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AMERSFOORT, Netherlands — A Dutch hospital recently examined a nearly 1,000-year-old patient.
A team from the Meander Medical Center, supervised by Buddhist art expert Erik Bruijn, performed a CT scan on a Chinese Buddha statue that contains a mummy, according to the NL Times. The hospital called the mummy its “oldest patient ever.”
The mummified man is believed to be a Buddhist master known as Liuquan who lived around the year 1100 AD and was associated with the Chinese Meditation School, according to Drents Museum. The Buddha statue was featured as part of the museum’s “Mummies: Life Beyond Death” exhibit in 2014, prior to the scan. It was reportedly the first time the mummy was displayed outside of China.
This is the first time a mummy has been found inside of a Buddha statue, according to researchers. During the examination, gastrointestinal doctor Reinoud Vermeijden found scraps of paper with ancient Chinese characters printed on them in the organ cavities. Other unidentified materials were also located in the mummy.
Liuquan possibly engaged in a process of self-mummification, according to Drents Museum. In some places in Asia, mummification was believed to be a state of further enlightenment.
“In Japan, monks seeking self-mummification would begin a 1,000-day diet of water, seeds and nuts, followed by a 1,000-day diet of roots, pine bark and a special tea made from the sap of the Chinese lacquer tree — a toxic substance usually used to lacquer bowls and plates, used by the monks to repel maggots and bacteria,” a CNET article reads. “Then they would be sealed in a stone tomb to await death.”
Monks who were successfully mummified were often placed in temples, according to the article. The practice of self-mummification was banned in 1879.
The Buddha mummy is now on display at the Hungarian Natural History Museum in Budapest as part of its temporary mummy exhibit. In May it will travel to a venue in Luxemburg.
