- Title: HUNGARY-MUMMIFIED MONK Mummified body inside Buddha statue revealed
- Date: 4th March 2015
- Summary: BUDAPEST, HUNGARY (MARCH 4, 2015) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF HUNGARIAN NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM POSTER OF MUMMIES EXHIBITION VISITORS WALKING INTO EXHIBITION ROOM BUDDHA STATUE CONTAINING MUMMIFIED BODY OF CHINESE MONK VARIOUS OF CT IMAGE OF MUMMIFIED BODY REFLECTED IN GLASS (SOUNDBITE) (Hungarian) HUNGARIAN NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM SPOKESPERSON, MONIKA KISS-STEFAN, SAYING: "The Buddha statue belongs to a Dutch private collector and when he bought it, he had no idea what was hiding inside. He lent it to the Dutch Assen museum for an exhibit and they put it under a CT machine, x-rayed it and discovered that the statue hides a mummy of a monk." VISITORS LOOKING AT SCREEN SHOWING CT IMAGE OF MUMMIFIED MONK VARIOUS OF CT IMAGE OF MUMMIFIED BODY ON SCREEN KISS-STEFAN AND CURATOR OF MUMMY EXHIBIT, ILDIKO PAP, LOOKING AT BUDDHA STATUE HEAD OF BUDDHA STATUE (SOUNDBITE) (Hungarian) CURATOR OF MUMMY EXHIBIT, ILDIKO PAP, SAYING: "This was not a suicide, it's only us and those who lived later who considered this to be suicide. It had several reasons. Basically, not everyone was allowed to try this, only Buddhist masters who reached a very high level could do this with a permit. Their own reason was to reach a certain level, to reach 'nirvana' this way." STATUE VISITORS LOOKING AT STATUE HEAD OF STATUE DETAILS OF STATUE (SOUNDBITE) (Hungarian) CURATOR OF MUMMY EXHIBIT, ILDIKO PAP, SAYING: "We don't know exactly why they did the statue. Regarding how they did it we know that they put a thin layer of clay, let it dry, then put several layers of enamel to decorate and finally golden paint, to make it a statue."
- Embargoed: 19th March 2015 12:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA1IVPPRLE77A4VIAAVNITE4CNH
- Story Text: An ancient Buddha statue from China, on display at Budapest's Natural History Museum, hides the mummy of a monk who lived around the year 1,100 and is believed to have gone through the mysterious process of self-mummification.
The golden sitting Buddha statue is about 4-feet tall, and hides the remains of a 30-40-year-old monk inside. Radiating a peaceful, eerie smile, the statue is the centrepiece of the museum's "Mummy World" exhibition, which arrived to Budapest from the Drents Museum in the Netherlands late last year.
"The Buddha statue belongs to a Dutch private collector and when he bought it, he had no idea what was hiding inside. He lent it to the Dutch Assen museum for an exhibit and they put it under a CT machine, x-rayed it and discovered that the statue hides a mummy of a monk," spokeswoman of the Budapest museum, Monika Kiss-Stefan, said. She couldn't say where the statue came from within China.
Medical CT scans done on the statue at the Meander Medical Centre in Amsterdam late last year revealed that in the abdominal cavity, where there had once been organs, there were paper scraps printed with ancient Chinese characters, according to a statement on the Centre's website.
Kiss-Stefan said that while there were around 20-25 mummified monks around the world, the one on display in Budapest was the only such mummy hidden in a statue.
She said the monk had prepared for his death meticulously, eating only seeds for a long time and then roots of a poisonous plant to prevent maggots eating his flesh. He spent the last 1,000 days in a pit, meditating, she said. When he died, his body was left there until it became mummified.
The habit of self-mummification spread from Japan to China and then to the area of Vietnam, one of the curators of the exhibition in Budapest, Ildiko Pap, said.
She said self-mummification was not seen as suicide at the time, and only high-ranking Buddhist masters were allowed to practice it to reach Nirvana -- the state of perfect peace.
"This was not a suicide, it's only us and those who lived later who considered this to be suicide. It had several reasons. Basically, not everyone was allowed to try this, only Buddhist masters who reached a very high level could do this with a permit. Their own reason was to reach a certain level, to reach 'nirvana' this way," Pap said.
Pap said the monk's mummified body was covered only around 200-300 years later.
"We don't know exactly why they did the statue. Regarding how they did it we know that they put a thin layer of clay, let it dry, then put several layers of enamel to decorate and finally golden paint, to make it a statue," Pap added.
The "Mummy World" exhibition is on display in Budapest until May 17, before it travels to Luxembourg. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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