'Mummified Buddhist lama comes back to
life after 89 years and wanders around museum to call for world
peace': Claim after security camera shows priest
'moving'
WILL STEWART IN MOSCOW FOR
MAILONLINE 11 October
2016
Religious
leaders in Russia have claimed that the mummified remains of a
Buddhist lama who died 89 years ago wandered around a museum in a
bid for world peace.
The
preserved remains of Lama Dashi-Dorzho Itigilov - the revered
Buddhist leader in Russia before and after the Bolshevik Revolution
- are normally kept in a glass sarcophagus located on the second
floor of his 'palace' near Ulan-Ude in Siberia.
But now
local religious leaders claim CCTV footage shows the lama moving
both on Sunday and Monday night, in what they say might be a call
for world peace.
Some
Buddhists believe that the lama, who died in 1927 and was buried in
the lotus position before his remains were exhumed with almost no
decay, remains alive or hibernates in a nirvana-like
state.
And Lama
Damba Ayusheev, current head of the Buddhist Traditional Sangha,
hit back at claims from doubters that one of the fuzzy pictures
likely shows a security guard possibly wearing military fatigues,
carrying two bags and wearing shoes.
He told
the Siberian
Times: 'One image shows a grainy
figure in the foreground, while a second, a day later, shows a
similar figure close to or on a sofa.
'This is
not a joke, that's for sure' posted Ayusheev, from the Republic of
Buryatia, a Buddhist region of Russia.+6
'I see a
figure of a man on the shot, as you do, and I know precisely there
could not be anyone in the Palace of Khambo Lama Itigilov at this
time.'
The first
sighting was at 8.05pm when nobody had access to the lama's chamber
at this time, he insisted.
He added:
'The lama is in five or six metres down the hall on his throne, and
this place [where the man stands] is at the front door.'
A second
picture apparently showing lama Itiligov was on the move again,
this time by the sofa.
The images
are poor quality and he has not released full footage but said the
image was triggered by movement in the room.
'There is
no video, only a flash from the body on the shot,' he
said.
'I was
taken aback by this image, though somewhere in the depths of the
mind I imagined such a possibility, but I still was not ready to
see this,' said Ayusheev.
A spokesman
for the Buddhist Traditional Sangha of Russia, Tubden Baldanov,
agreed that Lama Itigelov had moved and added: 'The fact that he
appeared in camouflage ... We do not know.+6
'Maybe it's
some kind of sign? Maybe he says something? Perhaps, that the
international organisations should work on peace?'
Born in
1852, Lama Itiligov was prominent in the spiritual life of tsarist
Russia immediately before the Bolshevik Revolution.
He took
part in the Tercentenary celebrations of the House of Romanov in
1913, and opened the Datsan Gunzechoinei, the first Buddhist temple
in St Petersburg.
The famous
lama died in 1927, the year after warning Buddhist monks to leave
the Soviet Union because they would be overwhelmed by 'Red
teaching'. His final request was to buried in the lotus position,
in which he had died.
When his
remains were examined in 1955 and again in 1973 the monks were
astonished to note no signs of decay. They kept their knowledge
hidden from the Soviet authorities.+6
In
September 2002, Itigilov's body was exhumed once more in the
presence of the leaders of the Buddhist Traditional Sangha of
Russia.
It was
closely examined by monks as well as by scientists and
pathologists.
The remains
were found to be 'in the condition of someone who had died 36 hours
ago', extraordinarily well preserved and without signs of
decay.
Muscles and
inner tissue, soft joints and skin remained intact, according to
accounts of the observations.
Some have
claimed that the lama was preserved in salt. Others say he is in a
state of hibernation, nirvana-like, and is in fact still
alive.