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From mummies to Marcos: Famous preserved corpses

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Agence France Presse

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/news-special1/nation/11/24/112416_imelda.jpg"/><figcaption><div class="embed-desc">Former first lady Imelda Marcos kisses a glass case containing the refrigerated remains of her late husband, former Philippines president Ferdinand Marcos, during a visit in Batac, Ilocas Norte, Northern Philippines 11 September 2005, to mark his 88th birthday anniversary. Imelda Marcos supported President Gloria Arroyo during a failed impeachment bid earlier this month, leading to speculation that Arroyo would finally grant the Marcos family&#x27;s wish to inter the remains of the former president at the National Heroes&#x27; Cemetery in Manila.<em> Jay Directo, AFP</em></div></figcaption></figure></div><p>Filipinos paying their respects to the preserved body of dictator Ferdinand Marcos were looking at a wax mask, his mortician has told AFP.</p><p>The divisive strongman died in exile in 1989 after he was booted out in a &quot;People Power&quot; revolt, but his embalmed body was returned to his ancestral home where it lay on display for over two decades.</p><p>His burial in Heroes&#x27; Cemetery last week sparked controversy in the Philippines, and removed him from the relatively exclusive global club of famous bodies on display.</p><p>Here are some of the others:</p><div><strong>Vladimir Lenin</strong></div><p>Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin was the original communist leader to be embalmed, starting a trend among hard-left regimes around the world.</p><p>Lenin died in 1924 aged 53, and had wanted to be buried with his mother in the former imperial capital of Saint Petersburg, but was instead preserved in a mausoleum on Red Square, where he remains, attracting visitors curious to see the Bolshevik founder of the Soviet Union.</p><p>Debates on whether to remove the body started after the collapse of the USSR in 1991 but Russia&#x27;s Communist party has vehemently lobbied to keep Lenin in situ.</p><div><strong>Egyptian mummies</strong></div><p>Say &quot;Ancient Egypt&quot; to any schoolchild and the first thing they&#x27;ll think of is the mummies -- preserved remains of important figures.</p><p>The British Museum in London houses a collection of 120 human mummies from Egypt and Sudan, which count as one of its biggest draws for many visitors.</p><p>The museum also has 300 mummified animals, including dogs, cats and even a crocodile.</p><p>None of the mummies has been unwrapped since the 1790s and museum experts have used x-rays and CT scans to carry out research on them.</p><div><strong>Mao Zedong</strong></div><p>The Chinese revolutionary leader, who died on September 9, 1976, has been embalmed and on show since 1977 in a glass cubicle in the Mao Zedong Memorial Hall in Beijing&#x27;s Tiananmen Square.</p><p>Mao&#x27;s body was placed in formaldehyde and other preserving fluids, according to an account in the People&#x27;s Daily newspaper, and today the parts of Mao&#x27;s body which cannot be seen are bathed in liquid.</p><p>When the mausoleum is closed, the cadaver is lowered into a container maintained at a low temperature, the paper said.</p><div><strong>Eva Peron</strong></div><p>Eva Peron, Argentina&#x27;s emblematic first lady of the 1940s and 50s, was embalmed when she died of cancer in 1952 at age 33.</p><p>&quot;Evita&quot; was as adored by her husband&#x27;s poor and working-class base as she was reviled by the military and elite.</p><p>After Juan Peron was toppled in a 1955 coup, army officers secretly removed Evita&#x27;s corpse from its resting place at a pro-Peron trade union headquarters and hid it.</p><p>Worried Peronist militants would find it, then-dictator Pedro Aramburu had the body taken to Italy and buried in Milan under a false name.</p><p>Peron&#x27;s third wife and successor, Isabel, finally struck a deal: Evita&#x27;s body was returned to Argentina in 1974 and she has rested ever since in her family mausoleum in Buenos Aires, a place of pilgrimage for her admirers and fans of the musical and movie about her life.</p><div><strong>Ho Chi Minh</strong></div><p>Although he wanted his ashes to be scattered over the country, the father of modern Vietnam was embalmed upon his death on September 2, 1969.</p><p>His body, preserved in the cold under a glass sarcophagus, has been on show since 1975 in a mausoleum in Hanoi.</p><p>The country has regularly called in help from Moscow in preserving the body, reflecting Soviet-era ties.</p><div><strong>Papuan smoked mummies</strong></div><p>The Dani people in the highlands of Indonesia&#x27;s remote, easternmost region of Papua used smoke and animal oil to preserve important elders and local heroes.</p><p>The desiccated, blackened figure of Agat Mamete Mabel, a chieftain who ruled over Wogi village some 250 years ago is one of the most notable -- decorated with pig tusks slung around the torso, a feathered headpiece, and a traditional penis gourd.</p><p>The corpse is kept in a thatch-roofed hut, where it is tended by a select few villagers.</p><div><strong>Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il</strong></div><p>The bodies of North Korea&#x27;s founding president Kim Il-Sung and his son Kim Jong-Il are on permanent display at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun mausoleum in Pyongyang.</p><p>When Kim Il-Sung died of a heart attack in 1994, Russian scientists helped preserve the body of North Korea&#x27;s &quot;eternal president&quot;, who now lies in a glass coffin with filtered lights to keep his face looking rosy.</p><p>The Russian team assisted with the embalming of Kim Jong-Il&#x27;s body when he passed away in December 2011 -- also from a heart attack -- and is believed to be in charge of the maintenance of the bodies.</p><p>Present-day leader Kim Jong-Un and his close aides visit the mausoleum on key national holidays -- such as Kim Il-Sung&#x27;s birthday -- to pay their respects to his late grandfather and father.</p><p>Foreign visitors are allowed in the cavernous mausoleum twice a week -- Thursdays and Sundays -- but must dress according to a strict code and bow before the bodies.</p><div><strong>burs-hg/tm</strong></div><div><strong>© 1994-2016 Agence France-Presse</strong></div>

<p>Filipinos paying their respects to the preserved body of dictator Ferdinand Marcos were looking at a wax mask, his mortician has told AFP.</p>

Filipinos paying their respects to the preserved body of dictator Ferdinand Marcos were looking at a wax mask, his mortician has told AFP.