( CNN ) A statue of a sitting Buddha that made its way from a temple in China to a market in the Netherlands revealed an extraordinary secret -- a 1,000-year-old mummified monk . The mummy was discovered , encased in a cavity in the statue , when a private buyer brought it to an expert for restoration . It 's unclear when or how the statue was removed from China . But it was n't until a team of researchers and scientists did a CT scan -- a comprehensive three dimensional x-ray image -- last year , did they discover the mummy 's organs were missing . `` We thought it would be lung tissue , but instead we found little scraps of paper covered with Chinese characters , '' said Vincent van Vilsteren , an archaeology curator from Drents Museum . The mummy was found sitting on a bundle of cloth covered in Chinese inscriptions , revealing its identity as a Buddhist monk called Liuquan who may have practiced `` self-mummification '' to prepare for life after death . The process of self-mummification is a known tradition in countries like Japan , China and Thailand , and was practiced over a thousand years ago . The elaborate and arduous process includes eating a special diet and drinking a poisonous tea so the body would be too toxic to be eaten by maggots . The few monks that were able to successfully complete the process were highly revered . `` We suspect that for the first 200 years , the mummy was exposed and worshiped in a Buddhist temple in China ... only in the 14th century did they do all the work to transform it into a nice statue , '' said van Vilsteren . Researchers are still waiting on DNA analysis results in hopes to trace the mummy back to its exact location in China . The statue is now housed in the National Museum of Natural History in Budapest and will move to Luxembourg in May as a part of an international tour .
A mummified monk from Netherlands was found inside a Buddha statue . Researchers believe the monk practiced `` self-mummification ''