Such practice is quite common within east asia. It is called 'sokushinbutsu' in Japanese, kanji of which translated into 即身仏, which means 肉身佛 in Chinese, literally 'flesh body buddha'. From wikipedia, monk Hui Neng, dating back to 638 A.D. tang dynasty, seems to be believed the first of such example.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huineng" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huineng</a><p>I cannot say I understand how this is explained from Buddhism within, because I am not practitioner. But if such thing happens, it is usually viewed as some kind of wonder/miracle by the locals, and also means the monk has ascended to be Buddha.
Previous discussion :<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10650278" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10650278</a><p>(With a less catchy title)
How could someone who is fully enlightened, full of joy and love for all living beings, and totally at peace with oneself choose to indulge in such a practice?<p>This was less about enlightenment and more about pride and ritual, two powerful forces in all human cultures but, arguably, a greater force in medieval Japan than anywhere else, before or since.
If you find this sort of quirky ( by Western European standards ) behaviour interesting, then I highly recommend The Naked Eye and Known Unknowns by Charles Saatchi.<p>The self mummification is one of his short essays.<p><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Naked-Eye-Charles-Saatchi/dp/1861543409" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Naked-Eye-Charles-Saatchi/dp/186...</a><p><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Known-Unknowns-Charles-Saatchi/dp/1861543603" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.co.uk/Known-Unknowns-Charles-Saatchi/dp/18...</a>
> These monks also believed deeply in self-sacrifice in service to others. This manifested in a lot of the usual community service: feeding the poor, caring for the elderly, treating the sick.<p>Boy, did that change. Now monks in Japan are all about extorting money from people for any kind of service, and ride in ridiculously expensive cars. Buddha would be proud.
How did the monks of Kiev Lavra end up mummified?<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiev_Pechersk_Lavra" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiev_Pechersk_Lavra</a>
In the 80's and 90's you would pay a lot of money for a cassette deck that would minimise hiss. Here we are in 2015 adding it in artificially.