February 26, 2015 Agencies
Scientists made a bizarre discovery when they took a CT scan of
an ancient Buddha statue from China. Inside was a mummy sitting
in the same lotus position. Further investigation revealed that the
organs had been removed and replaced by scraps of paper with
Chinese writing on them. The Buddha statue, dating back to 1100
CE, belongs to the Drents Museum in the Netherlands and is
currently on loan to a museum in Budapest.
said in a release quoted by Discovery News. “Scan research has
shown that on the inside, it is the mummy of a Buddhist monk who
lived around the year 1100.”
Experts believe that the mummy inside the statue is of Buddhist
master Liu Quan, a member of the Chinese Meditation School.
After the initial scan showed the skeleton inside the statue, researchers
took it to the Meander Medical Center in Amersfoort and carried out an endoscopy and additional CT scans. That is when they found the missing
organs and, among a lot of unidentified material, scraps of paper with
Chinese script on it. Further research is in progress.
The Museum is of the view that probably the Buddhist master
‘self-mummified’ himself. This is a long painful process involving
starving oneself progressively for several years.
‘self-mummified’ himself. This is a long painful process involving
starving oneself progressively for several years.
Self-mummification used to be a mainly Japanese practice. Discovery
News describes this tortuous process in the following way. For 1000
days the monk would eat only nuts and seeds, reducing body fat to a
minimum. Then, for another 1000 days a diet of roots and barks would
be consumed. In the last stages, the monk would drink a poisonous tea
made from the sap of the Japanese varnish tree to induce vomiting and elimination of body fluids. The toxic nature of the infusion probably
helped kill off bacteria too.
News describes this tortuous process in the following way. For 1000
days the monk would eat only nuts and seeds, reducing body fat to a
minimum. Then, for another 1000 days a diet of roots and barks would
be consumed. In the last stages, the monk would drink a poisonous tea
made from the sap of the Japanese varnish tree to induce vomiting and elimination of body fluids. The toxic nature of the infusion probably
helped kill off bacteria too.
Then, the skeletal monk was put in a stone tomb just fitting around
the body. An air tube and a bell were provided. Every day the monk
would ring the bell indicating that he was alive. When the bell stopped
ringing, it was known that he had died. His mummified body would
then be removed after another 1000 days and preserved. Only a
handful of monks achieved this stage after the long and grueling
process.
the body. An air tube and a bell were provided. Every day the monk
would ring the bell indicating that he was alive. When the bell stopped
ringing, it was known that he had died. His mummified body would
then be removed after another 1000 days and preserved. Only a
handful of monks achieved this stage after the long and grueling
process.
It is unclear when and how the organs were removed from this mummy.
Further research is going on.
Further research is going on.
No comments:
Post a Comment