Unusual Death: Self-Mummification

Sokushinbutsu is the Japanese term for the practice of self-mummification done by some Buddhist monks and is unique to areas of northern Japan. It is unusual and I’m not really sure where it ‘fits in’ in terms of categorization, it’s not really burial since people don’t tend to bury themselves and the person is also not interned in the ground, instead in a tomb. Perhaps then it would fit into the category of accidental burials like Otzi, however it wasn’t really an accident, since it was self induced. Troubling....

Although there are not many cases of this practice, believed to be less than 40 mummies, it is thought that hundreds of other monks tried and failed. The monks began the process by fasting, easting only a diet of nuts and fruits combined with hardcore physical activities for 1000 days; this was in order to eliminate body fats. Then for another 1000 days they would eat bark and roots and drink poisonous tea. This step also involved self induced vomiting so that there would be loss of body fluids. The tea helped to poison the body to deter maggots. In the final stage of the process, the monk would enter a large stone tomb and sit in the lotus position to await death. He would ring a bell daily to let the other monks know he was still alive. When the bell stopped, the tomb was sealed for 1000 days. Then the tomb would be opened to see if the monk had been successful, more often than not they failed.

This practice was obviously done for religious reasons. Although the two elements together; (religious) suicide and intentional mummification/preservation, are common across the world, I think combining them in this way is unique to Japan.

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