Igorot Hanging Coffin Cemetery in Echo Valley

Cemetery of Hanging Coffins, of Sagada in the Philippines, is a place that bears witness to a burial custom, dating back to at least 2000 years ago, typical of the Igorot, a tribe of the Echo Valley. A place to visit for those who love gloomy and frightening atmospheres would certainly find bread for their teeth.

The Igorot population for more than 2000 years has followed the tradition of creating suspended wooden coffins for their dead, which were and still are placed along a cliff overlooking the sea.

The practice allows you to protect the dead from floods and animals and according to Igorot beliefs it allows for an easier passage to heaven, to the afterlife. Among the Igorot of Sagada's Echo Valley the tradition of suspending coffins beside the cliff is still present.

Elderly inhabitants actively prepare for death by building their own coffins when they are physically able to do so. It is probably a unique ritual in the world. If the elderly are too weak and ill, their relatives prepare the coffins, which will later be hung along the cliff or inside a cave.

Some of the coffins still present would be more than a century old. Many of the places where the coffins are placed are difficult to reach, perhaps because the deceased, out of respect, should be left alone.

Tourists can observe the coffins from a distance. They must not touch them and must not walk in their vicinity, but they can equip themselves with binoculars or a camera to help them admire them from afar.

Map: Igorot Hanging Coffin Cemetery in Echo Valley