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After crossing the church cemetery, you’ll find yourself at the top of Echo Valley with an incredible view. The hanging coffins are about a 20-minute downhill trek from there, but it's imperative that no one walks under or touches the coffins. In fact, you should stay far enough that you can use binoculars to view the coffins from a respectful distance.
The hanging coffins are located in Echo Valley, and to get there you’ll need to walk past St. Mary’s Church, which was built by American Anglican missionaries who arrived in Sagada during the early 1900s. It's almost like walking backwards through the history of religion in the Philippines. According to the BBC, despite converting to the Anglican faith, many Sagadans continue to practice their pagan beliefs.
The Igorot (which in Tagalog means “mountaineer”) people consist of various ethnic groups in the mountains of northern Luzon. According to Britannica, the Igorot people, of whom there were reportedly 1.5 million in the early 21st century, mostly maintain their traditional religion and way of life.
The Igorot people are known to bury their dead in hand-carved coffins that are tied or nailed to the side of a cliff and suspended high above the ground. It's a ritual believed to date back 2,000 years, and there are reportedly even some coffins that have been hanging for a millennium.
Not everyone receives this kind of burial, however, as there are certain requirements to qualify, including that the deceased must have been married with children and grandchildren.
Sagada is a remote village tucked in the Cordillera Central mountains of northern Luzon, which is the Philippines’ largest and most populated island. From Manila, it's about a nine-hour winding drive.
Curious about the chair? Before a corpse is laid to rest in the coffin, it is placed on a wooden "death chair," tied with leaves and vines from the maguey plant, and covered with a white blanket.
The Igorot men then chant prayers asking the dead not to harm anyone, and instead to bring peace and good fortune to those they left behind.
Not shying away from the concept of death, the elderly traditionally carved their own coffins from local timber and painted their own names on the side, though those too weak or ill to do so could have their families do it instead.
Igorot guide Siegrid Bangyay told the BBC that in the past, because the coffins were only around one meter (3 ft) long, family members moving the corpse from the death chair to the casket would often have to break the deceased's bones.
Though unique in the Philippines, the Igorots' ancient funeral ritual of hanging coffins off crags has historically been practiced in parts of China and Indonesia. One such example is the collection of around 30 caskets up the side of a cave in Guizhou province in southwestern China, about 30 meters (almost 100 ft) high, which could date back hundreds of years.
The tradition of hanging coffins, though rare around the world, lives on in Sagada. Bangyay told the BBC in 2018 that the last cliff burial took place in 2010. In this photo, a resident of Sagada explains that the hanging coffin with the name "Lawagan" was his grandfather, marking one of the most recent families who observed the ritual.
Though the hanging coffins are still used, many Sagadans are reportedly choosing to be buried in the Anglican cemetery of St. Mary’s church instead.
The body is then smoked to delay it from decaying, and a kind of wake is held over several days where relatives can come and pay their respects.
Some elders also reportedly believe that placing the body in a fetal position in death symbolizes the start of a new life. This type of burial is thus the first step in the deceased's journey into the next life.
Perhaps as the tools used to hang the coffins advanced, the size of the coffins increased to around two meters (6.5 ft) in length. Still, the bodies inside are meant to be in fetal position.
This graveyard suspended high up a cliff is believed to bring the dead closer to their ancestral spirits, as well as to better their chances at a greater afterlife.
The fetal position in death is seen as a way to symbolize the return back to where you came from.
The corpse is wrapped in rattan leaves before being placed in the coffin, then men hammer metal pegs into the cliff face. It's on those pegs that the coffin will hang as long as the elements allow.
Before the coffin is hauled up the steep cliff, mourners reportedly let fluids from the decomposing corpse drip onto their bodies.
Eventually the coffins do deteriorate against the elements, and many fall from their great heights.
So often we get stuck in our own perceptions of what death and its rituals mean to us that we forget there are many other ways to relate to and engage with our inevitable mortality and the legacy we leave behind.
Sources: (Atlas Obscura) (BBC) (Will Fly for Food) (Britannica)
It's reportedly considered auspicious and a sign that you'll enjoy a bountiful harvest if the dead's blood is sprinkled on you. Everyone tries to touch the body for good luck as well.
This ritual for death poetically became a new source of livelihood for the residents of Sagada, as the Igorot people started to enjoy a much-needed economic boost from visiting tourists.
In the 21st century, travelers with slightly morbid tastes started making the pilgrimage to Sagada to visit the hanging coffins. It should be noted, however, that many of the locations of the coffins are difficult to reach, but they should also be left alone out of respect. The best way to appreciate them is from a good distance.
According to Bangyay, there just isn't anywhere near the number of hanging-coffin burials in Sagada as there used to be.
Those moving the body traditionally pack rice, kamote (sweet potato), and pork in a sangi, which is an indigenous backpack made from rattan, and eat after the body is securely in the coffin.
Bangyay told the BBC she strongly believes the tradition will continue, and she hopes herself to be suspended up there in her afterlife, transforming, as she says, from "a tourist guide to a tourist attraction," and thus also continuing to help contribute to her community.
When we think of a graveyard, most people tend to imagine a piece of land where the coffins aren't actually visible above ground. What certainly doesn't come to mind is a vertical cemetery of coffins nailed to the side of a steep cliff, way up where everyone can see.
Different cultures have different relationships to death as well as various rituals that hold unique spiritual meanings, but one of the most fascinating is the Igorot peoples' hanging-coffin 'burial' in Sagada, Philippines. From the "death chair" that precedes it to the way the coffins are made and suspended up high, it's an endlessly interesting end-of-life rite.
The fascinating story of the hanging coffins of Sagada
Find out how and why caskets are dangling off the side of a cliff in the Philippines
TRAVEL Culture
When we think of a graveyard, most people tend to imagine a piece of land where the coffins aren't actually visible above ground. What certainly doesn't come to mind is a vertical cemetery of coffins nailed to the side of a steep cliff, way up where everyone can see.
Different cultures have different relationships to death as well as various rituals that hold unique spiritual meanings, but one of the most fascinating is the Igorot peoples' hanging-coffin 'burial' in Sagada, Philippines. From the "death chair" that precedes it to the way the coffins are made and suspended up high, it's an endlessly interesting end-of-life rite.
Curious? Click through to learn more.