if you ever visit the cliffs of sagada in the philippines you’ll be confronted by dozens of coffins, either perched on cliff faces above you, resting on iron bars jutting from the rock, or piled high in the caves of the cliff. for at least 2000yrs these cliffs were the traditional resting place of locals but for some reason, over the last few decades especially, those numbers have fallen and the large majority of people in the area are now buried in the ground.



each of the hanging coffins you see in these photos were carved by the elderly themselves before their death, the corpses inside smoked out in order to preserve them for the traditional sagadan 5 day pre-burial feast. apart from centuries of tradition and the bodies being ‘closer to heaven’ on the cliffs, some say the reason for hanging coffins is to stop frequent monsoons washing the deceased away.

there’s a very brief video clip below of some of the hanging coffins in sagada.



the photo below is of some of the many hanging coffins found in southern china. read more about them here.