Leave Egypt, India's 500-year old natural Mummy!

When we talk about mummies, the first place that strikes our mind is 'Egypt'.

But, here's the 500+ years old self mummified (without embalming) place in our very own country at this very beautiful place called Spiti Valley.

Nestled in the trans-himalayan cold desert at an altitude of approximately 11000 feet above sea level, this monastery is located in the Gue Village.

This place has the magnificent 'Gue Monastery', which houses the country's only naturally preserved mummified body of a lama named, 'Sangha Tezin'.

In 1975, in an army excavation project due to the earthquake in Spiti Valley, they found a tomb in Gue, a tiny village few kms away from the famous Tabo Monastery. Inside it, was the mummified body of Sangha Tenzin, with skin intact, teeth visible through open lips and hair on his head.

Scientific reports state that, the high levels of residual nitrogen (indicative of prolonged starvation) in Sangha Tenzin’s body shows that he followed this procedure to mummify himself.

As such, visitors to Gue’s unique museum can clearly observe Tenzin’s well-preserved form — from its intact head of hair and empty eye sockets to the darkened, taut skin on its broad forehead.

The process of mummification- Sokushinbutsu

A monk slowly starves himself to death.

They will start eating a tree-based diet, ingesting only roots, nuts and herbs; in order to completely use all of their body fat.

Along with it, the monk will also eat small doses of poisonous cycad nuts and lacquer tree sap; which will help remove moisture from the body while they were alive; and will deter flesh eating bugs after they died.

They will also use candles to completely dry their skin. This entire process would take several months to complete and by the time the monk would die, their body would be completely dry and hence would have no fat or moisture at all. Their organs too would be shrunken, and so the natural decomposing of the body will not take place at all.

Also read: ganga aarti at varanasi

The mummy is covered by a thin sheet of glass and if you plan to visit Spiti, this is surely yet another must-visit place out there!