--- title: Blue Laws, Bog Bodies, and Buddhist Mummies description: This post features additional resources from our podcast episode on Preservation, where we discuss Blue Laws, Bog Bodies, and Buddhist Monks. image: http://www.historyontherocks.com/hubfs/_Mummified_monk-su_3210692b.jpg --- [![MountVictory_ToriZopf](http://www.historyontherocks.com/hubfs/Victory_Assisting/VA_PaperclipMountain.png "MountVictory_ToriZopf")](https://www.torizopf.com) [![Subscribe Now!](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/495828/ab843ea5-c19c-420f-aba7-46de1007471f.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/495828/ab843ea5-c19c-420f-aba7-46de1007471f) # A Personalized Pour from History on the Rocks ## [Blue Laws, Bog Bodies, and Buddhist Mummies](https://www.torizopf.com/blog/blue-laws-bog-bodies-buddhist-mummies) [fa icon="calendar"] Apr 14, 2015 4:27:33 PM / by [Marco Costantini](https://www.torizopf.com/blog/author/marco-costantini) ![](http://www.historyontherocks.com/hs-fs/hub/495828/file-2630568190-png/MarcoHeadshotSquare.png) - [Tweet](https://twitter.com/share) Our very own Kellen says it best this week - All the best poems are morbid. If that goes for podcasts, too, this week should be riveting! --- What's the story behind buying (or not buying) liquor on Sundays? Where *is* the best place to hide a two-thousand-year-old body? And most importantly, how can you make sure your grandkids' grandkids know what a handsome devil you are? We give you a step-by-step self-mummification guide!* ![_Mummified_monk-su_3210692b](http://www.historyontherocks.com/hubfs/_Mummified_monk-su_3210692b.jpg) This is the 1,000 year-old [self-mummified monk](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/11432544/Mummified-monk-revealed-inside-1000-year-old-Buddha-statue.html), Liquan, protected and preserved inside a Buddhist statue. Previously on display at a museum in the Netherlands, he's run into some [controversy](http://gantdaily.com/2015/03/23/chinese-relic-experts-claim-1000-year-old-mummified-monk-was-stolen/) over how he was--perhaps illegally--obtained from a Chinese monastery. Let's not forget our other unrotted friend, the Tollund Man. [Found in a bog](http://www.tollundman.dk/udseende.asp) in Denmark, he was remarkably well preserved, and further immortalized in a haunting, darkly beautiful poem by Nobel laureate, Seamus Heaney. ![The Tollund Man](http://www.tollundman.dk/gifs/tollundmanden_1.jpg "The Tollund Man")  **"**[**The Tollund Man**](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/bog/toll-heaney.html)" *I* * Some day I will go to Aarhus* * To see his peat-brown head,* * The mild pods of his eye-lids,* * His pointed skin cap.* *In the flat country near by* * Where they dug him out,* * His last gruel of winter seeds* * Caked in his stomach,* *Naked except for* * The cap, noose and girdle,* * I will stand a long time.* * Bridegroom to the goddess,* *She tightened her torc on him* * And opened her fen,* * Those dark juices working* * Him to a saint's kept body,* *Trove of the turfcutters'* * Honeycombed workings.* * Now his stained face* * Reposes at Aarhus.* *II* * I could risk blasphemy,* * Consecrate the cauldron bog* * Our holy ground and pray* * Him to make germinate* *The scattered, ambushed* * Flesh of labourers,* * Stockinged corpses* * Laid out in the farmyards,* *Tell-tale skin and teeth* * Flecking the sleepers* * Of four young brothers, trailed* * For miles along the lines.* *III* *Something of his sad freedom* * As he rode the tumbril* * Should come to me, driving,* * Saying the names* * Tollund, Grauballe, Nebelgard,* * Watching the pointing hands* * Of country people,* * Not knowing their tongue.* * Out there in Jutland* * In the old man-killing parishes* * I will feel lost,* * Unhappy and at home.* To find out more about Blue Laws, Bog Bodies, and Buddhist Mummies, check out [our most recent podcast on Preservation](https://soundcloud.com/historyontherocks/history-on-the-rocks-ep-1-preservation)! ---  *Please do not actually attempt to mummify yourself. Drinking lacquer and arsenic is bad for you (probably). ![Marco Costantini](http://www.historyontherocks.com/hs-fs/hub/495828/file-2630568190-png/MarcoHeadshotSquare.png) #### Written by [Marco Costantini](https://www.torizopf.com/blog/author/marco-costantini) [[fa icon="twitter-square"]](https://www.twitter.com/BadHistorian) ### Subscribe to Email Updates - Recent - Popular - Categories ### Lists by Topic - [Unnoticed POTUS (3)](https://www.torizopf.com/blog/topic/unnoticed-potus) - [Cocktail Recipes (2)](https://www.torizopf.com/blog/topic/cocktail-recipes) - [Hard Liquor Histories (1)](https://www.torizopf.com/blog/topic/hard-liquor-histories) - [History Mnemonics (1)](https://www.torizopf.com/blog/topic/history-mnemonics) - [History of History (1)](https://www.torizopf.com/blog/topic/history-of-history) - [POTUS Potables (1)](https://www.torizopf.com/blog/topic/potus-potables) - [Podcast Episodes (1)](https://www.torizopf.com/blog/topic/podcast-episodes) ### Posts by Topic - [Unnoticed POTUS (3)](https://www.torizopf.com/blog/topic/unnoticed-potus) - [Cocktail Recipes (2)](https://www.torizopf.com/blog/topic/cocktail-recipes) - [Hard Liquor Histories (1)](https://www.torizopf.com/blog/topic/hard-liquor-histories) - [History Mnemonics (1)](https://www.torizopf.com/blog/topic/history-mnemonics) - [History of History (1)](https://www.torizopf.com/blog/topic/history-of-history) - [POTUS Potables (1)](https://www.torizopf.com/blog/topic/potus-potables) - [Podcast Episodes (1)](https://www.torizopf.com/blog/topic/podcast-episodes) [see all](https://www.torizopf.com/blog/blue-laws-bog-bodies-buddhist-mummies#) ### Recent Posts #### About Us History on the Rocks is a podcast serving up history, cocktails, and the history of cocktails. 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