Ken Jeremiah, author of Living Buddhas: The Self-Mummified Monks of Yamagata, Japan and Christian Mummification: An Interpretative History of the Preservation of Saints, Martyrs and Others, was featured in a recent article by iO9 about how to mummify yourself. As one might imagine, the monks of Yamagata did not decide to mummify themselves on the spur of the moment. According to Jeremiah, there was “a 3,000-day training process for turning an ordinary ascetic’s body into a mummy’s. The key element of the process is dietary; Japanese ascetics would commonly abstain from cereals, removing wheat, rice, foxtail millet, pros so millet, and soybeans. Instead, they would eat things like nuts, berries, pine needles, tree bark, and resin (which is why the diet of the sokushinbutsu was called mokujikyo, or tree-eating.” Go here for io9’s entire article about self-mummification.
And good for the month of May, there is a 20% discount on mummy books with the coupon code MUMMY. Mummy Books from McFarland:
Living Buddhas: The Self-Mummified Monks of Yamagata, Japan
Christian Mummification: An Interpretative History of the Preservation of Saints, Martyrs and Others
Mummies in Nineteenth Century America: Ancient Egyptians as Artifacts
The Mummy Unwrapped: Scenes Left on Universal’s Cutting Room Floor
The Mummy in Fact, Fiction and Film
Modern Mummies: The Preservation of the Human Body in the Twentieth Century
The Egyptian Pyramids: A Comprehensive, Illustrated Reference
Ancient Egypt in the Popular Imagination: Building a Fantasy in Film, Literature, Music and Art
Boris Karloff: A Critical Account of His Screen, Stage, Radio, Television and Recording Work
