Science: Buddhist Lama Corpse Stuns the World

Society | December 3, 2004, Friday // 00:00

The body of Russian Buddhist lama Dashi-Dorzho Itigilov, who died in 1927, did not decay over a 75-year period, medical experts and historians say.

The Russian officials announced that samples taken 75 years after the burial indicated that the organics of this man's sin, hair and nails is no different from that of a living person.

The body of Dashi-Dorzho Itigilov, who, as Hambo-Lama, was the spiritual leader of Russia's Buddhists from 1911 to 1927, was first exhumed in 1955, at the Lama's request. When a third exhumation in 2002 still showed no decay, medical experts decided to examine the miracle.

His joints bend easily, soft tissues can be forced effortlessly, just like with a living human being; after the coffin cover has been removed, we could all sense sweet smell coming out from the inside, Galina Yershova, Professor of history at the Russian State University for Humanities, said.

The body has become holy for Buddhists in the Russian region of Buryatia, where it rests in the Ivolgin Buddhist Monastery in the regional capital of Ulan-Ude.

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