Vertical Graveyards

Since I'm on the subject of coffins, I thought it the perfect time to blog about these fascinating 'Cliff-side Burials I came across. They are the ancient funeral customs of peoples from the mountainous Sagada province on Luzon Island in the Philippines. These customs are also found in other countries like Southern China. As you can see in the photos, the coffins hang from beam projections on the sides of high cliffs, far above the ground. The ancestors of these indigenous people were often buried in coffins that had been hand carved by the elders from a single piece of hollowed out wood.

I'm not exactly sure how they managed to hoist them up there, but it must have been a rather challenging endeavor to say the least. Perhaps this style of burial was a precursor to our modern day mausoleums, where we began to bury 'up instead of under'. But it is stated that these particular burial rituals were believed to bring the deceased closer to Heaven.

Which then leaves me to ponder what the criteria might be for said wall position. If you are at the top....is it because you were the best and most deserving of being one rung up on the proverbial 'stairway to heaven'? Or would it alternately mean that you were in fact the lowest of the low in life, and therefore in need of all the help you can get to reach the 'pearly gates'? Or is it merely another case of the man corpse with the most money can afford the penthouse suite? Whatever the case....the images are rather intriguing.