Bonze Vu Khac Minh (R) who has been preserved in this sitting posture since his death in the 17th century and a replica at Dau Pagoda

A Vietnamese expert strips the mystery surrounding a unique process used to preserve Buddhist monks’ bodies in China and Vietnam.

He later wrote a book titled Bi mat phia sau nhuc than cua cac vi thien su (The secrets behind bonzes’ bodies) about the 300-year-old ritual.

“Statue burial” involves covering a dead monk with a mixture of traditional paint made from latex, sawdust, paper made from the bark of do trees (Rhamnoneuron balansae Gilg), and soil.

The body was finally covered with a thin layer of silver, gold, or lacquer, giving it the appearance of a statue.

Interestingly, all the bodies he has treated so far are seated, apparently in meditation.

The most commonly known ways of disposing of the dead around the world are burial, cremation, water burial (bodies are cast adrift in boats), sky burial (corpses are placed to be devoured by vultures), and hanging coffins, he says.

Statue burial is distinct from Egyptian embalmment in that the corpse doesn’t have its brain and internal organs removed, he explains.

“It’s interesting that despite the very thin cover, the bodies retain their shape. Traditional paints are very enduring.

“Statue burial was only given to bonzes of great merit and the rich never could buy it.”

The practice has been discovered only in Vietnam and China so far and though it has been dated back to the 8th century A.D. in China, only one such body has been found there.

In Vietnam, two large copper pieces are laid on the chest and back probably to help keep the back straight.

Copper strips also wind around the bonze’s head and neck which may serve to protect the skull, Cuong, who is now vice general secretary of the Vietnam Association of Archaeology, says.

“These are some unique details that have never been found in any other embalmment techniques around the world.

“After spending many years studying and restoring the bonzes’ body statues, I realized how interesting and unique the ritual is. That’s the reason I spent five years writing the book and want to tell the public about it.”

The beginning

Cuong says his first encounter with statue burial was in May 1983 when he went to Dau Pagoda, which had the bodies of two bonzes, Vu Khac Minh and Vu Khac Truong, who lived in the 17th century. He had gone to the pagoda in what used to be Ha Tay Province (now part of Hanoi) to check its deteriorating bell tower.

Wandering around the place, he came across a small old temple where one of the bonzes’ bodies was placed.

From local legend, he gathered it must have been that of Minh.

“I discovered the skull was still inside through a crack on the statue’s forehead. So I thought about taking an X-ray of it to show the entire body was inside.”

Radiographs later showed that the corpse’s ribs and vertebra had collapsed into its abdomen, while the skull and vomer, a thin plate of bone inside the nose, were undamaged, unlike in Egyptian mummies.

“Therefore, theoretically the brain and internal organs were still in place,” he explains, adding that most other bones remained in their original place.

But he only managed to conclusively establish this 20 years later when he was invited to restore the statue of bonze Nhu Tri, who died in 1723, at Tieu Son Pagoda in the northern province of Bac Ninh.

During the restoration he and his colleagues found remains of the bonze’s internal organs. They also found the body were supported and protected by pieces and strips of copper.

Besides these two statues, Cuong also helped restore bonze Truong’s statue. It had earlier been restored once in 1893 by building a new outer covering after being damaged during a flood.

In 1991, he restored the statue of bonze Chuyet Chuyet at Phat Tich Pagoda in Bac Ninh.

In it, he found thin copper wires though the mixture covering the body was the same as that used in Minh’s statue.

It led him to believe that people must have made a frame around the body using the wires before applying the mixture.

Cuong says it will take him and a generation of younger archaeologists time to learn thoroughly about it, including its philosophy and meaning.

“I don’t think people in old times used statue burial just to preserve the bonzes’ bodies though it’s common in Buddhism.”

Source: Thanh Nien, Agencies