The Bo Hanging Coffins: A Culture Erased from China’s Cliffs

Across the cliffs of south-western China, hundreds of wooden coffins rest in cracks high above the ground. They are not buried in soil or placed in a cemetery beside a village. Some sit inside caves, some rest on wooden stakes driven into rock, and some hang above a river. From below, the living can see only dark wooden shapes suspended against the cliff.

The coffins are linked to the Bo, a community that lived in what are now Sichuan and Yunnan. Some regions used the practice for more than 2,000 years, yet the Bo left no long national history explaining their origin. Their name fades from many records after the Ming period, while their burial sites remain on the mountains. For centuries, people knew where the dead were placed but not exactly who had carried out the work, how they had done it, or why a people could disappear from written history so quickly.