read more wikipedia.

Submit a post (or here)
Follow readmorewikipedia

Search

Twitter feed

Sokushinbutsu

Sokushinbutsu were Buddhist monks or priests who caused their own deaths in a way that resulted in their mummification.

For 1,000 days (a little less than three years) the priests would eat a special diet consisting only of nuts and seeds, while taking part in a regimen of rigorous physical activity that stripped them of their body fat. They then ate only bark and roots for another thousand days and began drinking a poisonous tea made from the sap of the Urushi tree, normally used to lacquer bowls.

This caused vomiting and a rapid loss of bodily fluids, and most importantly, it made the body too poisonous to be eaten by maggots. Finally, a self-mummifying monk would lock himself in a stone tomb barely larger than his body, where he would not move from the lotus position. His only connection to the outside world was an air tube and a bell. Each day he rang a bell to let those outside know that he was still alive.

When the bell stopped ringing, the tube was removed and the tomb sealed.

Notes

  1. bewareofevil reblogged this from readmorewikipedia
  2. gnihciew reblogged this from readmorewikipedia
  3. pocodopoknef reblogged this from readmorewikipedia and added:
    Read more Wikipedia è il mio nuovo tumblr preferito.
  4. milkymoons reblogged this from readmorewikipedia
  5. echofayth reblogged this from leftunderbooks
  6. leftunderbooks reblogged this from junkbondtrader
  7. hatchetentry reblogged this from olias
  8. 76er reblogged this from readmorewikipedia
  9. rabbithugs reblogged this from olias
  10. itsnotovertonight reblogged this from readmorewikipedia
  11. junkbondtrader reblogged this from readmorewikipedia
  12. mohamed-atia reblogged this from readmorewikipedia
  13. allthishappened reblogged this from readmorewikipedia
  14. yitzytaughtme reblogged this from readmorewikipedia and added:
    I am fit enough, this is...way I’m gonna go.
  15. readmorewikipedia posted this

Loading posts...