🌊 SURF 'N TURF 🏝️

-THE ISLAND LIFE-

NOSTR PRIMAL 💜🧡❤️ GROW NOSTR

APOCALYPSE ANONYMOUS by

ATOSHI ANARKOMOTO

This definitely one of the strangest place I have ever visited. It is high in the mountains of the central Philippines.

Hanging Coffins of Sagada

Sagada, Philippines

Hundreds of wooden coffins dangle from cliffs and caves in the Philippines.

Hanging Coffins of Sagada.

The people of Sagada follow a unique burial ritual. The elderly carve their own coffins out of hollowed logs. If they are too weak or ill, their families prepare their coffins instead. The dead are placed inside their coffins (sometimes breaking their bones in the process of fitting them in), and the coffins are brought to a cave for burial. This is just one of the many ancient rituals and traditions that the people of the Cordillera Administrative Region (collectively known as Igorots) of Northern Philippines have preserved.

This ancient custom starts with a burial gathering led by the deceased’s family and relatives. The burial includes days of mourning, butchering of livestock, and preparing the body for entombment. Thereafter, a family member caries the body to the cave or cliff where the coffin is waiting. It is believed that carrying the dead would transfer luck, blessings, and talents to the family. Instead of being placed into the ground, the coffins are hung either inside the caves or on the face of the cliffs, near the hanging coffins of their ancestors. The Sagada people have been practicing such burials for over 2,000 years, and some of the coffins are well over a century old. Eventually the coffins deteriorate and fall from their precarious positions. Specifically, the coffins are suspended in the rocky cliffs of Sagada’s Echo Valley.

The reason the coffins were hung was due to the belief that the higher the dead were placed, the greater chance of their spirits reaching a higher nature in the afterlife. Many of the locations of the coffins are difficult to reach (and obviously should be left alone out of respect), but can be appreciated from afar.

Such practice serves as a testament to the enduring culture of the Igorot people. This sacred burial rite is also a part of the people’s rich historical, spiritual, and cultural heritage.

Credits Goes to the respective

Author ✍️/ Photographer📸

🐇 🕳️

#Bitcoin #Satoshis #Freedom #Apocalypse #Music #Movies #Philosophy #Literature

#Grownostr #Stoicism #Nature

Reply to this note

Please Login to reply.

Discussion

That’s wild! Never heard of it before.

This is a very strange place to visit indeed. I first went there in 2008 on my very first visit to the Philippines and went back there more recently a couple of years ago. Many of the coffins are unfortunately broken open and it is difficult as you enter the surrounding caves not to step on some bones that are scattered around the place. It is in disrepair to say the least. Worth a visit if you're in the area though and the Halsima Highway road going up there is not for the faint of heart.