LUIS ALBERTO ROJAS - MÉJICO (MÉXICO)
The government of Viet Nam gave permission to a group of scientists to work in the restoration of the lacquered mummy of a Buddhist monk of the XVII century.
The monk's body, sat down in lotus position, it can be seen in a glass box that is in a pagoda located to some few kilometers of hanoi, the capital Vietnamese.
On the contrary that the rest of the mummies from all over the world, this still contains the internal organs of the one mummified.
When the Buddhist monk Vu Khac Minh felt to approach its death in 1639, locked in the pagoda and requested to its pupils that left it alone for 100 days to be able to meditate.
When they returned, they found the perfectly conserved monk's cadaver. Their followers concluded that Vu Khac Minh had reached the state of the Nirvana and they decided to conserve its body covering it with red lacquer.
Three centuries later, the mummy continues intact. However, some scientists affirm that the covering of the head and the legs are cracking and needs restoration.
Several international organizations have offered to finance the works, but the government thinks that the mummy is a national treasure and it is certain to obtain the US$24.000 that are needed locally.
The investigators say that all the bones and internal organs of the body are in their place and they clarify that they don't understand how the mummy - that hardly weighs 7 kilos - has survived so much time.
But the current main monk of the pagoda believes that the explanation is clear: their predecessor's preservation - it indicates - it illustrates the ability of the human body to reach a new level of grace through the Buddhist teachings.
