500-Year-Old Buddhist Mummy With Perfectly Preserved Teeth and Intact Skin Awes Researchers

For researchers at the Penn Museum, a 500-year-old mummy that still has perfectly preserved teeth and intact skin remains a marvel of curiosity among visitors in the remote Himalayan village of Gue, India, according to the Tribune. The mummified remains are those of Buddhist monk Sangha Tenzin, whose body was unexpectedly uncovered when an earthquake destroyed his tomb in 1975.
Spiti Valley is known as the Cold Desert as it is one of the highest inhabited regions in the world, sitting at an average altitude of 4,000 meters.
— Amit Misra (@amit6060) January 4, 2025
The mummy of Sangha Tenzin is on display in a temple in Gue and is said to be more than 500 years old. pic.twitter.com/6iXWUkC4dO
"It is eerily uncomfortable to look at the mummy," said Kunal Thundup, who visited the Gue monastery. "It sits in a meditating position while still wearing the gomtag. The head rests on the knee and you can see a few hairs on the head and the teeth shining through the mummified taut skin," as per the Tribune. Far from a common museum setting, this rare mummy was kept behind no more than a sheet of glass in a little concrete room several kilometers away from the Indo-Tibetan border.
Mummy of Sangha Tenzin: He Started the Mummification Process While Still Living. 👤🔮
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Details in comments below.. #Archaeology #AncientPractices #MummificationMystery pic.twitter.com/MsDmecrMiu
The self-mummification of Tenzin is enveloped in an appealingly fabulous legend that was current among locals. Facing the extreme pest of scorpions, this monk had decided to sacrifice his life using self-mummification; it is a very traditional Buddhist practice, according to Tripoto.
The villagers attest that as he completed his meditation and passed away, a beautiful rainbow appeared in the sky, and that mysterious scorpion plague mysteriously ended. It requires great devotion in self-mummification. First, monks began while still alive by adopting an extremely restricted diet of nuts, seeds, and herbs to reduce overall body fat as well as shrink internal organs. Also, they used tree sap that would cause vomiting and dehydrate their body, as per BBC. They then would enter a stone tomb just large enough for one's body in a lotus position for deep meditation until death.

Professor Victor H. Mair of the University of Pennsylvania's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, also discovered high levels of nitrogen in Tenzin's remains, which indicated that he had fasted for a long period. A meditation belt was found with the monk to hold his body posture in death.
"The concept of spiritual suicide is seen throughout Buddhist history," says Fivos Deshpande, a Buddhism expert based in Mumbai. "While it's not encouraged among followers or even monks, those who decide to do it are not stopped," stated Tribune. What really makes Tenzin's case a rare one, however, is that there are fewer than 30 documented cases of self-mummified monks in the world, most of which are in Northern Honshu, Japan.
The cold, arid climate of Spiti has contributed a great deal to the preservation of Tenzin's body. In the small concrete room that he rests in, his blackened, elongated skin, along with a head full of hair and well-preserved form, is on view. He sits with one fist around his leg and his chin leaning on his knee. To many local Buddhist heads, such as Lama Wangyala, this monk is not really dead but merely in meditation and capable of granting wishes. This amazing testimony of Buddhist devoutness still brings pilgrims and tourists alike to this out-of-the-way Himalayan village where ancient spirituality combines with modern-day curiosity in the continued presence of a 500-year-old monk whose physical form defied time.