Hanging coffins

Hanging coffins	Hanging coffins

Apart from the breath-taking natural scenery, Dragon-Tiger Mountain is also famous for its many hanging coffins, which are acclaimed as "world culture miracle ". Most of the coffins are of the Guyue people, who lived as early as 2,500 years ago during the Warring State Period. Hanging coffins here, together with those in Wuyishan Mountain, are said to have marked the beginning of the custom.

There are hundreds of hanging coffins on the Cliffside of Fairy-Water Rocks within the Dragon-Tiger Mountain area. Smooth as it is, the cliffside has numerous caves of various shapes, within which the hanging coffins are placed. Most of them hang 20-50 meters above the Luxi River flowing at the foot of the rocks, with the highest reaching 300 meters. As the caves are too high to entered, for centuries no one knew they were there until 1978 when archaeological workers began excavating the caves, unveiling a large number of relics such as pottery, bone articles, jade ornaments and ancient musical instrument.

These coffins, each made from a giant piece of Nanmu (a cedar-like kind of wood that is good for making furniture), vary in shape and size. There are "ship-shaped" coffins, which can contain as many as ten bodies, and "roof" coffins, which are in the shape of a house roof. There are also "dugout-canoe" coffins, which are made from a single round log, and "micro-cinerary" caskets, used for "second burials". The rectangular coffin commonly seen today can also be found among the hanging coffins.