The Floating Crypts Of The Bo

China is home to a good number of weird and seemingly impossible marvels. The renowned Great Wall of China, which took three dynasties and millions of laborers to build, is likely the most known, but have you ever heard of the coffins that seem to forget the very laws of gravity?

China, you see, happens to be home to a variety of ethnic groups, though a majority have been reduced drastically in number by the larger population of the Han ethnic tribe. Among the ethnic minorities was the Bo, who once practiced placing the crypts of their fallen among the cliffs and mountains that peppered the Yunnan province of southern China. According to ancient tales, the coffins were placed there by the Bo during the age when the Bo warred with the dominant Han tribe; such a measure was deemed necessary to protect the dead from violation by the Han. You see, to the Bo, a destroyed body is a guaranteed way to strip the deceased of a good afterlife and force the spirit to come back in the form of a wrathful spirit.

The practice, as fantastic as it can be, ended around the same time that the Bo ceased to be mentioned directly in Chinese historical documents. The last existing coffins placed by the Bo were during the Ming period, which was, according to historical records, the last house to have warred against the Bo. Interestingly, none of the surviving historical records of the Imperial court during the Ming era record anything so spectacular as killing an entire faction, so some historians assume the Ming did not wipe out the Bo themselves. What exactly happened to the Bo, like the hanging coffins they left behind, is equally a source of deduction and wonderment.