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A mummified monk found in the lotus position in Mongolia is 'not dead' and is instead one stage away from becoming a real-life Buddha, it has been claimed. Forensic examinations are under way on the amazing remains, which are believed to be around 200 years old, having been preserved in animal skin. But one expert has insisted the human relic is actually in 'very deep meditation' and in a rare and very special spiritual state known as 'tukdam'. Over the last 50 years there are said to have been 40 such cases in India involving meditating Tibetan monks. Dr Barry...

A mummified monk found preserved in Mongolia last week has been baffling and astounding those who uncovered him. Senior Buddhists say the monk, found sitting in the lotus position, is in a deep meditative trance and not dead. Forensic examinations are under way on the remains, found wrapped in cattle skins in north-central Mongolia. ... The monk was discovered after being stolen by a man hoping to sell him on the black market.

Tibetan monk lived three centuries, weighs just 30 killo, has clear mind with strong memory, no signs of illness.

It is thought the specimens became trapped inside the cave where the constant temperature and stable humidity perfectly mummified the remains. Image Credit: A. Boug Research Square (2025) CC BY 4.0 =============================================================== Alot of fun creatures dwell in caves, from cave spiders to the orange crocs and even a whole range of eyeless beasties. However, one species not typically found in caves is cheetahs, but a host of their mummified remains has been discovered inside a cave in Saudi Arabia. Cheetahs were once widespread across the Arabian Peninsula but have lost around 98 percent of their original historic range. Inside...

Researchers analyzed the ancient DNA of two mummies from what is now Libya to learn about people who lived in the "Green Sahara" 7,000 years ago. Naturally mummified human remains found in the Takarkori rock shelter in the Sahara desert point to a previously unknown human population. (Image credit: © Archaeological Mission in the Sahara, Sapienza University of Rome) Two 7,000-year-old mummies belong to a previously unknown human lineage that remained isolated in North Africa for thousands of years, a new study finds. The mummies are the remains of women who once lived in the "Green Sahara," also known as...

A new study reveals a long-isolated North African human lineage in the Central Sahara during the African humid period more than 7,000 years ago To the point DNA analysis from two naturally mummified individuals from Libya: More than 7,000 years ago, during the so-called African Humid Period (Green Sahara), a long isolated human lineage existed in North Africa. Limited gene flow: The genomes do not carry sub-Saharan African ancestry, suggesting that, contrary to previous interpretations, the Green Sahara was not a migration corridor between Northern and Sub-Saharan Africa. The spread of migratory herding in the Green Sahara probably occurred through...

The practice of mummification evolved significantly over time. During the Predynastic period (around 5000 BCE), bodies were preserved naturally by the hot, dry desert sand. By the Old Kingdom (2700-2200 BCE), embalmers began using natron – a natural mixture of sodium carbonate and other salts – along with resins and aromatic materials. The process reached its peak of sophistication during the New Kingdom (1570-1069 BCE), when embalmers employed a complex array of fragrant substances including coniferous resins, oils from cedar and pine, precious spices, and aromatic gums like frankincense and myrrh.Scientists examined nine mummies that showcase this evolution of preservation...

Egypt 'starts work on mummifying shark that devoured Russian tourist so it can be displayed in a MUSEUM after removing victim's head, chest and arms from the predator's stomach' Vladimir Popov, 23, was mauled to death by a tiger shark at Egyptian resort It comes after a 68-year-old was killed by shark at a nearby resort last year Egypt has started work on mummifying the shark that devoured a Russian tourist so that it can be displayed that it can be displayed at a museum, according to a report. The body parts of Vladimir Popov, 23, who was eaten alive...

* The head was brought home by a British soldier who fought in Egypt during WWI * Remained in soldier's family for a century and is now being sold by a descendant A rare 2,800-year-old mummified Egyptian head brought to the UK by a British soldier during the First World War has gone on sale. The artefact, which was stuffed away in a cupboard for decades because 'it is not everyone's cup of tea', has an eye-watering price tag of £20,000. It has been carbon dated to between 800 BC and 750 BC. The head remained in the unnamed soldier's...

...The sophistication of the body’s mummification process and the materials used – including its exceptionally fine linen dressing and high-quality resin – was not thought to have been achieved until 1,000 years later. Professor Salima Ikram, head of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo and a leading expert on the history of mummification, told the Observer: “If this is indeed an Old Kingdom mummy, all books about mummification and the history of the Old Kingdom will need to be revised.” She added: “This would completely turn our understanding of the evolution of mummification on its head. The materials used,...

The Toraja people of Indonesia often don't bury their deceased loved ones for years - or even decades In a mountainous area of Indonesia, the Toraja people mummify the bodies of the deceased and care for their preserved bodies as though they are still living. There are around one million Torajan people, most of whom live in the South Sulawesi region, who believe that after death the soul remains in the house so the dead are treated to food, clothing, water, cigarettes. The stench is strong, so the family will store lots of dried plants beside the body to mask...

For years, WME vp Skip Chasey has led an openly double life as a "master" in L.A.'s BDSM community. But a role-playing encounter involving plastic wrap went horrifically wrong, leading to the demise of a UCLA professor, whose partner speaks out for the first time. For nearly three decades, Skip Chasey, one of Hollywood's top dealmakers, led a delicate balancing act of an existence. One Sunday last November, it all came tumbling down around him. That something tragic had occurred became known to his many friends the following morning, when on Nov. 20, 2017, Chasey posted a troubling Facebook message:...

Building on a previous study conducted at a single Bronze Age burial site in the Outer Hebrides, Dr Booth used microscopic analysis to compare the bacterial bioerosion of skeletons from various sites across the UK with the bones of the mummified bodies from Yemen and Ireland. Archaeologists widely agree that the damp British climate is not favourable to organic materials and all prehistoric mummified bodies that may be located in the UK will have lost their preserved tissue if buried outside of a preservative environment such as a bog. Dr Booth, who is now based at the Department of Earth...

Thanks to the careful work of archaeologists, we learned more in the past year about Stonehenge's hidden monuments, Richard III's gruesome death and King Tut's mummified erection. From the discovery of an ancient tomb in Greece to the first evidence of Neanderthal art, here are 10 of Live Science's favorite archaeology stories of 2014. 1. An Alexander the Great-era tomb at Amphipolis [snip] 2. Stonehenge's secret monuments [snip] 3. A shipwreck under the World Trade Center [snip] 4. Richard III's twisted spine, kingly diet and family tree [snip] 5. A teenager in a "black hole" [snip] 6. Syria by satellite...

A committee administering Egypt's antiquities decided Tuesday to re-erect a dismantled replica tomb of King Tutankhamun, placing it beside the former residence of discoverer Howard Carter on Luxor's west bank. Secretary-general of the Ministry of the State of Antiquities (MSA), Mostafa Amin, told Ahram Online that the replica tomb will provide tourists with a better picture of how Carter lived during his excavation work at the Valley of the Kings in the early 1920s. Tourists can already visit the Carter Rest-House in Luxor, which has been restored and developed into a museum displaying the tools and instruments he used during...

Up to 70 percent of British men and half of all Western European men are related to the Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun, geneticists in Switzerland said. Scientists at Zurich-based DNA genealogy centre, iGENEA, reconstructed the DNA profile of the boy Pharaoh, who ascended the throne at the age of nine, his father Akhenaten and grandfather Amenhotep III, based on a film that was made for the Discovery Channel. The results showed that King Tut belonged to a genetic profile group, known as haplogroup R1b1a2, to which more than 50 percent of all men in Western Europe belong, indicating that they share...

The pharaoh was buried in Egypt's Valley of the Kings without a heart (or a replacement artifact known as a heart scarab); his penis was mummified erect; and his mummy and coffins were covered in a thick layer of black liquid that appear to have resulted in the boy-king catching fire... The mummified erect penis and other burial anomalies were not accidents during embalming, Ikram suggests, but rather deliberate attempts to make the king appear as Osiris, the god of the underworld, in as literal a way as possible. The erect penis evokes Osiris' regenerative powers; the black liquid made...

King Tutankhamun's rediscovered penis could make the pharaoh stand out in the shrunken world of male mummies, according to a close look into old pictures of the 3,300-year-old mummified king... Photographed intact by Harry Burton (1879-1940) during Howard Carter's excavation of Tut's tomb in 1922, the royal penis was reported missing in 1968, when British scientist Ronald Harrison took a series of X-rays of the mummy. Speculation abounded that the penis had been stolen and sold. "Instead, it has always been there. I found it during the CT scan last year, when the mummy was lifted. It lay loose in...

Michigan woman dead for six years found only after money runs out For six years the bills were paid, the grass was cut and no one noticed the body of the dead woman sitting in the back seat of a car in a garage of a residential Pontiac, Michigan neighborhood. Her mummified body was finally found this week by someone dispatched to check on the property that fell into foreclosure after the money ran out of her account and the mortgage payments stopped, police said on Friday. "It is kind of the perfect storm for a mysterious set of circumstance...

Spanish man home from prison finds his wife mummified in bed Eduardo Ruiz grew concerned when he stopped hearing from his wife, Ángeles Fernández. But authorities refused to allow anyone to enter the home, despite complaints of an unpleasant smell in the area — until he managed a conditional release and broke in himself. A man in Spain came home from prison last week to find his wife mummified on her bed. Eduardo Ruiz, from the town of Ciempozuelos just outside Madrid, had not heard from his wife for a year when he complained to police in 2011. At the...