You’ve probably seen the video. It’s haunting, beautiful, and deeply jarring all at once. An incredibly frail, elderly man—appearing almost skeletal—is being tended to by a young girl. He’s a Buddhist monk. His skin looks like parchment stretched over bone. In some shots, he’s sitting up; in others, he’s reclining while someone brushes his head or feeds him.
The internet, being the internet, went absolutely wild when these clips first hit TikTok and Instagram. Within days, the Luang Pho Yai and the viral blind monk photos were being shared with captions claiming he was 163 years old. People were shouting about "Sokushinbutsu"—the ancient Japanese practice of self-mummification. They said he was "ascending" or that he had reached a state of living death through deep meditation.
It was all a bit much. Honestly, it was mostly wrong.
The reality is much more human. It’s a story about aging, a family’s devotion, and the way a quiet life in rural Thailand suddenly became a global spectacle because of an algorithm. Luang Pho Yai wasn't a 160-year-old miracle or a "living mummy." He was a 109-year-old man named Luang Pho Yai (also known as Luang Ta) who lived in the Dan Khun Thot District of Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand.
The Man Behind the Viral Images
Let’s get the facts straight. Luang Pho Yai was a highly respected Buddhist monk at Wat Ban Khlong Ban Phue. He didn't ask for the fame. It found him when his granddaughter, Auyary, started documenting his daily life on TikTok under the handle @auyary13.
She wasn't trying to start a cult or trick anyone. She was just a granddaughter showing how she cared for her "Great Grandpa."
In the videos, you see the physical reality of extreme old age. Because he was so thin and his eyes were clouded by cataracts, people immediately labeled him "the blind monk." He was indeed visually impaired due to his age, but the narrative that he was some sort of supernatural entity was a projection from viewers who hadn't seen someone live to 100+ years in such a raw, unfiltered way.
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Why he looked the way he did
Biologically, what you’re seeing in those blind monk photos is extreme muscle wasting and loss of subcutaneous fat, a condition often associated with frailty in the "oldest old." There’s no magic here. Just a body that has survived over a century.
- Age: He was 109. Not 163. Not 200.
- Health: He had recently suffered a hip fracture, which accelerated his physical decline. This is very common in centenarians; a fall is often the beginning of the end because the body can no longer repair itself at that scale.
- The "Mummy" Look: The "living mummy" comparisons came from his sunken features. In reality, he was receiving medical care and was being fed by his family. He wasn't practicing self-mummification, which is a specific, grueling process involving a specific diet and dehydration meant to preserve the body after death. Luang Pho Yai was just a very old man at the end of his life.
Why the Internet Got It So Wrong
We have this weird obsession with longevity. We want to believe someone has found the "secret." When the videos of Luang Pho Yai started circulating, the "163-year-old" rumor acted like wildfire. Why? Because 163 is a number that breaks the Guinness World Record (currently held by Jeanne Calment at 122).
The moment you attach a record-breaking number to a photo, people stop looking at the person and start looking at the "freak show."
It’s kinda sad, actually.
The misinformation was fueled by "content farms"—sites that scrape viral videos and add sensationalist headlines to get clicks. They took Auyary’s touching family videos and turned them into "Proof of 163-Year-Old Monk." They ignored the Thai captions. They ignored the actual birth records. They just wanted the engagement.
The Sokushinbutsu Misconception
You'll still find comments on those photos mentioning Sokushinbutsu. This is a Japanese tradition, primarily associated with the Shingon school of Buddhism. It hasn't been practiced for over a century and was never a mainstream part of Thai Theravada Buddhism.
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While Thai Forest Monks do practice intense asceticism and meditation in caves, the goal isn't to become a mummy. It's to achieve enlightenment and detachment from the physical form. Luang Pho Yai was a monk, yes, but he was living in a temple/home environment, surrounded by family and modern medicine, not a sealed stone chamber.
The Ethics of Sharing These Photos
There is a massive cultural gap in how we view these images. In many Western cultures, we hide the elderly. We put them in homes. We don't like to look at the "macabre" reality of a body failing.
In Thailand, and specifically in the context of Buddhist merit-making, caring for an elderly monk or family member is a high honor. Auyary was showing Metta (loving-kindness). For her, showing her grandfather wasn't exploitative; it was a testament to his long life and the merit he had earned.
But when those photos hit the global stage, the context evaporated.
People started making fun of him. They made memes. They called him "the skeleton." It highlights a major issue with how we consume "viral" content: we forget there’s a human being on the other side of the screen who still has a heartbeat and a family that loves them.
The End of the Journey
Luang Pho Yai passed away in March 2022.
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The family used the TikTok platform to announce his death and share the funeral proceedings. It was a traditional Thai funeral, full of color, chanting, and community. Even after his death, the photos continued to circulate as "new" sightings. That’s the "zombie" nature of the internet—content never truly dies, even when the subject does.
If you look at the blind monk photos now, try to see past the "living mummy" headlines. You're looking at a man who lived through the reign of several kings, the transition of Thailand from Siam to a modern nation, and world wars. He was a pillar of his local community for longer than most of us will be alive.
Lessons from the Viral Phenomenon
What can we actually learn from the Luang Pho Yai saga? It’s not about how to live to 109. It’s about how we process information in a digital age.
- Verify the Source: If a caption says someone is 163, they aren't. Biology has limits. The oldest verified human ever was 122. If someone claims otherwise, they're selling you a story, not a fact.
- Context is King: A video of a girl brushing a monk's head is a video of caregiving. If you strip away the music and the captions, it’s a universal human moment.
- Respect the Aging Process: The visceral reaction people had to his appearance says more about our fear of death than it does about him.
To truly understand the Luang Pho Yai and the viral blind monk photos, you have to look at them through the lens of devotion. He was a man who spent his life in service to his faith, and in his final days, his family returned that service to him. That’s the real story. Not the mummies, not the 160-year-old myths—just a long life, well-lived, and finally at rest.
Next Steps for Deepening Your Understanding
To get a better grasp of the reality behind these images and avoid the "viral trap" in the future, you should look into the following:
- Research the "oldest old" biology: Look up the work of Dr. Nir Barzilai or the Blue Zones research to understand how centenarians actually age and why muscle wasting (sarcopenia) occurs so dramatically after age 100.
- Learn about Thai Funeral Rites: To see how Luang Pho Yai was actually honored, search for "Thai Buddhist funeral traditions." It provides a beautiful contrast to the "creepy" narrative often pushed by Western social media.
- Check Fact-Checking Sites: Before sharing sensationalist "miracle" photos, always run a quick search on Snopes or PolitiFact. They covered the Luang Pho Yai story extensively when it first peaked in 2022.