Unusual Burial Customs of Sagada

The mysterious hanging coffins of Sagada is the town's main attraction. Sagada is the only place in the Philippines with hanging coffins and practices mummification despite being predominantly Anglican. The last burial via hanging coffins was 2008. To be buried here, one should be married and had grandchildren. Aside from the practical reason of avoiding animal scavengers, the people of Sagada believes that it will be easy for the spirit to rise up than being buried underground.

Hanging coffins

Afar is another group of hanging coffins in Echo Valley

Another way of burying the dead in Sagada is by stacking the coffins at the opening of some caves. The Lumiang Burial Cave houses around a hundred small coffins strategically stacked on each other for over 500 years. They believe that the light coming in will protect the deceased from bad spirits. The coffins are small even though the deceased is a grown person because they position the corpse in a sitting position, believing that we came to earth on a sitting position and should also leave on the same position. Geckos are also noticeable carvings in some coffins. Geckos are symbols of peace, prosperity and long life so a coffin with a gecko carving signifies that the deceased died of old age.

Lumiang Burial Caves

Entrance to Lumiang Caves

Carved Gecko in coffins means that the person died of old age

Women and infants who died in childbirth are also buried in another cave but we don't have close photographs of it because it is unreachable. But the cave is just across the street to the entrance of the Lumiang Cave. Some children are also buried in jars just beside their homes.

Buried here are women who died in child birth

These days, the people of Sagada buries their dead in the public cemetery. But our guide told us about a fascinating (and romantic) practice. If an old married person dies ahead of his / her partner, the grave next to him / her is automatically reserved for the living partner. So when you go to their public cemetery, you can see tombs in pairs or tombs in pairs but the other side is still vacant. But if the deceased married person is still young, they don't reserve the other side yet because of the possibility of remarrying.

Public Cemetery of Sagada

Husband and Wife grave