Monday, December 28, 2015. In China, a giant hanging cemetery is found in a cliff of 50 meters wide and 100 meters high, which contains a total of 131 hanging coffins in the municipality Moping in Zigui County, in the central province of China of Hubei.
Archaeologists have discovered one of the hanging cemeteries of larger dimensions never seen in mainland China. The wooden coffins were placed in caves dug or tunnels of natural rock in some cliffs. According to the specialists, these hanging tombs date back to the Tang dynasty, which dates back to the years 618 to 907 and was the successor of the Sui Dynasty, predecessor of the period of the Five Dynasties and the Ten Kingdoms in China.
The hanging coffins are a funeral custom in some ethnic groups in the South. Experts estimate that the owners of the tombs were of Bo ethnic, a Asian ancient tribe settled in Southwest China. The Deputy Mayor of the municipality of Maoping, stated that the local government has done a count of coffins and the site will remain under special protection.
Experts believe that the hanging coffins were used to prevent that the bodies were devoured by the beasts and also the fact of hang them blessed the soul of the deceased forever. In addition, it was certified that the boxes were mostly carved from a single piece of wood; because the ancients believed that the deceased was closer to the heaven and could rise quickly to paradise, protecting in this way to their families and giving them good luck.
Other theories claim that the reason is more practical than religious, because some tribes felt that in the humid South China, prone to floods and landslides; hang coffins was the surest way for the dead to rest in peace.
The hanging coffinsare still a mystery to scientists. The experts have not discovered the way in which these ethnic groups were able to transport the coffins to the caves of the cliffs, the body and the funerary objects that weighed hundreds of kilograms.
Most of these coffins are found in caves located in steep river or sea cliffs, which raises the enigma on how could the ancient Chinese climb and hang on as inaccessible places, coffins of up to 500 kilos of weight. Experts still do not know too many details about this peculiar funeral custom, almost unique in the world.
How could they get so high?, there are hanging coffins of almost all historical eras, from the period of Spring and Autumn (seventh century BC), until the recent Republic of China (1911-1949). The hanging coffins are one of the many archaeological mysteries that have China, with mysteries as the place where it is the tomb of Genghis Khan or what is inside the still unopened tomb of the First Emperor, Qin Shihuang (ordered to be buried beside thousands of terracotta warriors).
ALFA