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Hanging coffin over the Danning river – panoramio.jpg Photo by David Hewitt –

Top 10 Facts About Echo Valley Hanging Coffins

Hanging coffins are one of the funerary practices among the Kankanaey people of Sagada, Mountain Province. The area has not been studied by archaeologists so the exact age of the coffins is unknown. People around the area believe them to be centuries old.

The coffins are underneath natural overhangs, natural rock shelves, and projecting beams that have been turned into holes dug into the cliffside. 

The coffins are small because the bodies inside the coffins are in fetal positions. Due to the belief that people should leave the world in the same position as they entered it. The people of the area have a tradition from the various pre-colonial cultures of the Philippines.

Due to tradition, the coffins are usually carved by their eventual occupants during their lifetimes. The hanging coffins are not the main funerary practice of the Kankanaey, in fact, they were only reserved for distinguished or honorable leaders of the community.

The height of the coffins interprets their social status while they were alive, the higher the coffin the more famous the person was.

Some of the people in the tribe believed that the coffins were only for the most prominent members of the council. To this day, there is only one documented case of a woman being accorded the honor of a hanging coffin.

The hanging coffins were also most of the time preserved for people who made wise decisions, acts of merit, or led traditional rituals throughout their life.

1. Shared Tradition

The sagada hangging coffin.jpg Photo by Lastithegreat –

Hanging coffins are not only in the Philippines, the tradition is shared in China. The activity is shared by various cultures that find the tradition sacred, the coffins were of various shapes. 

In China, the Bo people were a prosperous farming community that used hanging coffins for what is assumed by the elders of the community. However, architects do not understand their culture or habits. They assume that they use this ritual as a way to prevent the dead from being disturbed.

2. Tourist Attraction

The Philippines is known for having many tourist sites around the capital and the countryside. It is a shock to many that all the tour guides take their tourists to the famous hanging coffins.

What’s even more surprising is that most tourists request to be taken to these sacred grounds that were once considered the community’s cemetery.

3. Height Of The Coffins 

Close up of Hanging Coffins in Sagada.jpg Photo by Juliethepearl –

The main purpose of the hanging coffins was to ensure that the dead weren’t disturbed. To ensure that this never happened, the coffins were hung 33 to 164 feet high. Some were as high as 328 feet above the ground, depending on your importance to the community.

With this information, one can understand that the coffins that were higher were the elders and leaders, while the ones that were lower meant that the person was a regular person in the community.

4. Process Used To Hung The Coffins

Close up shot Sagada Hanging Coffins.jpg Photo by Juliethepearl –

The coffins were placed underneath natural overhangs or natural rock shelves. The coffins were later nailed to place, some times in very rare situations the coffins were brought to a cave for burial.

The coffins had to be small because the bodies inside were in a fetal position. Due to the coffins being small, some of the bodies ended up having broken bones and more casualties.

5. End Of The Tradition

Hanging Coffins.jpg Photo by Beast from the Bush –

People around the area have chosen to stop the tradition due to the fact that they don’t want to crush the bones of their loved ones. Overall feel like it is a beautiful tradition that should be left in the past together.

Some people still visit the burial site, and some still bury their loved ones on the site.

6. Preparation Before Burial

The deceased is tied with rattan and vines, and then a blanket on a death chair. The body is then positioned facing the main door of the house, this is for the relatives to pay their respects.

A cadaver is smoked to prevent fast decomposition to conceal the smell. The vigil for the dead is held for a few days after which the body is removed from the chair otherwise known as sangadil and placed in their coffin.

After the body is placed in the coffin, the legs are lifted towards the chin and it is wrapped in a blanket and tied with rattan leaves.

7. Old Genration Beliefs

The people from these cultures believed that this practice brought them closer to their ancestral spirits. Some believe that the elderly feared being buried in the ground because water would seep into the soil and their bodies would rot faster.

Thus hanging coffins, they wanted their bodies to be safe and preserved like the old Egyptian culture.

They believed that there was a higher chance for their spirits would reach a higher nature in the afterlife.

8. New Generation Opinions

As time has gone by, the last Sagada elders are the only practitioners of these rituals. The newer and younger generations have decided to pick up on the modern ways of life. 

Some of them prefer to visit their grandparents and loved ones in a cemetery than on a cliff thus the ritual dying out and turning into campfire stories. Also, due to the vast introduction of Christianity and its beliefs, most of the old rituals and cultures have received a negative response from the new generation.

Due to the fact that the coffins are on a cliff and one can’t climb to visit a specific coffin, most of the people buried there have been forgotten over time. This causes some families to hate the idea of hanging coffins for their loved ones.

9. Ceremonial Tradition

In the tradition, they butchered pigs and chickens for community celebrations. However, for the elderly, they were supposed to be three pigs and two chickens.

Some could not afford to butcher so many animals so they resulted in two chickens and one pig. However, no matter the person, the people of the community always preferred three or five animals.

10. Location Of The Coffins

In the community, the location of the coffins depended on the status of the deceased. As much as some people traditionally placed the coffins higher or lower on the cliff, but other people placed the bodies depending on how influential the person was.

They believed that the location of the elders would allow their spirits to roam and continue to protect the living.