Buddhism Ritual Of Self Mummification

Religion as a human phenomenon has played a role in the quest for meaning and purpose in the lives of individuals and communities. Religious rituals are intimately connected to the core religious or spiritual beliefs held by a particular faith group. Buddhism is an ancient religion founded by Siddartha Gautama. It is centred on the practice and spiritual development leading to insight into the true nature of reality (The Buddhist center, 2012). The Buddhist ritual of self-mummification was an example of a religious ritual, which was integral to the historic practice of Buddhism, and the faith of its adherents. To examine this extinct ritual the theory and terminology of Buddhism will be discussed. Following on from this the ritual analysis …show more content…
A ritual is defined as something that is characteristic of a rite, practice or observation, particularly of a religion (Yourdictionary, 2015). Japanese monks would participate in sokushinbutsu, which is a death rite in the Buddhist faith. A death rite is a ceremonial act or custom employed at the time of death. (Britannica, 2015) Sokushinbutsu was the practice of self-mummification observed by the ancient devout of the Shingon Buddhism sect, an esoteric, often secretive school of Buddhism. Though it was outlawed in the 19th century, the ritual of Sokushinbutsu was a gruelling self-mummification process undergone with the goal of becoming a “living” Buddha (Introvertjapan, …show more content…
To start the ritual a monk would eat nothing but nuts and berries for 1000 days. This caused the monk to lose an excessive amount of weight. For the next 1000 days the monk would only eat bark and roots. By eating these things, it removed a lot of moisture from the body that could cause the body to decay instead of mummifying. For the next 1000 days the monk would drink a special tea. By drinking this tea, which was made out of the urushi tree, a plant that is poisonous, the body would move further toward mummification. This tea made the body itself poisonous and protected it as it made it harder for bacteria to eat away the monk as he slowly became mummified. For the next 1000 day the monk would bury himself alive. He would seal himself in a giant stone tomb. The monks would give the ‘mummy to be’ a bamboo pipe for air and a bell. The ‘mummy to be’ would ring the bell every day to let his fellow monks know that he was still alive. When they didn’t here the bell ring, they knew that he had died. After the tomb was sealed, other monks in the temple would wait another 1000 days and open the tomb to see if the mummification was successful. If it was a successful mummification the deceased monk was immediately seen as a Buddha and put in the temple for viewing (Tofugu,