The suspended coffins are the coffins hung on the bluff of the precipice. The coffins are usually hung 33 to 164 feet high and some even as high as 328 feet above the ground. Along the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River and the Three Little Gorges of the Daning River, the ancient suspended coffins can be commonly seen. Like the ancient plank road, it is also a mystery that puzzles numerous people.
The coffins are usually built in three ways. One is the stake style. Two or three holes are chiseled on the bluff in which stakes are inserted to support the coffin. A second way is to chisel caves on the bluff and put the coffins in directly. And another is to put the coffins directly in the natural caves or cracks between the two cliffs.
Along the banks of the Daning River, there are hundreds of suspended coffins. When the cruise ship coming out the mouth of the Bawu Gorge (one of the gorges of the Three Little Gorges), visitors can admire a suspended coffin in a square cave, on the eastern bank of the river. As it is 1,312 feet high above the water surface, people can only admire it by looking up. In order to let visitors see the suspended coffin clearly, a platform for viewing the coffin has been built just opposite it over the river. A powerful telescope is situated there. Most coffins can be seen in the middle and upper reaches of the Daning River.
Research has found that the suspended coffins are one of the funeral customs of the Pu People (people who lived around the Daning River 2,000 years ago). The higher the coffin is hung; the greater the filial piety is expressed.
After the water level of the river is raised due to the Three Gorges Project, visitors will be able to see the suspended coffins more clearly as the water level rises.