TSURUOKA, YAMAGATA PREF. ¨C Perched cross-legged on an altar in one corner of Churenji Temple, cupped palms facing upward, the monk Tetsumonkai is set up for perpetual meditation ¡ª just as he intended as he lay dying nearly two centuries ago.
The skeletal figure draped in clerical robes is one of eight self-mummified monks ¡ª sokushinbutsu ¡ª found in the northeastern prefecture of Yamagata, among 18 thought to exist in Japan as a whole.
Several of these emaciated remains of zealots who endured extreme fasting to attain Buddha-hood are enshrined in old Shingon Buddhist temples sitting in the shadows of sacred Mount Yudono.
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