Have you Seen Hanging Coffins?

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3 years ago

I had shared with you our 24 hours stay in Batad, we had a whole day of a walking tour around the community and then had a lot of talking with the locals who were eating "moma" which made them look like eating lipsticks, if you are from the Ifugao province, please don't get me wrong, it was a surprise to us who were not from there but as we encountered more locals, we got used to it.

It was time to say goodbye to the beautiful and greatly incredible rice terraces of Batad. We traversed the path back to the drop point to meet our trike driver. We had no cellular phone communication, but we are sure that he's coming at seven in the morning. True indeed, he was there waiting for us at the waiting area.

Batad to Bontoc

From the drop point, we reached Banaue where cars and vans for hire have routes to Bontoc. After a lot of conversations with other passengers, our van driver started his vehicle's engine and off we go to Bontoc but there were still stopovers as well while on the way.

Banaue Rice Terraces

First, we stopped by the famous Banaue Rice Terraces, it's quite familiar because that's being printed in our Philippine bill. Then there was another village cluster of which we had a stopover as they have a comfort room. There were natives as well wearing a cultural dress who welcomed us and allowed us to take photos of him.

Stop over view
Closer look
Friendly local.

Bontoc to Sagada

Our van driver arranged a jeepney which took us to Sagada. The ride was just one and a half hours. We headed towards the tourism office, paid all the needed document stamps and we checked in at Isabelo's Inn which was located at the heart of the town, it was also very near to the tourism office which was good.

For all of our guest houses and hotels, I booked them online before our trip. It is quite challenging to find rooms in Sagada because of the influx of tourists to this area so booking ahead of time is the best thing to do.

Sagada's Echo Valley Hanging Coffins

One thing that I realized when we reached Sagada is that most of their tourist spots are just nearby, it seemed like you can go out from the hotel and by just walking, you'll get to the desired destination but the local government here had made it a point that tourists must hire guides and there are specific rates per destination. Unfortunately, the rates are not very friendly to those traveling solo or couples, they are mostly fine with groups.

Hubby and me at the Echo Valley

We have to adhere to their rules. We still made this tour DIY by renting a motorcycle and our first destination was the Echo Valley Hanging Coffins.

This is a well-known thing in Sagada and this is a traditional way of burying their locals. Our tour guide has been working as one for two decades already! Amazing!

So we started by walking past their town's cemetery, the guide showed us some graves of their town's prominent personalities which I found very weird. It's not very nice to be showing off such things to those who are strangers to the dead but anyway, that might be one of their ways of killing time.

It doesn't require much walking to reach Echo Valley. It's a spot where we can shout and echo follows.

Hanging coffins, everyone!

After a few walking and then we reached the hanging coffins. Our tour guide had explained everything to us. Those who have been buried are true elders of Sagada. The dead body during mourning is usually positioned in a chair, if one wants to bring their chair with them, they include it together with the coffin. This is decided by the elder when they are still alive. They put the bodies in fetal position too, this is because they believe that when we came into this world, we were in fetal position thus we should also be positioned this way when leaving the earth.

During the burial ceremony, the coffin is being passed from one resident to another until they reach the valley. There were other caves as well which houses coffins and our guide showed us some of them too.

Yours truly :)

The coffins were hanged as they believed that getting hanged will bring them closer to heaven, that they could also watch over their families from there. There's no mystery at all of how these coffins were hanged as the tour guide showed us pictures of how they build scaffoldings so to be able to bring the coffins up.

Still, it is a great thing that these traditions are still alive in this time and age. The locals still do the same ceremony and hanging coffins as well but only to those who are a local of the town. According to our guide, the LGU sets it as a holiday when a local is going to be buried.

Have you been to Sagada? What were the activities that you had done there?


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xoxo,

mommy jean of momentswithmatti

Love harder than any pain you've ever felt.

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3 years ago

Comments

Not sure if it is with you or with ARTicLEE that I saw this hanging coffins. I would really want to explore more of the northern region. 😊

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3 years ago

i guess it was mine..hehe

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3 years ago

Napanuod ko lang to sa balita yata or basta something vlog. Parang gusto ko rin po marating yang Sagada! 😁

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3 years ago

Punta na yan hehe..

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3 years ago

Pag kaya na po. Haha. Iipon munaaa 😁

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3 years ago

Yes kaya yan

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3 years ago

Ka nice!! Og ka weird bah sa mga lungon oi 😱 wala pa jud ko kaadto dira dapita, Baguio, Vigan, Pagudpud pa lng going North. Soonest I hope mkalaag jud balik...

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3 years ago

Weird jd kaau sis hehe pero nice ang story behind sad,,, wala pko kaadto vigan..huhu

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3 years ago

Fun trip! Going to Sagada was a long ride form Manila. Dizzying even! Those coffins are cool to see and also their story! Thank you for sharing this with us!

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3 years ago

Thanks for reading..indeed it is cool ...

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3 years ago

The last time we went to Sagada as a family, all the spots were closed to tourists lol! It was part of their cleansing or something and all tourist spots were closed. It was supposed to be a send-off bonding before my brother and his family will migrate to another country.

It was probably two decades ago since the last time I've been to Banaue. We visited again two years ago and that time we went to Batad and I have posted that in Steemit or was it Kiki? I can't remember :D

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3 years ago

I have not heard of kiki sir.. alive pa ba yan?

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3 years ago

Wala na yan. Ang dami naming naloko jan hehe. Nung una nagbabayad naman pero nung tumagal wala na. Late ako nakapagstart jan e un na pala un time na di na sila magbabayad.

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3 years ago

Ouch . .sayang naman

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3 years ago

The stop over was in Bayyo.. I have been to Sagada during my cousin's wedding but we need to go home din that day so we didn't have the chance to roam around. Sa entrance lng ng cave kmi nagpikturepikture

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3 years ago

I see..bayyo pala yun..i wasn't able to take note of it..thanks sis

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3 years ago

Parang ang creepy naman. Hindi ba nangangamoy pag ganyan? At parang pahirapan ang pag hang ng mga coffins. Hindi ko alam kung keri ko ba pumunta dyanπŸ˜…

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3 years ago

Hehe di ko naman napansin ung smell..parang wala atang weird smell...

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3 years ago

As soon as I saw the title, I knew you would have been to Sagada, and I was right :) I have been there too although it's been a long time ago. We went to the cave, then to Echo Valley. We only got to see the hanging coffins from afar though because we were so tired from the cave adventure.

I always wonder how they placed those coffins up in that stone wall. Perhaps they used tall ladders then :)

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3 years ago

Sis they used scaffoldings para mahang nila

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3 years ago

Right! That must be it. Thank you :)

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3 years ago