NARRATOR: Mount Yudono, Japan--
in the 1,200-year-old Dainichibo Temple at the base of this holy
mountain, sitting on an altar within a glass case is
the mummy of the revered Buddhist monk, Daijuku
Botasutu Shinnyokai Shonin.
Shonin is what is known in Japan as sokhushinbutsu,
or a living Buddha.
He died in 1783 at the age of 96.
But shockingly, this is not when the mummification
process was started.
It began six years before his death.
This ritual of self-mummification
was commonly practiced by monks in the Shingon sect of Buddhism
in northern Japan between the 11th and 19th centuries.
They would willingly embark on a process
of self-mortification, which was tantamount to suicide.
The first phase would last about 1,000 days.
And they would begin the self-mummification process
by embarking on a very rigorous low calorie diet.
In the second phase of the process,
the practitioner would be imbibing the urushi tea.
Now, the urushi tea is highly toxic.
However, it was believed to lacquer, basically, the tissues
and organs from the inside out in order to favor
the mummification process.
And because of its toxicity--
the flesh so poisonous that even maggots would not consume it.
JONATHAN YOUNG: When they were nearly dead,
they would go into a small chamber just big enough
to sit in the lotus position.
It would be sealed up except for a reed
that allowed a little air in.
And inside, the monk had a bell.
One day, the bell would not ring.
The followers would withdraw the reed and seal up the chamber.
After 1,000 days, they would open
it to see what had happened.
KEN JEREMIAH: If the bodies had mummified,
they were considered living Buddhas.
And they were redressed in sacerdotal robes
and displayed in special temple halls called [japanese]..
If they had not mummified, an exorcism was performed,
and they were simply buried.
NARRATOR: Although hundreds of monks
tried to attain sokhushinbutsu, only 24
are known to have succeeded.
But why would these devout followers of Buddha
have endured such pain in order to mummify their own bodies?
One of the central beliefs of Buddhism is reincarnation.
But according to the Shingon sect,
those who successfully complete the self-mummification process
become higher beings.
The idea was they didn't think they were dying.
They perceived this as a state of suspended animation.
It wasn't death for them.
It wasn't life.
It was somewhere in between.
They needed the body preserved to enter this other dimension
of reality and to continue life, although it's not
life as we would interpret it.
NARRATOR: But what did it mean to a Shingon monk
to become a living Buddha and transition to a higher realm?
Perhaps the answer can be found by examining the life
of the original Buddha himself.
The historical Buddha was known as Siddhartha Gautama.
And he was born around the mid 6th century BCE.
He founded the Buddhist tradition in which he expounds
on the path to enlightenment.
It's very important that the historical Buddha
was understood as a human.
That gives every human practitioner
access to the same level of ability and enlightenment.
However, he also took on some magical powers that,
in some ways, brought him much closer to a divine being
or semi-divine being than to a normal mortal human.
He was known to teleport across the Ganges River,
appearing from one side of the river
to the other in the blink of an eye.
NARRATOR: Is it possible that the first Buddha
had extraterrestrial origins?
Might the Shingon monks have believed that,
through the process of self-mummification,
they too could be transformed into more advanced beings?
When you look at the life of Siddhartha Gautama Buddha,
he would appear to be somebody that we
would maybe call a star child--
part human, part extraterrestrial.