Editing Mummy (section)

== Self-mummification ==
{{Main|Buddhist mummies|Sokushinbutsu}}
Monks whose bodies remain [[incorruptibility|incorrupt]] without any traces of deliberate mummification are venerated by some Buddhists who believe they successfully were able to mortify their flesh to death. Self-mummification was practiced until the late 1800s in Japan and has been outlawed since the early 1900s.

Many Mahayana Buddhist monks were reported to know their time of death and left their last testaments and their students accordingly buried them sitting in [[lotus position]], put into a vessel with drying agents (such as wood, paper, or [[Calcium oxide|lime]]) and surrounded by bricks, to be exhumed later, usually after three years. The preserved bodies would then be decorated with paint and adorned with gold.

Bodies purported to be those of self-mummified monks are exhibited in several Japanese shrines, and it has been claimed that the monks, prior to their death, stuck to a sparse diet made up of salt, [[Nut (fruit)|nuts]], [[seed]]s, [[root]]s, [[pine]] bark, and {{transliteration|ja|[[Toxicodendron vernicifluum|urushi]]}} tea.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sonic.net/~anomaly/japan/dbuddha.htm |title=The Buddhist Mummies of Japan |publisher=Sonic.net |date=24 August 1998 |access-date=9 March 2012}}</ref>