Hanging Coffins

is a land of contrast. Just compare the present scenario with their hoary past. It is not just the land, so vast, the people their culture, so intriguing, you can call it anyway. When someone says China the first and foremost thing which strikes our mind is the Great Wall of China, winding thousands of miles with no signs of ending of the great monument. Then we have the colorful pagodas, great Palaces and a country with beautiful valleys, flora and fauna, to name a few. China is also a powerful economic giant, a nation to watch in the coming years.

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China

China is also weird so varied like the Terrocotta Statues, The hanging coffins and a lot more which speaks that they had a great past, sometimes prompting us with more questions to ask why? Why did they build the Great Wall? Why the hanging Coffins? What do they mean? The hanging Coffins seems very weird to dwell about their past.

The hanging coffins as they are known located in the Sichwan Province of China are the remains of a great civilization known as the Bo civilization and who were prominent at that time, some 2500 years ago. There is not much to understand the past of the Bos, except that they left these coffins which are the available evidence we have about these people. Excavations are also being done with discovery of some utensils and skeletons and maybe we may know more about the Bos their strange customs and their idea of weird burials on top of cliffs and deep caves.  The coffins made of strong wood has weathered all these turbulent years and it is amazing how they mastered this art of retaining dead bodies in boxes.

It is not just the coffins but the way they were buried. Yes the most surprising part is that these coffins were not buried in the plains but at the edge of cliffs. The coffins were taken to the top of the mountains or caves, safely secured to the edges of the cliff by slowly fastening the coffins by thick ropes and fixing at the designated places in the Rocky Mountains. Not all coffins stood the test of time, but some have fallen. Some of the coffins looked empty too. Again, why empty coffins? Did someone remove the bodies? With no documentary evidence, there are more questions that raise to the strange customs of the Bos.

Why were the burials at the top of mountains? Some have interpreted to say that the Bos might have had some advance notions about death and its implications by burying their dead in coffins at the edges of cliffs, facilitating faster departing of souls to heaven. Or that these coffins were for some special people, maybe for secrecy they were taken to the distant mountains and given this type of burial. Well, really weird burial customs of these people.

Like China, there are hanging coffins in Sagada limestone caves, Phillipines, but they are not as old as the former. Some of the coffins are painted and may be the work of people thronging to have a glimpse of these strange wonders of a bygone era. The coffins on mountain cliffs leave the visitors an eerie experience. There is one snap of a skull seen from a broken coffin and if one were to see them in pitch dark, well, we can imagine the reaction.