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