Anyone familiar with Rage Against The Machine's debut album will know that Buddhist monks can be capable of some pretty extreme behaviour. When Thich Quang Duc set himself on fire outside the Cambodian Embassy in Saigon in protest at the repression of his religion, it was a premeditated act. But it wasn't as premeditated as deliberately setting out to mummify yourself while still alive.
Yes, really.
The practice of sokushinbutsu apparently involved following an incredibly stringent and restrictive diet for three years - one that both rids the body of fat and muscle and helps to prevent decomposition, and would put anyone who boasts about doing the 5:2 or going vegan to shame. The monks then embalmed themselves from the inside out by drinking a special type of tea (not Tetley).
The final stage saw them buried alive: shut into "a small, tightly cramped pine box" that was lowered into the ground. When the bell they had been given finally stopped ringing, it was assumed they were dead. It reminds me of a horror story that creeped me out as a kid about someone trying to make their escape from a prison by getting buried in a coffin, only for their accomplice - the only person who knew they were buried - turning up dead in the same grave. Be still, my shivering spine.
(Thanks to Owen for the link.)
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