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ROME: Scientific tests have revealed that an ancient Buddhist statue contains the perfectly preserved remains of a 1,000-year-old mummified monk, in what is believed to be the only such example in the world.
The monk is thought to have starved himself to death in an act of extreme spiritual devotion in China or Tibet in the 10th century and his preserved remains displayed in his monastery.
Some 200 years later, perhaps after his remains started to deteriorate, his mummified body was placed inside the elaborate, lacquered statue of Buddha.
The unusual contents of the statue were discovered in the 1990s when it was being restored. Expert were unable to remove the mummy because of the risk of disintegration, so they could do little more than peer into the darkened cavity of the Buddha.
