The Mysterious Hanging Coffins of China

Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening depending on when you are reading this.  Today, I am heading to China and watching a documentary on the Hanging Coffins of Sichuan Province.  The run time for this documentary is 52:31 and is called The Mysterious Hanging Coffins of China.

Sichuan Province in China has thousands of ancient wooden coffins hanging off cliff faces in the mountains.  Some experts believe that the coffins were placed thousands of years ago to protect them from animals.  Others believe that it was to put the dead within reach of the gods.  Who placed the dead on the mountains?  Why did they place them?  When did this tradition start?  What happened to the people?  This documentary looks to follow the scientists who want to understand and preserve the coffins.

On the other side of a ravine is where this mystery starts.  They were placed on the cliff face by the Bo people.  How did the Bo people get these coffins on the cliff wall?  Wong How Man is one man looking at the mystery of the hanging coffins.  The Bo people left no written records.  They were massacred.  Did anyone survive the massacre?  Are there survivors of the Bo that live today?

An expedition is planned to look at a spectacular coffin site.  Due to the location and lack of funding, very few researchers have undertaken such an expedition. However, things have changed and now there is a group of researchers who are looking to be the first people to research coffins.  However, the route to the coffins is challenging, especially for climbers with modern-day equipment.  One loose rock could mean the climber’s death.  How did the Bo people manage to climb the coffins carrying a 500-pound coffin?

The expedition abandons this site and goes deeper into the mountains to find an alternative site.  While the scientists look for alternative sites, there is a group of experts recreating a Bo coffin.  They would have been made from one piece of wood which would have made them very heavy to carry.  How could they have heaved that weight up a cliff?  Legends say that Bo waited until the rivers were high enough and they could float them up the cliff.  Other legends say that they could fly.  However, the most likely tools they used included a chisel and rope. 

It can be assumed that the Bo carefully handled and took care of their dead.  It is in this section that there is a recreation of a potential funerary procession.  The participants are clothed in Bo clothing that was found in easily reached coffins.  They would have cared for the dead as if they had just moved on to the next world.  It seemed that there were grave goods discovered that would have helped the dead live their daily lives in the next world.

One researcher hints that the different regions had different methods of getting the coffins up the cliffs.  One method included pegs that could be used as stairs.  These pegs were stabbed into the mountain side and the coffin was brought up.  The other method includes a rope and pulley system that would have allowed Bo to hoist the coffin up the mountain.  There was one village that tested out one theory and it took twelve men three days to do the recreation.  This may explain how some of the coffins were placed on the cliffs, but for the others, there may be a different method used.

In the meantime, the expedition has reached a place where there are easily reachable coffins.  There had been rumors of hanging coffins in this one valley and now the expedition is going to explore this valley.  This expedition group will be the first to go into the caves where the coffins are located.  If these coffins are untouched, they will reveal new insights into the Bo people.  What will this expedition find in this valley?  Will this valley reveal the secrets of the Bo people?  Tune into the rest of this episode to find out!

This is a really well-done documentary and the information was really interesting.  I can see the potential to have a part two about these hanging coffins.  This would be something I would show to a science and history classroom.