1 May, Luobiao to Yibin
Hanting Express 146CNY

We travelled to out-of-the-way Luobiao to view the “Mysterious Hanging Coffins of the Bo”. We took scooter taxis to the site entrance, then, in a light drizzle, walked a loop through a valley between cliffs. It is on the cliff face that the coffins of the dead Bo are suspended.  

“According to Cui Chen, curator of the Yibin Museum, hanging coffins come in three types. Some are cantilevered out on wooden stakes. Some are placed in caves while others sit on projections in the rock ... Survey reports from the early 1990s show Gongxian County having a total of 280 hanging coffins. However in the past 10 years or so nearly 20 have fallen. The coffins were hung at least 10 meters above the ground with the highest ones reaching 130 meters ... The Bo people have become lost in the pages of the history of human civilization ... Cliff paintings were also found. These are of great significance to the study of the lives, work, politics, military affairs and culture of the Bo People ... The Bo were an ethnic minority people living astride the borders of modern day Sichuan and Yunnan provinces. There they created a brilliant culture as early as 3,000 years ago ... The Bo differed from other ethnic groups in their burial customs. Typically hewn from durable hardwood logs, their hanging coffins went unpainted. The most recent hanging coffins were made up to about 400 years ago in the middle and later periods of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), while many of the earliest ones date back 1,000 years to the Song Dynasty (960-1279). To date, the earliest hanging coffin was one found in the Three Gorges area, dating back about 2,500 years to the Spring and Autumn Period (770 BC- 476 BC) ... The hanging coffin was the most widespread form of burial in ancient southwest China. However, the practice ended with the mysterious disappearance of the Bo People. Those who came after knew them from the hanging coffins and the paintings they left behind like faint echoes on the cliffs ... Why did the Bo people bury their dead so high? Li Jing writing during the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368) offers a clue in his Brief Chronicles of Yunnan. “Coffins set high are considered auspicious. The higher they are the more propitious for the dead ...” ... Cui Chen who is Curator of the Yibin Museum examines three different ways the coffins could have been put in place. “Earth ramps might have been used but experts discount this solution due to the extent of the labor required, which would have been difficult in an under-populated area. A timber scaffold supported on stakes in the cliff might have offered a plausible explanation but years of investigation have failed to find even a single stake hole. On balance the third option of lowering the coffins on ropes from above had always seemed feasible and now cultural specialists have found the telltale marks of the ropes which were used all these years ago. And so this part of the mystery of the hanging coffins has now been resolved.” ... During the later years of the Ming Dynasty, the imperial army cruelly oppressed the ethnic minority peoples of Sichuan and Yunnan. In particular, the Duzhangman and Bo Peoples fell, victims of massacre. To escape their oppression, the Bo migrated to new locations. They hid their real names and integrated into other ethnic groups. Like their culture they have disappeared but their descendents are still here for they are a part of us.” (China.org.cn)

Yibin sits at the confluence of the Min and Yangzi rivers. It is an attractive town and particularly vibrant on a May Day holiday evening.