Mysterious Ancient Tradition Of ‘Hanging Coffins’

MessageToEagle.com – Hanging coffins are coffins which have been placed on cliffs and this very ancient funeral custom can be found in various locations, including China, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

They represent a some kind of ‘aerial cemetery’.

While many cultures bury their dead out of sight beneath a commemorative headstone or a plaque, some societies in China, Indonesia and the Philippines have been hanging their ancestors prominently on cliff faces for centuries.

In China, the suspended coffins can be found hanging 33 to 164 feet high and some even as high as 328 feet above the ground.

The coffins are usually built in three ways. One is the stake style. Two or three holes are chiseled on the bluff in which stakes are inserted to support it.
Another way is to chisel caves on the bluff and put the coffins in directly. Yet another is to put the coffins directly in the natural caves or cracks between the two cliffs.
Researchers have found that the suspended coffins are one of the funeral customs of the Pu People who lived in the vicinity of the Daning River 2,000 years ago. The higher the coffin is hung, the greater respect is expressed for the dead (one’s father, elders, and ancestors).

Hanging coffins

However, it is unknown how the wooden coffins were placed into the caves, some more than 1,000 feet (305 kilometers) above the river.

The same very unique funeral tradition can be found among people of Sagada in the Northern Luzon Province of the Philippines.
Sagada in the Mountain Province of the Philippines is one location where the practice of hanging coffins continues to this day. It has been an ancient tradion of the Igorot people for more than 2000 years.
The coffins – secured only with vines – are located in a deep gorge, hanging for a longer time, but eventually, the vines drop the coffins to the ground, making room for the next generation.

It’s worth mentioning that the coffins are much smaller than traditional coffins, because the Igorot people lay their relatives to rest in the fetal position.

According to their beliefs, everyone should leave this world the same way they came into it.

MessageToEagle.com