The Hanging Coffins of Sagada

Have you ever been to Sagada in Philippines? The Sagada caves could get you mystifying just like the Pyramids of Egypt. The cliffs of Sagada welcomes you with dozens of coffins hanging in the cliff made of limestones.



The people of Sagada have devised a unique burial ritual involving the placement of dead relatives into caves after carefully preparing a hollowed out log. These coffins are carved by the elderly before they die; if they are too ill or weak their son or other close relative will do it for them. This ritual involves pushing the bodies into the tight spaces of the coffins (into the foetal position), and often bones are cracked and broken as the process is completed.


After the deceased are put inside these coffins they are then brought to caves high in the cliffs where they join the coffins of other ancestors. The Sagada people prefer to be buried in the cliffs than to be buried in the ground and have been doing this for more than 2,000 years and the latest addition is said to be put a decade ago!


In some caves hundreds of coffins are lined up, and unfortunately tourists are unregulated in this area, some have even taken some of the bones as souvenirs. If you do visit these caves, make sure you get a guide as some of the caves are hard to find and the roads can be tricky to navigate.