statue, including a modified endoscopy and a CT scan.

Although it has been confirmed that the remains belong to a teacher from the Chinese School of Meditation named Liuquan, the data that allowed the researchers to identify the mummy have not been leaked.

However, DNA tests that the researchers extracted using a specially modified endoscope are believed to have been involved, in addition to the previously mentioned papers.

At the time of discovery, the statue had first left China to be part of an exhibition at the Drents museum in the Netherlands. In 2015, the research team published the results of their studies in a monograph.

The importance of the mummy

The story of Liuquan and his mummy enclosed within a statue has gone around the world, and has acquired great international fame. The NL Times, a Dutch newspaper, explained why the phenomenon was so important: It is the only Buddhist statue available in the West for study, as well as being the only one of its kind that has been discovered to date.

However, it appears that Master Liuquan will not be able to rest easy now that his identity has been revealed. In July 2017, the statue reappeared in the international press due to a case that looks like something out of a movie. And it is that the small town of Yangchun, located in eastern China, had denounced the Dutch collector who had the remains in her possession.

The reason? Apparently, the statue was stolen from a temple in the 90s of the last century. Several inhabitants of the Yangchun village claimed that the remains of the mummified man inside belonged to one of their ancestors, so they demanded that the statue be returned to them immediately.

Oscar van Overeem, the Dutch collector who had bought the statue a few years earlier, claimed to know nothing of its origin. In fact, he offered to return both the Buddha representation and the mummy inside to the Chinese government. Of course, I would do it only in exchange for financial compensation.

However, the Chinese authorities refused to pay any compensation, so van Overeem decided to sell the statue to an anonymous businessman. The only known information about the new owner of this peculiar work of art is that he is a Chinese national, and that he has a large collection of Buddhist sculptures.