Japanese Buddhist monks mummified themselves alive over several years

In the mountains of Yamagata, ascetic monks practising sokushinbutsu spent years on a diet of nuts, bark, and toxic tree resin tea to strip the body of fat and moisture. In the final stage a monk was sealed alive in a small underground tomb, ringing a bell daily until it stopped. If the body was later found undecomposed, he was venerated as a living Buddha; the Meiji government banned the practice in 1877.

— Ken Jeremiah, Living Buddhas: The Self-Mummified Monks of Yamagata, Japan — McFarland, 2010
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