The
mummy was discovered, encased in a cavity in the statue, when a private
buyer brought it to an expert for restoration. It's unclear when or how
the statue was removed from China.
Scientists made a bizarre discovery when they took a CT scan of an
ancient Buddha statue from China. Inside was a mummy sitting in the same
lotus position. Further investigation revealed that the organs had been
removed and replaced by scraps of paper with Chinese writing on them.
The Buddha statue, dating back to 1100 CE, belongs to the Drents Museum
in the Netherlands and is currently on loan to a museum in Budapest.
The
process of self-mummification is a known tradition in countries like
Japan, China and Thailand, and was practiced over a thousand years ago.
The
elaborate and arduous process includes eating a special diet and
drinking a poisonous tea so the body would be too toxic to be eaten by
maggots. The few monks that were able to successfully complete the
process were highly revered.
A
gastrointestinal specialist also used an endoscope to take samples from
inside the chest and abdominal cavities of the mummy and found, in
place of organs, scraps of paper with ancient Chinese writing and other
as yet unidentified materials.
