I posted a while back about Sokushinbutsu, the ritual preparation for self-mummification performed by followers of Shugendô, an ancient Japanese form of Buddhism. It takes nine years of what might be described as über-asceticism. More than two dozen of these mummified corpses have just been found in northern Japan.
From the same site - Weird Asia News* – you may also be interested in the 92-year-old woman who's just delivered a lithopedion – a calcified baby – after carrying it around inside her for over sixty years. Or maybe not.
[* the front page currently carries that Shanghai sperm bank picture, which featured here, oooh, ages ago]
Mick Hartley 
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