In medieval Japan, this tradition developed a process for
Sokushinbutsu, which a monk completed over about 3,000 days.
[8] It involved a strict diet called
mokujiki (literally, "eating a tree").
[10][9] The diet abstained from any cereals, and relied on pine needles, resins and seeds found in the mountains, which would eliminate all fat in the body.
[10][3] 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.
[10] 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.
[10][3] Many Buddhist
Sokushinbutsu mummies have been found in northern Japan and estimated to be centuries old, while texts suggest that hundreds of these cases are buried in the
stupas and mountains of Japan.
[9] These mummies have been revered and venerated by the laypeople of Buddhism.
[9]
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.
[11] 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.
[12]
Emperor Meiji banned this practice in 1879, and assisted suicide—including religious suicide—is now illegal.
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