For thousands of years, ethnic groups in what is now southwestern China have buried their dead in “hanging coffins” on cliffs, but their identities have long eluded researchers. Now, new genetic research has revealed that this ancient funerary tradition was practiced by the ancestors of people who still live in the region today.
Researchers also found a genetic link between ancient peoples who practiced the “hanging coffin” tradition of fixing ancient wooden coffins to exposed cliffs and Neolithic (“Neolithic”) peoples who lived on the coasts of southern China and Southeast Asia.
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Over the past 30 years, researchers have documented hundreds of hanging coffins across China and Southeast Asia, the researchers said in a study report. Historical documents and oral traditions point to an ethnic minority known as the Bo people being behind the practice, but in the new study, researchers turned to genetics to solve the mystery once and for all.
In their study, researchers analyzed the genes of 11 people from four “hanging coffin” sites in China, some of whom lived more than 2,000 years ago.
The researchers supplemented their study by examining the remains of four people in ancient “log coffins” discovered in a cave in northwestern Thailand. The oldest coffin was 2,300 years old and contained 30 genomes of extant Bo people.
The results showed that the “Hanging Coffin” people, or modern-day Bo people, have genetic ties to groups that lived during the region’s Neolithic period, from about 10,000 B.C. to about 2,000 B.C., 4,000 to 4,500 years ago.
“The genetic traces left behind provide compelling evidence of common origins and cultural continuity across modern borders,” the researchers wrote in their study.
hanging coffin
Dozens of “hanging coffin” remains have been found in southern China and Taiwan, where it was once a popular funeral style. However, this type of funeral was abolished hundreds of years ago, during China’s Ming Dynasty from 1368 to 1644.
The researchers noted that the earliest references date from the Yuan Dynasty, approximately 1279 to 1368. “A coffin placed high is considered auspicious,” writes the chronicler. “The higher it was, the luckier it was for the deceased. Moreover, those whose coffins fell to the ground were considered to be luckier.”
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Research shows that thousands of people of the Bo ancestry currently live in southern China’s Yunnan province, and although they have a unique language and traditions, they are officially classified as the Yi ethnic group.
But their ancestral culture was once more widespread, encompassing areas that are now parts of Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Taiwan, the researchers wrote. The “hanging coffin” tradition is thought to have begun at least 3,400 years ago in the Wuyi Mountains of southeast China’s Fujian province.
common ancestor
Remains from ancient “log coffins” in northwestern Thailand also showed striking genetic similarities to people buried in “hanging coffins,” researchers have discovered, indicating that these people had a common ancestor.
In Thailand, coffins were made by splitting a wooden log in two lengthwise, hollowing out one half, and using the other half as a coffin lid. The coffins were then buried within caves, often on wooden supports or high rock ledges.
These findings, along with evidence from other archaeological sites across Asia, suggest that the Hanging Coffin people are an offshoot of the ancient Tai-Kadai-speaking peoples who occupied much of southern China before the Han Chinese took over from around the 1st century BC, the researchers reported.
According to Thailand’s Chulalongkorn University, speakers of the ancient Thai Kadai language (also known as Kradai) are the namesake of the modern nation of Thailand and are the ancestors of millions of non-Han Chinese people, especially those living in southern Thailand.
But the study’s key finding is the ancient identity of the “Hanging Coffin” people, the researchers wrote. Local folklore refers to the Bo people as “conquerors of the skies” and “sons of the cliffs.” [them] Genetics now firmly links the Bo people to those buried in hanging coffins.
“Approximately 600 years after this custom disappeared from historical records, it was discovered that the Bo people were direct descendants of the practitioners of the hanging coffin custom,” the researchers wrote.
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