The 2,200 Year Old Hanging Coffins Of Ancient China | Absolute History
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- Опубліковано 7 лют 2022
- In the mountains of China's Sichuan Province is the sight of hundreds of ancient wooden coffins hanging precariously from a cliff face. Some experts believe the dead were placed there thousands of years ago to be within reach of the gods, while others say it was to keep them away from wild animals. This film chronicles an effort by scientists to understand and preserve these mysterious coffins.
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Seems light an camera don't work inside the caves 🤐🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣interesting
@Annie M 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
EVEN IN BAGUIO PHILIPPINES THEY ALSO HANG THEIR COFFIN ON THE MOUNTAINS " SOME THEY LET THE DEAD PERSON SITTING DOWN IN POSITION !
One can't believe the Chinese they are brought up to listen to the c. C p and must tell the story of what the Chinese government tells them to say.
@@davidpringle7262 Seriously? So you're saying that since these hanging coffins are located in China, that automatically means they don't exist because they're located in China. Not very logical.
Might be interesting fact: There are hanging coffins in the Philippines too, specifically in Sagada, Mountain Province. I believe they still do it but rarely. I remember seeing modern-looking coffins. It's a tourist attraction as well.
Interesting conection! (maybe or just a parallel development)
interesting ...but youd think the weather would rot the wood over time and the body would fall out....???
@@maggiemay7028 The coffins could be made of hard wood which doesn't rot easily. Hard wood is quite durable & is common in the tropical South East Asian areas of Southern China & the Philippines. If I am remembering my geography lessons correctly.
@@itwasagoodideaatthetime7980 heavy woods are quite heavy, so??
Ooo nice nice!
Before they got the coffins up there they had to drive wooden stakes into the cliff, far enough to support the coffin. Amazing
Amazing the wood has not deteriorated either.
It looked like they used the natural rock formations to their advantage. But still, HOW?!
@@christianrokicki very good wood
There's a tribe here in New Zealand that hang their deceased loved ones in a specific tree and wrapped in a basket made of flax for a few months. After their flesh has deteriorated, they move their bones into a special cave made specifically for their tribe.
@Ellie5621 I don't doubt it!
that's what we should do now really ))
Whats the tribe called?
Watching these docs, always leads me to wonder, how many tribes are yet undiscovered and consequentially how many will remain so for eternity.
Impossible to count, most didn't have any names, and further back we go more of them were living and then just were killed off or assimilated with no record of that.
Yeah so many cultures lost throughout time
So the question is: why do people from so-called civilized nations always try to assimulate these native tribes? Why not just let them alone?
What an absolutely stunning landscape. What an honour to rest forever on those cliffs.
I have a hypothesis _why_ the Bo people went to all that effort to hoist coffins up into sheer cliff faces, sky-worship notwithstanding: Lack of arable land. They lived in narrow, steep river valleys with limited amounts of both arable land and flat areas that don't get periodically flooded to build houses on. And the cliffs didn't have enough extensive natural caves to live in nor stone soft enough to easily chisel dwellings into (unlike in Turkey or Jordan). I suspect the Bo people simply couldn't afford to waste flat land on burying the dead.
@CrunchyFrog - You may be onto something with that. The simplest, most obvious answer is usually the right answer. Everything you stated would be a challenge for inhabitants of that region. Historically, corpse disposition has always been a challenge. Just look at Europe during the plague for one example. They ran out of places for the dead and modified burials to accommodate the large number of interments. So, I can’t speak for everyone, but I definitely think what you said is highly plausible.
a strong hypothesis sir.
If that's the case, why not burn the bodies like in some cultures? The hanging coffin concept is most intriguing. The scaffolding may work, but to then bring hundreds of pounds of coffin UP the scaffolding seems impossible. Also maneuvering 20-60 stories high is a feat unto itself.
@@allisonmarlow184 burning bodies takes a lot of resources, also burning bodies is taboo in some cultures
Well thought out theory. Makes perfect sense.
It’s an amazing sight when you actually see the coffins. We were on a cruise up the Yangtze river and we stopped below the coffins. What was astounding was how high they are from the river level. The whole cruise was astounding and the whole holiday was that of a lifetime. We were there the year before the Olympics and there wasn’t the same hoo ha
The water was higher then, so they weren't as high up as they seem now
We made the same trip but forgotten in what year. It was indeed an amazing journey
Oooh, I'm so jealous! Lol! Not funny really because I AM jealous! What a trip of a lifetime, however, I would probably starve to death because I'm such a picky eater...Cheers and Peace
Aside from the hanging coffins of the Bo, there are also seven other hanging coffin sites found throughout China from differing time periods.
Hanging coffins are one of the funerary practices among the Kankanaey people of Sagada, Mountain Province, in the island Luzon of the Philippines.
Hanging coffins (liang tokek) is one of the funerary practices of the Toraja people of Sulawesi, Indonesia.
Only today I've heard of hanging coffins in Sulawesi, Indonesia. There're also hanging coffins in Borneo (Malaysian state of Sabah). I haven't seen them but have watched documentaries
i think they hoist the coffin from land up above going down insead of from below going up.
There's evidence that Austronesian people migrated from central china to south east Asia.
@@fideso5944 sounds logical
It’s a tradition of Ancient Yue people, the people who cultivated rice, the shared ancestors between south East Asians and us southern Chinese !
What an absolutely amazing sight it must be to see this in person. Those people had guts for sure.
They had good kung fu
@@liongrose1173 😂
I miss not being able to travel to China right now.......My mom and I travelled there before Covid and the people were so lovely and we didn't know there were hanging coffins on one of out tours and they were pointed out by a tour guide on The Yangtze River........Thankyou to The Chinese People for some of the best tours of out lives.
I don't know why but it baffles me that these explorers just grab the bones with bare hands.
Because they have NO respect for the dead.
Because you’re less likely to damage the bones by grabbing with bare hands compared to gloved hands. Also because they had to bring everything into the mountain, it may be that they did not think to bring disposable gloves.
Also some cultures see handling the dead remains of others as an honour and not as a bad thing (ie in America being a mortician is seen as a “bad” job, but in other cultures it’s a respectable one)
@@elenalizabeth what a wild statement.
As a Chinese, I’m appreciate the speaker pronoun the location and names 100% correctly and not being westernized. Thank you being so respectful.
I think it might be because the speaker is a Chinese speaker originally? Her accent sounds slightly Chinese.
That’s probably because they’re both Chinese 🤣 Not because they particularly care about it. You also have to be specific when it comes to documentaries so you’re pointing out something pretty obvious.
🙄 so if you can’t pronounce something correctly you are being disrespectful?
@@NakitaCherie Yes because it means the person didn’t take the time to actually research the pronunciation despite doing a whole video on it. To actually respect a culture is deep diving on it and giving the most accurate pronunciation you can. Asian ppl usually have their names pronounced wrong everywhere everyday and it gets really tiring. I would know cuz Im half Asian
@@heartsDmise yeah but you can't expect people to use the right tones to pronounce your name of they don't have that in their own language. That's also part of pronounication. Also it doesn't matter if they say it wrong or with an accent. They don't do that on purpose
What also fascinated me were the replica textiles they were wearing. Beautiful and complex designs.
I could be wrong, but is it possible that there was a staircase or trail there once or multiple entrances to the sites and maybe during the massacres, the Ming destroyed any traces of them?
I'm just going to start watching but I wonder how many died in bringing those coffins up there? Amazing that they honnoured their dead like that.
@Altschauerberger Opferkult-Spiritist ya it makes sense, we don’t see countless coffins up there if it were for everyone
Very good point made.
Unfortunately probably many died while placing those coffens like that.
If they lived on the top of the mountain it is easier to scale down. They probably had ropes and pulley systems to assist with the coffins.
@Pavan Kumar tradition, show of wealth, religion. People used to be bored
@Pavan Kumar i read somewhere that it has something to do with their belief. Something about they believe in the soul left for the sky or something else. I can't remember much, but something related to the sky and heaven as a symbolism.
Just a few minutes in, but it seems more likely that the coffins could have been lowered from the top of the mountain using ropes, although I don't know the terrain.
That was my first thought but if you look under the coffins they are suspended on wooden pegs driven into the cliff face so they would have to have been down there to peg the coffin supports in which is pretty amazing
But it’s so high from the top, to the point where they wouldn’t see where it was going unless you had spotters all along the cliff. It’s possible but people would have died doing this
i love how happy he was when they found the rest of the skull ( 40:00 )
Ooh! Aaaah!
There are also hanging coffins in South America, New Guinea and Philipines, so its not that unusual. Especially if they wanted to protect the bodies of important people, rulers, Kings, etc. The small quantity of coffins is an indication, that only very few with high status were buried like this.
True. And no truth to chinese being the progenitor of all things around the world.
When it was done (2200 years ago) makes the hanging coffins in Yunan special.
@@rider2731 In South America the Chachapoya tribe (known as The Cloud People) also did this with their dead, although they were mummified, and kept in fabric bags, inside stone containers. They look down on the gorge. Its very similar. They were contemporaneous with the Inca.
A drone would have been very useful for exploring, esp where it's difficult or impossible to get a person
This documentary was filmed almost 20 years ago, before drones were widely available
If you look at classical Chinese paintings, there is always a mountain in the background and water flowing down, meaning of good fortune I believe. By putting the coffins as high as possible on the mountain cliffs with a waterway running below will probably bring good fortune to the descendance... It also probably used to scare potential enemies venturing into these river gorges... As for the placement and the way they put the coffins there, Chinese are masters at scaffolding building so it is easy for them the construct such a structure on a rock cliff
Wow! What an interesting comment!
Thank you for sharing Philippe, you
make the Internet worthwhile. 💕🤗
Exactly what I was thinking
Keep the death positive history coming! So so interesting to see these rituals being discovered and discussed
Death positive? What is positive about death? As someone who lost my mother, there's nothing good I can say about it.
@@Marlaina I’m so sorry for your loss. The ‘Death Positive’ movement isn’t about being happy about dying, it’s just about believing that it’s not morbid to speak about death and how important it is to have open conversations about death and dying
I love the narration talking like time/ geo activity doesn't change the ability to climb different areas in less than 400 years.
I don't think they climbed up the cliffside. I believe they repelled down from the top. Would be much easier to do by lowering the coffins down from the top. I'm sure they have a much easier trail going up the mountains from a different location.
I agree with you..
Either that, or the river levels were higher back then. Another possibility is that they waited for the river to swell from recent floods before they trekked to the burial sites.
Idk about anyone else, but this instantly reminded me of the above-ground coffin’s used In Louisiana, especially in New Orleans. The coffins there are unique because they’re not shaped like or built with traditional material. Instead of wood, it’s concrete (I think) and they do that to save space and help with preventing future burial sights getting ruined and displaced by hurricanes. And the hot and humid southern weather heats up the coffins and basically speeds up decomposition.
No, no, no. That was my home. It's because the water table is so high - N.O. is mostly at, or below, sea level. Early burials found coffins and bodies floating after serious rains or hurricanes. Bodies had to be "buried" above ground. But you were on the right track. The truth was a little more gruesome.
It’s all about water tables in Louisiana! Seeing coffins crashing through even concrete casings due to Katrina hurricane , I can tell you it isn’t about “materials”. Many are buried/entombed in concrete across the US but most have their vaults buried not above ground due to water.
Sky burials are not uncommon historically in US (Native plains tribes), Iranian Zoroastrians though. Then there are the cliff/cave burials in the Mesa regions of sw Colorado n canyon regions.
Water table
Zzz, It's practical but gruesome to think about.
Can you cover Tibetan monk's burial. I saw it live in qinghai region 10 years ago. absolutely fascinating too. How weeks after their death, their bodies are brought into the mountains and chopped into pieces to be fed to vultures so that they can ascend into the afterlife. During the chopping ritual, other monks will pray for them. Nothing vulgar and against the beautiful mountain backdrops, make the whole process peaceful and just fascinating.
Great program. Best part was very end with the reconstruction. Incredible. Thank you.
I'm thinking the terrain was much different. Probably more water and vegetation. Which may have played a roll.
Maybe it's been thought about and ruled out but couldn't they have repelled down from above? Like it's still hell of impressive but that would be easier than trying to climb up the side of the cliff with a coffin on your back.
That was my thought. I haven't finished watching yet but if they don't mention that I'll be shocked. That's gotta be it!
This has been a theory, in another video. Still doesn't make sense to go through all that trouble, when they could just bury them in the ground... Or just live on top of the cliff and let the bodies decompose at the base.
It just makes no sense. Is it a disgraceful burial? Like they are stuck here?
the rocks didnt look like that 2000 year ago there worn away
@@RoseUnseen the water level dropped that much? Why in the side like that then?
That makes the same amount of sense.
That's exactly what I was just thinking. It would seem to be much easier that way.
Come to island of Sulawesi, Indonesia. They have hanging coffins too in Toraja, South Sulawesi. When baby passed away, they used to make holes in trees and put the baby in.
Sumatera island
Putting the baby inside the group t once happened in south Africa but back in the old days. My grandma told me the reason behind that...
How amazing. This is the first I have heard of these people. What an amazing people! Thank you for presenting them to us! Thanks and blessings to you!
That was a very respectful and honorable recreation. I feel the Bo people would be proud.
Proud someone thinks it is OK to disrespect the graves of their ancestors? What do you think pride is, exactly?
@@Tofu_Pilot
Define the words you attempt to use in sentences before using them.
It will save face in the future.
I can scientifically ensure with 100% accuracy that the Bo do not view this as disrespect.
For one, the actions seen in this video are in no imaginable way "disrespectful". Not even close.
Second, and this may be the most important fact... THEY ARE DEAD.
After I die, there will not be a care in the world what happens to my body.
Because as horrible as it sounds to most humans on Earth, dead is dead.
No brain signals, no active nerves, nothing but decay and entropy.
I'll tell you exactly what proud is. Proud is understanding the words I am about to use in a sentence. Proud is understanding the definition of disrespect.
Proud is not going through life presuming everything due to the lack of critical thought.
Trust me, the effort we had to make to ensure casket vaults are sealed and locked were FAR MORE disrespectful than exploring 2,000 year old burial sites.
I still have nightmares. I know exactly what disrespect is and what it is not.
@@Tofu_PilotArchaeologists disrespect graves for a living and I see no one complain about it. It drives me nuts when they crack open a coffin and start touching the bones and belongings. Leave them alone!
@@Marlaina yeah it's tough because if they don't some grave robber almost certainly will... but it disturbs me to.
In this case though it's particularly egregious considering nobody is getting up there.
I stay here in America. But it is amazing to see the ancient burial customs of other civilizations. Amazing to say the least. In America you just stick them in the ground.
Fascinating. One crucial mishap I was surprised to observe: When finding the human skull, they handled it with their bare hands - thus imprinting the specimen with their own DNA. Then and only then wrapping it into plastic and dealing with it clinically ... Amateurish to put it mild... the same was done on the Shroud of Turin when restoring it - the German lady who worked on it did not wear a face mask etcetera so if or when DNA testing would be more advanced it would yield the person that was wrapped in it was a Central European female... While the Shroud had gone through many hands over time the skull here had been especially untouched over so much time, alas, what an opportunity lost there.
When this happens (i.e., in forensic analysis) it's usually quite simple to exclude DNA from individuals known to have touched the specimen. I'll agree though it's not the best way to approach such items.
Didn't know you were an expert archeologist! But that's just not how DNA works.
I doubt they will leave any DNA by touching. Usually, they use teeth to analyze DNA.
They even mention how they extract the DNA to avoid handling contamination
They explained at the later part of this doc that they clean the specimen before extracting the DNA. I personally wouldn’t want to handle bones with my bare hands but their handling of the bones wouldn’t affect the outcome.
There is a big cave in the east of Loikaw Town in Kayah State in Myanmar. In there are hanging coffins on the wall of the cave about a hundred feet high above the ground. Is it possible that Bo people once lived there? It will be useful to historical research if the cave is studied. It is called ' Kyat Gu' - the gost cave. Who ever is interested please do.
I wondered if they used some sort of scaffolding that they hung over the cliff
probably, as hk buildings are still using bamboo scaffolding to bring things up.
Very interesting wish it was a longer video. So much more to learn
Love watching this stuff. Really interesting topics. 🙂
I'm not usually into history and all that but I find this type of stuff very fascinating. A very interesting situation indeed. My theories varied during the whole doco lol. First I thought they must've abseiled down, but then like the guy said at the end, they could've had a whole scaffolding situation going on for easier frequent access. As for the reason, it could be spiritual but maybe like someone already commented, could have been due to frequent rain and flooding which would wash away any buried coffins. It really makes you speculate all sorts of things. Great doco.
You find history interesting now it seems...Im a 40 year WW2 historian, the scale of the conflict was over the entire planet....except for the US mainland which had no battles, the Pacific really fascinates me because the US Navy was spectacular in their 79 amphibious landings onto Japanese held islands and lands
@@woodystorey I think it’s because as much as we were taught “certain” history in America we know it was written by the victors and Sonia everyone’s history and what people are taught in their countries about other countries history and what they learn about their own isn’t to be trusted they learn when they find out native people still exist and that slavery of blacks continues on in 1900’s as they were arrested and then bonded out and a white man pays for their fine to keep them out of jail and they become indentured servants for sometimes years or until death.
I was never taught that I was taught that after civil war blacks were in government and then some people in south had issues and they wanted a way to make themselves feel superior so they hired blacks to serve them make them use different toilets restaurants and sit on back of buses. But MLK stopped that basically and then we were all good. We weren’t taught the long term effects plus I was born in Indian reservation in anY on sovereign land and attend ian an Indian school then went to a white school that made me cry cause I was so confused on their lingo. But it’s cause we don’t know what history is real . We have to learn for ourselves.
If you aren’t “into history,” why try to come up with any theories at all?? If the Chinese archaeologists don’t understand these people after using their broad knowledge base, an understanding much more sophisticated than anyone from a Western European culture could, I’m more confused by your motivation than I am about the mystery of what the Ming dynasty would possibly have gained from slaughtering 40,000 nonviolent people who retreated that far from “civilization” so they could be left alone, in peace.
@@voraciousreader3341 Well, the short version would be the Ming dealing with the aftermath of the fallen Mongolian empire at the time.
The longer version is the Yuan empire lasted from 1279-1368 after defeating the NanSong dynasty in the mid-1200s. The Mongolians ruled over the Han people for about 100 years. The Ming dynasty was founded based on the idea of restoring the former glory of the Hans ruling (Both the Tang and Song dynasty before Yuan were considered the wealthiest era of China's history). The Yunnan region had been under the rule of Hans in both the Song and Ming dynasties. But during the chaos of the later years of the Yuan empire( around the 1330s to 1380s or 70s, I can't remember exactly) different tribes in Yunnan and Sichuan region rebelled against both the Mongolians and Han Chinese. A few of them even declare themselves Kings and built up some small kingdoms and fought each other for control of the region since no one from the central government was able to stop them. Then finally, the civil wars in central states ended by the Zhu family and the Ming dynasty was established in 1368. One of the most important jobs for the new rulers was to reclaim the land that was lost due to the fall of the Yuan empire to show to the public that they are restoring the glory of the Han to ensure their ruling state was righteous. The newly founded strong army of Mings basically just told those rebelled states to choose to obey or die. Some did obey and some like the Bo people refused, therefore, the war happened. It took the Ming empire about 2 decades to fully restores order in Yunnan and Sichuan regions.
I saw this story on TV a long time ago. But, this is just so interesting and cool. Just think of all the effort and skill and danger these people went to put these coffins in such a hard-to-reach place.
"No one has ever managed to reach these coffins", they don't know that!
The explorers must have calculated how much the river valley had worn down over one thousand years. I wonder how that affected their calculations.
I agree
What a fascinating program. Thank you for sharing this with us 👌
What they are doing is absolutely awesome, but why would they not wear any gloves while touching the bones? You are just going to contaminate it right? Or am I wrong?
They showed on this vid how they cleaned the bones before getting the DNA.
I'm so interested, almost obsessed, with the history of this group or "tribe". And of people who were documented in vauge history, as flying people.
In 1800 (?) there was an Englishman who had traveled to China and came across/witnessed some of these "flying people". (Although he used thr word flying, he did explain they don't truly fly in the sense of superman lol. They needed support, such as trees, buildings etc. They can not fly in open air with nothing.
He described them in his journal, as: People extremely light & agile on their feet, leaping from tree to tree, mimicing movements of birds. (Basically, he was describing something similar to Parkour?)
And anyone who has watched historical chinese dramas, have seen portrayals of awesome kungfu people who almost fly.
If we think of it differently, think of it as: Look at nowadays how people do parkour; the do leap around agiley... What if back then, there really were people who exelled in parkour? 🤔 But at a much higher level?
The group of flying people that the Englishman witnessed and wrote about, they were monks belonging to a certain mountain temple.
In ancient Chinese history, it was documented that an Emperor at the time, did kill off all of these types of people or monks. They were chased into their huge mountain cave, and fire was set, killing them all.
Every book, manualscripts, teachings, even accupuncture books on how to do open surgeries without anesthesia (just using accupuncture needles) were all burnt & lost in that dynasty.
Something like that.
Very interesting.
Ancient secrets lost forever!?
In China, some surgeries are done without anesthesia just acupuncture to block the pain. I have seen a documentary on brain surgery with no anesthesia. The patient was awake chatting with the surgeons
Although very sad that we've "lost" the ancient knowledge, I do think it may have been done as a kindness to our modern world. With the entire world being consumed by greed, corruption, violence, anger and the need for self, imagine what additional suffering we would impart on this planet and each other if we still had the ancient knowledge.
Yes, it’s true. People use to be able to fly. It’s called super power lol.
@@Alamak2070 amazing
Totally enjoyed this documentary. Only wish the results of the dna were included.
A conclusive DNA picture of the Bo people will take years to compile. DNA begins to break down from the moment of death. & over time much of the information can be lost due to this & other environmental factors.
At best they may have only gotten a few broken strains of DNA from the skull. & it takes several individuals to get a complete genetic picture of a race/people.
There's a great video here on UA-cam by Caitlin Doughty aka Ask A Mortician with some information about this subject. The link is below (hopefully) but just in case it doesn't come up. The video is called -
*ASK A MORTICIAN- Dali's Exhumation, Amputated Limbs, Celebrity Graves*
& the bit about DNA is at 4:23 hopefully this will answer your questions about DNA.
m.ua-cam.com/video/xOXGmVrLWDg/v-deo.html
@@itwasagoodideaatthetime7980 and she
@@Ken-wu1ph ????? and she? Sorry but what does that mean?
@@itwasagoodideaatthetime7980 sorry i think i clicked comment on my keyboard by accident 😅
@@itwasagoodideaatthetime7980 I agree it will take a long time, but now a days science is getting DNA from the dirt on cave floors , and can tell differ animals and people who have lived in the caves for 10's of thousands of years. Seems a skull would be a great source of DNA comparatively to dirt.
Wonderful! Thank you so much!
Amazing history. I’ve never heard of the hanging coffins before. Be very interesting to see what they’ve discovered so far with those bones. 💯❤️💯❤️.
There are also hanging coffins by the Sagada in Northern Luzon, Philippines. Our local guide, an Igorot said that they hang their coffins so that animals won't be able to reach them . Also, they would be put far away from their root crops which are their main food.
This is fascinating, I never knew about them! Thanks a bunch!
Amazing I say.
Thanks so much for the video and info.
I wish you All the best.
Why can’t people just leave shit alone? I’m sure they put them there so people would LEAVE THEM ALONE!!!
Much more interesting than I expected! ❤
What a fascinating and insightful documentary - I love history! 😊
This might be related to the hanging coffins in the Philippines. The name of the town "Baguio" might have been rooted from the "BO" tribe. Similarities, type of mountain rocks, rice field terraces, bamboos, climate
sagada mountain province its approximately 150 km from city of baguio.
Keep your faulty imaginations to yourself. Igorots have no chinese dna.
No. Baguio is the by-product name from mispronouncing the word 'Bagiw' by the Americans. The ibaloi tribe called their land 'Bagiw' which translate to 'moss' in English. The city name perfectly describe the cool and mossy forest of the place long time ago. I am from the kankanaey tribe co-inhabitant of the ibaloi tribe in Benguet. And my grandmother still to this day calls Baguio as Bagiw. She can not pronounce Baguio well as it is an Americanized name and she's used to calling it Bagiw.
@@samuelcortez7717 great share of info. Thanks.
I'm just at the beginning of this right... and I know how they did it. The answer is staring right at them... the poles sticking out of the rock face holding the coffins up were also their means of ascending... They drove poles into the cliff. I'm sure I've seen this type of walkway in different parts of china before... and it's right there... how do these people have no idea??? ropes aren't the only thing for climbing... we've even graduated to stairs...
If true, wouldn't there be more wood block/steps left? Assuming the steps made from same material and driven into the rock the same way as the coffin mounts. I assumed they came down using rope instead of going up.
@@samdherring not necessarily. If they protected their coffins they may have only had temporary ladder poles, smaller put in. Or eroded... Many ideas but I still like mine. There's heaps of Chinese roads that were built with pokes sticking into cliffs so it isn't unheard of
It is amazing how with just the tools that were accessible at the time they achieved something modern technology can't.
This is so interesting i have learned so much as a senior than as a child. Great History
my theory is they used scaffolding to put the coffins up there to prevent: grave robbing , flooding and keep the corpses from animals
First time seeing this and it's so amazing and curious with tons of question at the same time.
similar to the philippines hanging coffin's and rice terrences in china and there are stegodon fossils also found in the philippines
According to ancient documents dated back to 500s AD, there were thousands of such coffins back then already
Absolutely fascinating. Superbly produced, narrated and getting the message clearly across. The music is eerily haunting, esp when the cliff coffins are in focus. And the most poignant spot is when the facial recognition reveals the identity of the skull 💀_ it's quite obvious that one of those men fr Her family has a striking resemblance to it. Bingo!!!
Absolutely amazing ...nice documentary 👍👍
Mystical and stunning scenery.
Interesting doco, thank you.
Love her voice so much and very interesting pick for her content. Neat.
It has been Interesting to see how these individuals risk their lives to spread Ancient information to a lot of Unanswered questions while remaining strategical
Wow! What an outstanding channel! This video was extremely well done and so interesting. I have subscribed! 💞
Thanks for having audio translation instead of subtitles. Makes it more enjoyable.
There was a movie where there was a guy who wanted to lay his dead woman friend on the side of the mountain, so he went to the very top and dig his way down and then through to the side, measuring with a rope through the tunnel that he created. Once he created the tunnel, he carried her body through the tunnel or cave hole and laid her there way up high on the side of the mountain. I guess these people looked for tunnels or caves already there that lead to the place of where they put the coffins.
Wouldn't erosion and land shift cause their supports to weaken over the hundreds of years and could there have once been more supports put in place since the land has lost sediment?
It's likely that they uses ropes to hoist the bodies up before putting supports in, if that is so, they probably didn't have much supporting structure as the evidence would still be there, its unlikely mounting holes would be eroded away.
@@sterlingodeaghaidh5086 how do you figure the evidence would still be there? A thousand years of land shifts and weather erosion would not allow for such evidence. If anything it may just be a lack of stepping surface. It could have had a man made stair to such levels and the erosion could have eliminated it. But without evidence of how these were placed originally.. Anything else is speculation.
@@mom23js this is true, but the program does show evidence to the contrary and seeing how well the coffins held up, it could be assumed that any extra support structures not near the river within the flood zone would still be there. Plus holes that deep wouldn’t be eroded so quickly.
@Tabitha Zehr, a very good question
This absolutely FASCINATING… thank you … I signed up.
Great doc, fascinating subject. Only gripe is the action doesn't start until 37:00
Bamboo scaffolding? Perhaps they removed it afterwards or flooding removed it. Very interesting
I’m fairly sure the guys they came across don’t know what the hell they’re talking about. The lady’s face said it all.
Amazing stuff, can’t wait to hear more about the coffins.
This was extremely entertaining for me . something like this can grasp your attention immediately, making you more curious about this intrigued and intricate details so thanks for this prolific episode 😊
Amazing. I hope they figure it out. Beautiful scenery. I don't understand how they think people would take advantage of them ; they seem too have very little. I liked the video. 👍👍
Perhaps, it was not a cliff all those centuries ago, but a mountain with crevices, even some kind of rock housing structure with staircases once built to access the area with greater ease. I've before seen temples had been built into a mountain. It could've crumbled with time.
SO INTERESTING......AND BEAUTIFULLY PRESENTED.... WHAT BAFELS ME IS THAT, IN SUCH ''PRIMITIVE'' PERIODS OF HISTORY, SOME OF THE MOST ASTONISHING CREATIONS WERE ACHIEVED, IN ALL AREAS OF HUMANITY...........
This is so mysterious and amazing!
Maybe this is a silly idea, but for the legend of the Bo flying, is it possible that they had clothing structured in such a way to allow them to glide like wingsuits nowadays? It wouldn't have to be perfect for them to get a bit of speed reduction when falling right? If they used this method to jump down to ledges below them, they might appear to be flying to observers.
It’s absolutely mind blowing this is first seen by outsiders in this modern World we are living in.
The World is still full of unknown yet to be discovered information on once was
Thankyou so much for educating me and helping me learn ,what a wonderful beautiful documentary thank you for sharing ❤
this very interesting. thank you
That's a hell of a story.
Scaffolding though is insane
This is crazy and very interesting!! Will have to Google some more
Really amazing how they climbing & put the coffins there. Very interesting
That was an incredible place to visit, but we also have that in Philippines, such an awesome place somewhere in Sagada
This is amazing!! Why didn't the climbers have cameras on them?
Interesting to see how the inside of the coffin..
It's great to explore..
Incredible scenery! Love this!
I just astonished how the woods still remains
I think there’s something similar in the Philippines too!
Edit: Nevermind - someone already pointed it out, lol.
So wonderful!!!
Well that was capativing .
Will have to sign up to History Hit .
This must have been filmed before drones and gopros etc.
Or well you know, it's incredibly remote and drones don't handle that well when you have cliffs, clouds, and foliage about. Imagine crashing one of any decent size into these things. Very likely they'd all come crashing down. So I suspect they may have existed, but they'd definitely not be the first choice... :)
groups of austronesian people had waves of migration from mainland China to Taiwan and the Philippines. Rituals to the dead is one of the cultures that have been carried, together with rice cultivation culture as well. The rice terraces in the Cordillera region, such as the Ifugao rice terraces were built 2000 year ago.
True austronesians have some relation with ancient Chinese. Han.
They are haplogroup O too.
Same ancestor.
we have that also practice hanging the coffins off the mountain cliff specifically in in Sagada, Mountain Province, Philippines