Sokushinbutsu

Sokushinbutsu
are a kind of Buddhist mummy. In Japan the term refers to the practice of Buddhist monks observing asceticism to the point of death and entering mummification while alive. Although mummified monks are seen in a number of Buddhist countries, especially in South Asia where monks are mummified after dying of natural causes, it is only in Japan that monks are believed to have induced their own death by starvation.
There is a common suggestion that Shingon school founder Kukai brought this practice from Tang China as part of secret tantric practices he learned. During the 20th century, Japanese scholars found very little evidence of self-starvation of . They rather concluded that mummification took place after the demise of the monk practising this kind of asceticism, as seen in South Asian lands.
Origin
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. 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. The preservation of the mummy for at least five centuries was possible due to the aridity of the area and cold weather.
According to Paul Williams, the ascetic practices of Shugendō were likely inspired by Kūkai, the founder of Shingon Buddhism, 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 (Zen Buddhism) tradition there. Alternate ascetic practices similar to are also known, such as public self-immolation practice in China. This was considered as evidence of a renunciant bodhisattva.
Japan
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. One of these practices was (or ), 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. 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.
In medieval Japan, this tradition developed a process for , which a monk completed over about 3,000 days. It involved a strict diet called (literally). 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. 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. The monks would die in a state of jhana (meditation) while chanting the (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. Many Buddhist 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. These mummies have been revered and venerated by the laypeople of Buddhism.
One of the altars in the Honmyō-ji temple of Yamagata prefecture continues to preserve one of the oldest mummies—that of the ascetic named Honmyōkai. 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 did not view this practice as an act of suicide, but rather as a form of further enlightenment.
Emperor Meiji banned this practice in 1879. Assisted suicide — including religious suicide — is now illegal.
In popular culture
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 .
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 .
In the video game Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, enemy monks are based on the concept of .
In the video game series Shin Megami Tensei, the recurring enemy Daisoujou is based on .
Self-mummification is the subject of the 1990 horror story "Unbearable maze" 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.
See also
Immured anchorite
Incorruptibility
Prayopavesa: A parallel practice in Hinduism
Rainbow body
Sallekhana: A parallel practice in Jainism
Embalming
Bog bodies
Plastination
References
Further reading
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.
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
External links
Daruma Forums – photos and descriptions of travelling to see Sokushinbutsu
Pictures of self-mummified monks .
Mummies
Shingon Buddhism
Vajrayana
Suicide types
Suicides by starvation
Suicides in Japan
Death in Japan
Religion and suicide
Shugendō
Buddhist relics
Buddhist asceticism
Buddhism and death