Buddhist monks: Mummified monk is still alive

Eric Hopton for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

Police in Mongolia have a very strange case on their hands. They have in their possession the mummified body of monk which may be 200 years old, but which some people (other Buddhist monks) claim is not actually dead. This gives the Mongolian corpse cops something of a dilemma as the monk’s remains had been stolen and recovered. Do they treat the case as “necrotheft” if he is truly dead? Or as kidnap, if he really is alive?

Perhaps they should turn to Monty Python for the answer.

The police said the lama was discovered sitting in the full lotus position and was stolen to sell on the black market. They are carrying out forensic examinations on the remains, which have been been preserved in animal skin, probably cattle, camel, or horse.

Some Buddhist experts believe the monk is in a state of very deep meditation and a kind of post mortem suspended animation known as “tukdam”. If so, he may well be just one step away from becoming a true Buddha. Tukdam is normally said to lasts for hours, days, or even longer. The body is said to have no breath or heartbeat, but stays fresh and without rigor mortis.

Dr Barry Kerzin, a famous Buddhist monk and a physician to the Dalai Lama, told The Siberian Times, “I had the privilege to take care of some meditators who were in a tukdam state. If the person is able to remain in this state for more than three weeks – which rarely happens – his body gradually shrinks, and in the end all that remains from the person is his hair, nails, and clothes. Usually in this case, people who live next to the monk see a rainbow that glows in the sky for several days. This means that he has found a ‘rainbow body’. This is the highest state close to the state of Buddha.”

It all has something to do with the position he was in

The fact that the lama is sitting in the lotus position “vajra”, with the left hand open, and the right hand symbolizing the preaching of the Sutra, has led to the claims of him still being alive. Ganhugiyn Purevbata, from the Mongolian Institute of Buddhist Art at Ulaanbaatar Buddhist University, said “This is a sign that the Lama is not dead, but is in a very deep meditation according to the ancient tradition of Buddhist lamas.”

So just who is this ancient monk?

Best guesses seem to indicate that he was a teacher of Lama Dashi-Dorzho Itigilov, Buddhist Lama of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.

The mummified remains were found on January 27 in the Songinokhairkhan province of Mongolia. Aside from him possibly still being alive, the other explanation for his body’s state of preservation is the extreme cold. Mongolian winters can bring temperatures as low as minus 40 and, as the monk was found in a cave, it may have had some kind of cryogenic effect.

Han Solo gets it.

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