The memory of The Bo people of China

The Bo people of China are an ethnic group that once lived along the borders of modern Sichuan and Yunnan provinces. They lived and worked there as early as 3,000 years ago and ancestors of the Bo helped the Westend Zhou overthrow the ruling Yin when the Shand Dynasty ended. Why are these people so interesting? They practice a burial custom that suspends coffins (complete with bodies and grave goods) on the sides of limestone cliffs on wooden pegs, in unreachable caves, or on protruding rocks at a minimum of 10 metres above the ground. In this particular location in Gongxian county in southwest China's Sichaun province 43 coffins were restored and 16 new ones were discovered in September of 1992. This marks the third time these coffins have been restored (1974 & 1985) since the People's Republic of China was formed in 1949. My main question is why choose this burial practice? According to a Li Jing writing from the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368) this burial practice states that “Coffins set high are considered auspicious (fortunate). The higher they are the more propitious (favourable) for the dead. And those whose coffins fell to the ground sooner were considered to be more fortunate.”. I'm curious as to why it is favourable to have your body higher above the ground, why those coffins that fell were considered to be more fortunate? If this Li Jing writing is true, why in 2002 did a team of cultural and museum specialists allowed to restore and re-secure the coffins if it's considered lucky to fall?

This question came to me when I was thinking about the topic of our last week's lectures on memory. From what I can gather from the limited resources on their burial practice and my knowledge of the course, I think it's possible that The Bo people of China suspend their coffins on the side of cliffs and in caves with the belief that the spirit needs to be placed in an uncovered open location in order to pass through to the afterlife successfully. The fact that being higher above the ground and having your coffin fall to it's brutal demise is considered lucky says to me that there is something valued about having your body released into the environment whenever nature says so. Where memory comes into play is if this could be a possible interpretation of The Bo people of China, why are archaologists preserving the coffins if it's considered lucky to have them fall? It seems that The Bo people of China would most likely disapprove of preserving their coffins because they believed they were supposed to fall and be destroyed. I think that by preserving these coffins archaeologists are doing an important service by creating and preserving the memory of this fairly unknown people whose population and memory is slowly dwindling, however, I don't think this is actually how The Bo people of China would have wanted to be remembered.

It seems that there's a very tough line to balance when preserving the memory of a culture. You have to consider how the group wanted to be remembered based on their grave goods and what remnants of written texts are left, but you also have to consider what is going to be the most beneficial to the archaeological community in better understanding that particular culture. Although I speculate that it's not what The Bo people of China would have wanted, I do think that it's a good thing that archaeologists are making an effort to preserve their memory in their natural intended form and use their grave goods as a way to help understand what these people really wanted and believed in life.

Images from:http://recedingrules.blogspot.com/2010_11_01_archive.html
 http://pyramidbeach.com/2010/10/23/the-hanging-coffins-of-the-bo-people/

References

http://www.china.org.cn/english/culture/55407.htm

Sedlec Ossuary

The Sedlec Ossuary at Kutna Hora in the Czech Republic is an amazing example of a burial ritual, post burial, that I cannot believe I have neglected to talk about until now. To give you some history, it's a small Christian chapel located under the Church of All Saints in Sedlec, an area in the small Czech town of Kutna Hora. The story goes that the abbott of the Cistercian monastery in Sedlec, Henry, was sent by King Otakar II of Bohemia on a diplomatic mission to the Holy Land in 1278. When he left, he took with him a handful of earth from Golgotha, where Christ was crucified. When he brought that soil back to Sedlec, he sprinkled it over the abbey cemetery which turned it into a desired burial sight almost overnight. As a result of the Black Death mid 14^th century and the Hussite wars in early 15^th century thousands of bodies were buried in the cemetery and it had to be enlarged to accommodate the vast number of people. In 1400 a gothic church called the Church of All Saints was built in the centre of the cemetery and had a lower chapel which was to be used as an ossuary for the mass graves that were unearthed during its construction. According to legends, in 1511 the task of exhuming skeletons and arranging their bones in the chapel was given to a half-blind monk from the order. Over the next few years (1703-1710) a new entrance to the church was built, as well as rebuilding the upper chapel. 1870 was the date that the Sedlec Ossuary really took shape, as a woodcarver named Frantisek Rink was hired by the Schwarzenberg family to organize the heaps of bones located in the ossuary. Here are his results.

Pictured: Stairs leading down into Sedlec Ossuary
Credit: All photos taken by Baylie Corner

What I find so amazing about this macabre display of human remains is the beauty and detail put into arranging them. There are garlands, a a coat of arms, piles of organized bones, and a chandelier that contains every bone in the human body. Although I find it quite beautiful, the one thing I can't shake from my head after taking this course is ethics. During the construction of the new church all of the bones we see beautifully arranged were once exhumed and placed in heaps until church workers knew what to do with them. So how must have the surviving family members (if there were any) felt about their ancestors being dug up, mixed up, and placed into piles to make room for a new church? I can't help but wonder if there was any community protest when work began building the new church, and the exhuming of the bodies began. In total the Ossuary contains the remains of over 40,000 people....and that's a lot of people to be exhuming and arranging for the construction of a new church. I have a few theories as to why it was considered ok to dig up the bones of 40,000 people to make way for the new church. First, it is possible that people were upset with the decision to exhume the entire cemetery and move it to the ossuary, but the benefit of having a new church outweighed the cons of moving 40,000 skeletons underground. Second, it's possible that because the skeletons were primarily from the time of the Black Death and the Hussite wars they either had no surviving family, or remained nameless which made it less ethically wrong to construction workers to exhume the bodies and move them somewhere to be displayed. Third, the people of Kutna Hora may have seen nothing wrong with exhuming the bodies because they were just being moved to make room for a new church, and were moved to another place still within the holy boundary of the church. Overall, it seems that the Sedlec Ossuary is still a respectful cemetery, and a beautiful place to pay respect to those who lost their lives to tragic deaths.

Pictured: Bone chandelier containing all the bones in the human body

Pictured: Bone piles

Pictured: My short self in comparison to the massive vaulted ceiling

Pictured: One of the many caged off piles of bones

Pictured: Coat of arms and skull garland

When I visited the cemetery I thought it was one of the most serene and beautiful places I had been in all of Europe. While yes, I do already love skeletons which may influence my opinion on this wonderful place, but the careful way that the bones are all placed and beautifully crafted into something that can be appreciated and be respected shows that the exhuming of these bodies wasn't malicious, they were cared for and lovingly arranged so the memory of their owners can still be respected. I also heard a rumor while I was there that every few months they have to re-arrange the bones in the bell shaped piles to ensure that they don't weigh down on one spot for too long. Now THAT is dedication to a memorial that may seem macabre to some, but it is easily one of my favourite places in the world.

                                        Pictured: The cemetery grounds outside Sedlec Ossuary
 

Reference

http://www.kostnice.cz/