Burial Rituals Of The Igorot People

A tradition that is said to go back 2,000 years.

Photo Credit: Getty Images

The Igorot people hand carved coffins and hung them on the side of a cliff with hopes to bring them closer to their ancestors.

Igorot is the collective name of several Austronesian ethnic groups in the Philippines. These people inhabit the mountain of Luzon.

According to BBC, the elderly make their own coffins from local wood and personalize their coffins by painting their names on it.

Photo Credit: Getty Images

As part of the tradition, they smoke the corpse in leaves and vines and cover it with a blanket, but before a corpse is actually put in the coffin they smoke the body to speed up the decaying process so loved ones can pay their respects over a several day period.

In the past family members would have to break the bones of their dearly departed to have them fit into a 1 meter coffin.

Nowadays, the coffins are roughly 2 meters in length.

Before the coffin is placed in its final resting place, those left to mourn let the fluids of the decomposing corpse drip down onto their bodies.

Why do you ask?

They claim it brings them good luck.

According to this article, the last cliff burial took place in 2010.

http://www.bbc.com/travel/gallery/20180405-the-filipino-tribe-that-hangs-its-dead-from-cliffs