The body of the monk is seated in the Padmasana posture, the cross-legged lotus position, and was found on Januray 29, covered in cattle skin, in the Songino Khairkhan district of the capital, Ulaan Bataar.
The mummy is said to be under examination at the National Centre of Forensic Expertise. Gankhüügiin Pürevbat, founder of the Mongolian Institute of Buddhist Art at Ulaanbaatur Buddhist University said that the monk is in fact still alive. “The lama is sitting in the lotus position, the left hand is opened, and the right hand symbolizes of the preaching Sutra. This is a sign that the lama is not dead, but is in a very deep meditation according to the ancient tradition of Buddhist lamas.”
This state is known as tukdam in Buddhist literature, a kind of state similar to the yogic concept of samadhi. Dr. Barry Kerzin, a monk and a physician to the Dalai Lama, said, “If the person is able to remain in this state for more than three weeks – which rarely happens – his body gradually shrinks, and in the end all that remains from the person is his hair, nails, and clothes.”
According to Kersin, those who are in the lama’s presence at such a time will notice a rainbow across the sky, signifying that the lama has attained to what is known as a “rainbow body”, which is a state very close to Buddha-hood. Remaining in this “rainbow state” takes one towards Buddha-hood.
The monk’s body was discovered in an odd way. It appears that it was stolen from a cave to be sold off in the black market. A 45-year-old-man has been arrested in this connection. A similar case is known to have occurred with the body of Dashi-Dorzho Itigilov, a lama in Russia’s Buryatia region, which showed minimal decay when it was exhumed in 2002, having been buried in 1929. Monks at the monastery where the body is kept say that Itigilov is “not completely dead,” since the temperature of his body rises during monastery ceremonies.
