Sagada Hanging Coffins

In the mountain town of Sagada, in the Cordillera region of the northern Philippines, members of the Indigenous Igorot community — particularly the Kankanaey people — have for centuries practised hanging burial, in which the coffins of the dead are lashed or nailed to the faces of limestone cliffs, sometimes alongside or stacked inside natural caves, with some coffins estimated to be over a century old and the practice itself believed to predate Spanish colonisation. The dead were traditionally bound in a foetal position before being placed in small hand-carved wooden coffins, a practice connected to the belief that a person should leave the world in the same position they entered it.

The placement of coffins on cliffs rather than underground reflects a belief that elevated burial brings the deceased closer to the spirits of their ancestors and protects the body from floodwaters, animals, and headhunters from rival communities — a historically real threat in the region prior to the 20th century. Only community elders and respected figures were traditionally entitled to a hanging burial, while other members of the community were buried in caves or, in the case of the Kankanaey's still-practised "sangadil" tradition, seated on a death chair beside the family home for several days before burial, allowing relatives to pay respects. The practice has declined sharply since the spread of Christianity in the region from the early 20th century, and the remaining coffins — some now weathered and fallen — are maintained as a living link to pre-colonial tradition, visited today only with a local guide out of respect for the site's continuing spiritual significance to the Igorot community.