Ritual Self-Mummification

In 1960, Japanese historian Ando Kosei revealed the presence of 18 mummies in the Buddhist temples of the prefecture of Yamagata in Japan. The ritual of self-mummification is very long and very tiresome for a normal individual and it is not authorized any more in Japan.

The monk undertakes a 3,000-day quest that ends with him being buried alive. He limits himself to a diet of buckwheat dough, hazelnuts, and nutmeg for 1,000 days, then restricts himself to bark and the roots of pine trees for another 1,000-day period, towards the end of which he starts to drink a toxic tea that begins preserving his internal organs.

He is then entombed while still alive and left to die. Once exhumed, he has become sokushinbutsu, a living god, and is placed in a shrine to be worshipped.