Sokushinbutsu

Sokushinbutsu (mummy) of Huineng, in Shaoguan, Guangdong, China

There is at least one "self-mummified" 550-year-old corpse in existence: that of a Buddhist monk named Sangha Tenzin in a northern Himalayan region of India, visible in a temple in Gue village, Spiti, Himachal Pradesh.[5] This mummy was rediscovered in 1975 when the old stupa preserving it collapsed and it is estimated to be from about the 14th century. The monk was likely a Tibetan dzogpa-chenpo practitioner and similar mummies have been found in Tibet and East Asia.[6] The preservation of the mummy for at least five centuries was possible due to the aridity of the area and cold weather.[5]

According to Paul Williams, the sokushinbutsu ascetic practices of Shugendō were likely inspired by Kūkai, the founder of Shingon Buddhism,[7] who ended his life by reducing and then stopping intake of food and water, while continuing to meditate and chant Buddhist mantras. Ascetic self-mummification practices are also recorded in China, but are associated with the Ch'an (Zen Buddhism) tradition there.[7] Alternate ascetic practices similar to sokushinbutsu are also known, such as public self-immolation practice in China. This was considered as evidence of a renunciant bodhisattva.[8]

A mountain-dwelling religion called Shugendō emerged in Japan as a syncretism between Vajrayana Buddhism, Shinto and Taoism in the 7th century, which stressed ascetic practices.[9] One of these practices was sokushinbutsu (or sokushin jobutsu), connoting mountain austerities in order to attain Buddha-nature in one's body. This practice was perfected over a period of time, particularly in the Three Mountains of Dewa region of Japan, that is the Haguro, Gassan and Yudono mountains.[9] These mountains remain sacred in the Shugendō tradition to this day, and ascetic austerities continue to be performed in the valleys and mountain range in this area.[9][10]

In medieval Japan, this tradition developed a process for sokushinbutsu, which a monk completed over about 3,000 days.[9] It involved a strict diet called mokujiki (literally, 'eating a tree').[11][10] The monk abstained from any cereals and relied on pine needles, resins, and seeds found in the mountains, which would eliminate all fat in the body.[11][5] Increasing rates of fasting and meditation would lead to starvation. The monks would slowly reduce then stop liquid intake, thus dehydrating the body and shrinking all organs.[11] The monks would die in a state of jhana (meditation) while chanting the nenbutsu (a mantra about Buddha), and their body would become naturally preserved as a mummy with skin and teeth intact without decay and without the need of any artificial preservatives.[11][5] Many Buddhist sokushinbutsu mummies have been found in northern Japan and are estimated to be centuries old, while texts suggest that hundreds of these cases are buried in the stupas and mountains of Japan.[10] These mummies have been revered and venerated by the laypeople of Buddhism.[10]

One of the altars in the Honmyō-ji temple of Yamagata prefecture continues to preserve one of the oldest mummies—that of the sokushinbutsu ascetic named Honmyōkai.[12] This process of self-mummification was mainly practiced in Yamagata in Northern Japan between the 11th and 19th century, by members of the Japanese Vajrayana school of Buddhism called Shingon ("True Word"). The practitioners of sokushinbutsu did not view this practice as an act of suicide, but rather as a form of further enlightenment.[13]

Emperor Meiji banned this practice in 1879. Assisted suicide — including religious suicide — is now illegal.

• The practice was satirized in the story "The Destiny That Spanned Two Lifetimes" by Ueda Akinari, in which such a monk was found centuries later and resuscitated. The story appears in the collection Harusame Monogatari.[14]
• The practice is also extensively referenced in Japanese author Haruki Murakami's 2017 novel Killing Commendatore.
• In Rumiko Takahashi's series InuYasha, a priest named Hakushin was a "living mummy" who sacrificed himself via sokushinbutsu to save the people he served.
• In the video game The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, in order to withstand the passage of time until a person can pass the Shrine's trial, the Sheikah monks within the Shrines Link visits appear to have used sokushinbutsu.[15]
• In the video game Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, enemy monks are based on the concept of sokushinbutsu.
• In the video game series Shin Megami Tensei, the recurring enemy Daisoujou is based on sokushinbutsu.
• Self-mummification is the subject of the 1990 horror story "Unbearable maze" (Taegatai Meiro) by manga artist Junji Ito. This story was animated in the 2023 anime series "Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre".
• The novel Miira Ni Naru Made (Until I Am a Mummy) (1990) by Masahiko Shimada was based on a true story, which seems to have been inspired by the ritual. Film director Peter Liechti adapted it as "THE SOUND OF INSECTS – Record Of A Mummy" in 2009.

• Immured anchorite
• Incorruptibility
• Prayopavesa: A parallel practice in Hinduism
• Rainbow body
• Sallekhana: A parallel practice in Jainism
• Embalming
• Bog bodies
• Plastination
• Mellified man – Legendary medicinal substance, made of a human corpse preserved in honey

• Hori, Ichiro (1962). "Self-Mummified Buddhas in Japan. An Aspect of the Shugen-Dô ("Mountain Asceticism") Sect". History of Religions. 1 (2): 222–242. doi:10.1086/462445. ISSN 0018-2710. JSTOR 1062053. S2CID 162314904.
• Hijikata, M. (1996). Nihon no Miira Butsu wo Tazunete. [Visiting Japanese Buddhist Mummies]. Tokyo: Shinbunsha.
• Jeremiah, K. (2009). Corpses: Tales from the crypt. Kansai Time Out, 387, 8–10.
• Jeremiah, Ken (2007). "Asceticism and the Pursuit of Death by Warriors and Monks". Journal of Asian Martial Arts. 16 (2): 18–33.
• Matsumoto, A. (2002). Nihon no Miira Butsu. [Japanese Buddhist Mummies]. Tokyo: Rokkō Shuppan.
• Raveri, M. (1992). Il corpo e il paradiso: Le tentazioni estreme dell’ascesi. [The Body and Paradise: Extreme Practices of Ascetics]. Venice, Italy: Saggi Marsilio Editori.
• The Japanese Art of Self-Preservation Erika Nesvold 30 November 2015

• Daruma Forums – photos and descriptions of travelling to see Sokushinbutsu
• Pictures of self-mummified monks Archived 2012-11-14 at the Wayback Machine.
• Dunning, Brian (4 November 2008). "Skeptoid #126: The Incorruptibles". Skeptoid. Retrieved 22 June 2017.