'Buddha boy' said to have fasted six months

Article here.

Well, I certainly don't get it. This boy is fasting for 6 months straight, no food, water, or leaving his tree in all that time? I don't understand what spiritual/bodily event is going on here, and why he isn't long dead.

And then I start to wonder, is living life motionless in the crook of a tree... really living? Does God approve of tempting death this way?