[Migraine]

About 20+ years ago, NBC did a 12-hour miniseries called "Marco Polo". It was very well done and included a visit up to one of the caves where a certain man, called "the Immortal" spent his time meditating, and at one point, he said, because of his inertia and diet, he was "slowly becoming a mummy". He looked about like the guy in this photo, too. Does anyone else remember the miniseries? I'm glad I recorded it on the first VCR I ever owned; it has been unobtainable ever since. Either NBC or Rai Television Italiano yanked it from the light of day.

[farmfriend]

There is a technique through diet whereby eastern monks mummify themselves while still alive.

[Mr. Jeeves]

I remember the "Marco Polo" miniseries. Leonard Nimoy was in it, playing one of Kublai Khan's henchmen. It was a good series - they ought to put it on DVD.

[TigersEye]

Does anyone else remember the miniseries? I'm glad I recorded it on the first VCR I ever owned; it has been unobtainable ever since. Either NBC or Rai Television Italiano yanked it from the light of day.

I remember that show. Was there something unPC about it to cause them to bury it? I don't remember anything like that but then I didn't know about PC back then.

They said he was being fed some kind of condensed nutrition with tree resin in it that was mummifying him alive. That was in China but there is a practice in Tibet of sucking algae/lichen covered rocks for sustenance by cave dwelling ascetics. The best known of these in Tibetan history is Milarepa. It is said that he turned green from the chlorophyll. He also looked like a skeleton and he scared the crap of the locals when he finally came down from his cave naked, green and nothing but skin and bones.